DPP Tutorial : Merging Startrail image using DPP Composition Tool

DPP Tutorial : Merging Startrail image using DPP Composition Tool

Some of you must have tried this tool but doesn’t have any idea what does this little tool can or can’t do. 1stly if you are not familiar with blending mode that was introduce in photoshop so understanding the composition method (blending mode in CS5) would be a bit tricky for amature photographers that want to get in the digital editing world. In this tutorial, i’ll show you how to do blending or merging long exposure photos to create a StarTrail effect. Sure you can try this on light trail and light painting too. It doesn’t differ much.

The Composition Tool is a powerfull tool in DPP. Other than merging photos, you can do a lot of simple photo blending that often can only be done in photoshop. Thanks Canon for giving it free too. Of cos there’s a lot of restriction to add more creativity to the final product but DPP is for Canon Users who don’t want to purchase other photo software. The blending mode only work with adding foreground image but with the right method and technics, you can add more umphhh to your photo without spending more money on purchasing and training using the photoshop software.

Firstly you have to get out there and try to catch the stars. You can google up for tutorial from blogs, youtube and flickr. So after you finish photoshooting, open up your DPP...

Select the photos that you just taken. It can be either CR2 or JPG format. It doesn’t matter anyway. But before merging, check and edit each of the photos if needed so you would get a crispier and better result.

After you know which photo to merge, you can start the Composition Tool.

The Composition Tool window will open and show the 1st image that you’d selected from the preview window.

Click on the Foreground image drop box and a list of the photos name will drop. Select the 2nd photo that you wish to add. Noted that you have to remember the sequence and if you shoot in JPEG-RAW. Make sure to select the CR2 file if your 1st image is a RAW image or just settled with the JPEG version.

This is the crueltial part. The Compostion method is a way to BLEND the photos, to create a photo that only blends light. You must use the “LIGHTEN” mode. “average” and “add” can do also but the best result is by using the lighten mode.

After selecting the 2nd photo, click on the continue button to enable you to add more photos to the foreground.

After adding a few photos, you should have seen something like this. This is what happen if you add multiple layers of a same exposures, the star will form a line. If you are seeing this, Congratulation! you are halfway through. Keep on repeating the step....

Don’t panic if you get this type of window, it just mentioning the photo is currently in merging processed. Continue till the last frame of your shot.

At the end of the frame, The stars would form a line and this is what we called StarTrails. Star Trail is another addiction to night photographers. It will crank up your battery so prepared a few spare batteries if you are planning to go for a shot. There’s are better and easier software for StarTrails merging. But in this tutorial i just want to share how you can do a startrail processing with DPP. You can view the final photo below.

The Final Photo