Last night I drove almost 2 hours away to get to the perfect dark sky. When I got there the southern sky was cloudy and hazy with few stars showing through. The northern sky was clear with countless stars surrounding Polaris. I took a few click but left disappointed. Half way home I realized I could have just changed my plans a bit to come home with stunning star trail photos. I just was close minded to the idea. I won’t make that mistake again. Cheers, Richard.
New to photographer here, I love taking pictures of nature and wild life, but I’d love to take some night sky photos too, that’s a beautiful photo and I loved the video you made, very informative, I saved it and subscribed to you so I could learn more. Thank you
Hello Richard, thanks for another informative and entertaining video to watch. You make it easy to follow along and learn the steps it takes to make a star trail from the camera settings the exposures to editing and programming the intervalometer!!! Now that the lightning bugs are gone where I live in the states, I can go back to making them. Stay safe, looking forward to your next video!!
Stars trails adds another dimension to your cosmic pictures...Learning so much...Like your tip regarding trial and error to find your best picture. What a marvellous app to stitch all your star trail pictures together. Thank you.
I've been told by my wife, that I need to take something other than Milky Way images, therefore this video, done about 18 months ago is very timely. Thank you for producing and sharing. Speaking of which, I have been giving your channel and RUclips site a vey high recommendation to others wanting to learn nightscape photography. Cheers.
I very much appreciate your support g Dan. Star trails are a good thing to shoot at any time of year and you can get them pointing in any direction. Good suggestion by your wife ...!!! Thanks for watching.
thank you Richard. I am planning to try this tonight, hope the weather is going to be clear in Brisbane tonight. will keep you posted if I did get the star trails image. wish me luck. 😊
Just wanted say thanks for sharing all these videos and your knowledge..I am just getting into Astrophotography partly down to yourself and partly because I work into the night now and finish around midnight..so all your help is proving really useful..Thanks
I've been wanting to try this but didn't know where to start! A quick search netted this awesome video! I've taken notes on an index card and await the next clear night! Thank you! I'm also going to hit up PayPal to send you some extra appreciation! 🙂
Hi Richard, that day I was asking about taking less circle star trail now I got the answer as I thought of setting exposure time interval or gap time. Actually this tutorials is to take less amount of time like here was 30 mins if I purposely don't want too much circles dominate the scene.
Thanks for another great video. I recently tried taking a star trail image. One thing I forgot to do is turn off the picture display mode on my camera, this drained my fully charged battery really quickly. Maybe not a problem with only 10 images but I was experimenting with shorter exposures over a longer period of time. Cheers.
Richard, once again a very well done piece that is details informative and fun to watch and learn. Your work has been a BIG help in my night photography progression, I am truly appreciative!
Richard, thanks so much for your easy to follow advice, took my first star trail photo & very happy with results thanks to your instruction. Shooting at 2am in middle of winter in UK... You quickly learn what things you'll take with you next time! Love your videos & can't wait for more clear nights
I'm so pleased to hear you were able to get out and shoot some star trails Matthew. Thanks a lot for watching. All the best for your future adventures.
Thanks for another excellent and timely video, I've shot three star trails in the past two weeks. Mine have been a bit longer, around 90 minutes, and the foreground a bit more distant(I think the closest was about 70 yards). I had an old windmill at Joshua Tree National Park in mind as a foreground but found that the area was "Day Use Only", so I continue my hunt.
Such great instruction. Well done Richard on putting this video together. Those star trails looked awesome! Thanks for sharing the video mate, cheers 👍🙏
Another well made and delivered video detailing the star trail capturing process. You are indeed a very talented and hard working educator, appreciate the effort you are putting into this new series.
Just the best Richard, that little piece about the intervalometer was so easy to take in and I always forget how to use the damn thing, so thanks for that. I managed to catch the Comet but I was too crook to go out so had to do it from my garden. Not the best foreground but glad I was able to see it. Thanks once again, love your work.👍🏻👍🏻🍺🍺
Michael J. McKenna I will deffo try again then, I live in Spain now but, daisy nook oh my god I used to walk through the countryside there when I was very young like under 15, Born in Oldham so it was on my doorstep.
Michael J. McKenna Unreal, I am from Welsh / Irish background as well. I will try from garden tonight as still not feeling brilliant, had food poisoning for 2 and a half weeks, then if I manage to catch it I will try and get out over the next few days. Nice to chat cheers Michael.
I used your previous tutorials to shoot my first star trails some time ago but reduced the exposure time and increased the number of images. My Lumix GX8 has a built in intervalometer with exposure time limited to 60". I decided to take 70 images at 30" each with a 2" interval to allow writing time to my SD card At ISO 800 and a 7mm f/4 lens and using Starstax and Lightroom to post process I was happy with the result, but I couldn't have made those decisions without your insight. Thanks once again
Always enjoy your You Tube videos, you inspire me to get out there and keep improving. I have a Nikon D7100 and have used the international intervalometer but want to try star trails longer than 30sec. What would you recommend for a external intervalometer. Happy clicking.
Thanks a lot Bevin. All you need is a very cheap device like this one. www.ebay.com.au/itm/Time-Lapse-Intervalometer-Remote-Timer-Shutter-for-Nikon-D7000-D5000-D3100-D90/233643350389?hash=item36663a9975:g:IVAAAOSwtqFfBVXe&frcectupt=true
Hi Richard. Thanks for another great tutorial. Your knowledge & enthuisasm is fantastic. I notice that bit of the milky way on the right hand side of the sky seems to go a bit milky after you blend the images. Is there a way of cleaning this up?
