Hope this video helps you guys! Head over to my website and sign up to my mailing list to hear the first news about by book release, "Photographing the Night Sky". Getting so excited!
Thanks for an informative video.. and thanks for mentioning the basic etiquette that we should all consider-- there is not enough of that in our world!
Alyn, apologies for asking questions a fair time after this was originally posted (I am new to astro). Does any significant pause (in time) between the stack set of images cause issues (i.e. the stars have moved)? Second question can a set of images be shot via intervalometer or manually be stacked to reduce noise in this case if individual exposures are say 15 seconds each? Does photoshop (or any recommended stacking software) cope with these?
Use a digital laser measure. Mine works up to forty metres. Put your camera bag under your tripod, walk to your foreground subject, point the laser at your bag, and set your lens. I do not know why cameras with autofocus don't give you distance information in the viewfinder.
beautiful .. very informative and you make it looks so easy, I was thinking of another method for the sky .. what if we did focus stack for the ground only and after that we just replace the sky with another focused on the star image ? Could it be better than this method ? Thank you
Really helpful video! 🙂I also really like, that the star on background at around @3:26 is out of focus, but it makes it to shine in diffirent colors! 😀
Nicely done! I actually thought I knew this, and just watched to see if I could pick up maybe one nugget. Instead, I learned quite a bit, which surprised me! (I sent you a Thanks for this... but was surprised to see sales tax added? for an educational donation? Doesn't seem like sales tax should be applicable there...?)
Thank you so much. It's probably difficult to class as an educational donation considering RU-vid is not specifically education. But all of that is out of my control
Great tutorial and explanation of both taking the shot and editing Alyn. I have never tried focus stacking at night, but will do next time I'm out. Thank you once again.
I like your hoody! Where did you get that? Touch wood I am off to Iceland next month, I'm having sleepless nights worrying about my photography. I have idea's but getting them nailed is another thing.
Hope this isn't a dumb question, but why can't you take a series of shots as you move the focus ring counter clock in small increments? Wouldn't software simply merge the focused parts?
Really good explained. Got it allmost the whole way :) So hats of for that. Would be nice to have this guy just beside, all the time, when learning this astro photo teknic :-)
Greetings from stinking hot perth in Western Australia, Great video Alyn, I’ve just done a Milky Way crash course with Aaron king and MaryBeth Kiczenski and it’s very interesting to the different processes people use to achieve the same result…interesting but a but confusing for newbies😁 keep up the good work
Great video. I've been thinking about how to do this. Off topic, but curious, how do your modified cameras compare - 6d v. A73 v. A7S3? I'm an astrophotographer, but I'm inspired by your awesome MW images. I can buy a 6D modded for $1k, a A73 modded for $2.2k and aS3 for $3k. I'm not a professional. are the advances worth the price?
One thing I haven't understood with astrophotography is the "infinity focus" - When I use infinity the stars seem slightly blurred compared to rolling it back just a hair from infinity. Is this a lens/camera issue or is the true focus point actually slightly behind infinity?
Great video. I tried the focus stacking in Photoshop a couple of times now and I always got frustrated with how it merges the layers and messed stuff up and I wasn't able to fix it. I'll give it another shot. One thing you mentioned: When stacking foreground and tracked Sky: How would you do that properly in workflow-terms? Do you setup the Tracker, shoot from that with it turned off for the foreground and then track the sky? Would you use a Ballhead to get a proper horizon and after that align with your sky again? Can't seem to wrap my head around it easily :-(
great video, I find that focus stacking may be better for me with something like helicon focus for me. Always used PS for stacking before now. I have the a7rv and am using the automatic focus bracketing {don't know if it works at night] . 😄
Very nice and useful video, thank you for sharing this. But the focusing part is always difficult and so I'm always trying to avoid such approaches. But thinking of buying small units of battery powered (red) led's to help the focusing part. Maybe even with some kind of remote control. Any suggestions ?
I am bit confused. I see the definition of hyperlocal distance between about minute 3 and before to be different. Is acceptable focus not in front of the hyperlocal distance? I like the information presented, thanks.
Thanks Alyn. I will be doing some astrophotography this summer. Would you advise taking an image in the evening before it gets really dark in order to get the foreground?
Thanks, bro. The manual blinded focus is the way I use to focus stack in the dark situations which you recommended in the video. It is very quick and silent, but leave the problem to LR, cause usually there are more than 5 photos that needed to be picked up the sharpest ones and they are all low light. One thing different is that I use a small aperture, not 1.4 but change to 4.0 to have a much better quality of the foreground, but have to consider light conditions.
Thank you for the tutorial, especially showing the steps in LR and PS. Does a laser pointer provide enough light if pointed at a nearby rock or shrub, to zero in on focus in the foreground? Does a Bahtinov mask work at that close of a range, if using a laser pointer (not aimed at the lens, obviously)? Just wondering what can be done to further reduce light pollution if other are present.
I recently shoot fox fire on some drift wood in the pnw and found f2.8 to be a happy medium between depth of field and exposure time. I was within a foot of the closest logs so it ended up being 7 different planes of focus and 4 shots each at 4 minutes. The outcome was incredible but I had never spend so much time on a single image at night before over 2 and a half hours 😅😅 what’s the longest all at night foreground you’ve captured mate?
Question Alyn Lightrooms new sky/subject mask seem to be good. Would you use it on your tracked sky to mask off the foreground, before bringing that onto your focus stack in Photoshop, Curious.
Thank you so much for this tutorial, Alyn. I have to watch it a number of times to get all of my notes down. If I use PhotoPills in remote areas, does the app need internet to work? If so, then I will need to carry paper charts in my bag when shooting HFD at night.
5:23 - A method that's not so intrusive is to use the MSM laser to create a small point of light which can be moved across the scene. It's harder to focus on but allows you to get really precise because you can see the exact point where the dot gets bigger/smaller at the limit of the lens
Is that why I've seen lasers all over the landscape in some of my timelapse? I think some people get trigger happy 😅 I would prefer they used their phone, less likely to spill into the rest of the scene, lasers travel very far! I appreciate that if aimed correctly it could be a better alternative, but from my experience people tend not to have very good aim/self control 😂
@@aaronjenkin Agreed. Although you should only need to use a laser in the immediate foreground, just like where Alyn put his phone on the floor. If people are shining them very far, they are doing the first infinity shot wrong
Yes a laser could work, but a very low power one will be preferable. The MSM has a rather strong laser. Thinking of using small red leds. Would be preferable to have a battery powered unit. But looked around on amazon and not easy to find. Once I attached a battery but not easy , the wires detach easily when manipulated. Would prefer to buy a bunch of them (battery powered). Any suggestions ?
@@edwarddebruyn8717 Maybe just get a cheap rear bicycle light? Most are just red LEDs, often come with different brightness settings, are cheap and lightweight.
Disagree on the apertures. I shoot blue hour blends and use normal landscape apertures (11, 14, 16) for foregrounds and 5.6 for tracked skies. No noise, no large aperture issues.