From Brad Welton. Dear Richard, I am so impressed with your work. It is inspiring me to start learning the curve of star trail photography, and hopefully utilize my skills in July at a family reunion. By then I pray my skills have evolved enough to add that additional feature that I see you have mastered, and that is including people in your star trail compositions. Do you have any tutorials out yet on accomplishing this? Thank you again, and I will be making a generous contribution to your gracious efforts.
Thanks so much for your great support Brad. I don't have any specific videos about people in star trails but the principles are the same for any background. See here: ruclips.net/video/CNOHxtoUyJE/видео.html or here: ruclips.net/video/cS3UE3XBWMw/видео.html
Thanks so much Bill. The bortle scale basically relates to how dark the sky is as it relates to light pollution in a particular region. www.handprint.com/ASTRO/bortle.html
Thanks a lot for this nice instruction video! I would like to know why you used Star Stack instead of Sequator? I recall you have been using that in the past.
Thanks for watching Marc. I always use Sequator for stacking my images for noise reduction but a lot of people have starstax so I thought I'd use that this time.
Sorry to keep bothering you with questions, but you’re the best out there!! Lol. My last outing went well. I liked the shot I got. However, I was wondering. My last shot I shot with a 16-35 at f/4. It looked good but would I get even more star trails if I had used my Nikon 20mm and opened it up to f/1.8 ???
Yes you'd get more stars but also more ambient light, so if there is significant light pollution it may blow out a lot more. Give it a try and see how you go.
Great tutorial for beginners and everyone else. Simple and useful. I would like to ask if you tried using speedlight for light painting. Godox has nice accessories for v1 version, me myself have ad 200 with round flash head and was thinking to try to use it instead of flashlight.
I would like to know if one gets some benefits of making darks after shooting the actual images in this case. I´ve seen, that there is a possibiltiy to add those kinds of pictures in the StarStaX program.
Thanks for another great and informative video Richard! One question about star trails and what's always stopped me from attempting them .... I've always wondered to what extent these super long exposures are going to fry my camera's sensor? How much of a danger is that, or am I completely imagining something that's not even an issue? I have a Nikon D750 by the way. Thanks again Richard! Regards, Danny.
Hey Danny, I've been shooting long exposure photography for many years and never had any issues with any of my cameras. . you'll be fine. Thanks again for watching.
Great video, well explained. Is it possible to use software other than LightRoom, such as Luminar or even a free program like Gimp, before heading into StarStax? Cheers.
Love your work! Best way to learn nightscape photograph. May I ask you what sort of gel do you use on the touch? The forground colour turned up so natural.
I love your videos and your work. I’ve recently completed a degree in photography, but mainly the work was on various permutations of portraiture. So night time photography wasn’t an area I’d tried out. Until discovering your channel today. I do have a full frame camera, but no remote shutter release besides my phone, which allows me to connect to Canon’s app and fire from there. So I couldn’t use shutter speeds longer than 30 secs. But worse than that, no amount of me shouting, “Stars come out and shine!” made them want to play ball. I used a compass to face north (I’m in the UK). So my question is, what app is there that will alert photographers to potential cloud-free, starry starry nights where astro-photography becomes a possibility? I’ve seen time & date dot com, but that is more about planets and not Orion, Ursa Major etc... I live in a coastal town on the south coast of the UK.
Hey Mark, thanks so much for watching my videos I really appreciate that. check out Clear Outside . .It's wonderful for cloud predictions. clearoutside.com/forecast/50.7/-3.52
When you scout out your locations, I’m sure you are taking light pollution into consideration. Using the Bortle scale, what is your cut off point where it is too light to shoot ??? Thank you for sharing all your expertise. Most of us would be lost without it !! Lol
Thanks for watching Joseph. I live in a very dark sky area so light pollution isn't a major concern. With star trails you can shoot in reasonable light polluted or moonlit skies and still get great results though. You'll get good results in Bortle 4 skies.
Hi Richard, once again I'm loving your work & Tutorials. I've been trying to do star trails with my Z6 and despite re-checking instructions and trying many times just can't get it to work. I'm using a Captur Intervalometer and use the settings you recommend (or at least my interpretation of same) that is delay of 5s, 3m long, interval of 1 and infinity in number. I have the Z6 on Bulb and after I start the sequence it all appears to be going fine. When I come back to the camera some time later to see the result all I end up with is one frame that has been completely burnt out white. I'm assuming that the exposures are happening but it's not advancing to the next frame so it just becomes multi-exposure. Is there something I'm missing on the Z6, is it faulty or is the intervalometer not working properly. If I don't use bulb and set the shutter on the camera to 30s I do then get the appropriate number of frames one after the other. While I could do this I'm trying to reduce the number of files to process as you've suggested.
Hmmm, that's interesting Brian. Do you have Long Exposure Noise Reduction turned off in the menu ..?? If not, it should be off. I'd be interested in which Capture Intervalometer you're using. I've seen people have problems with some models in the past. There is nothing wrong with your setting in camera. What iso were you using ..???
@@nightscapeimages.richard Thanks Richard for getting back to me so quick. It's a Hahnel Captur-timer wireless. I didn't have Exposure Noise Reduction turned off (it was set to normal) but I just tried again after changing it and it didn't make any difference. I have tried a number of times usually around ISO 6400 but today I was at 100 while I was trying to test in daylight for the same lack of action. When I tried today the sequences ran through and you could see them on the LCD, but the shutter doesn't make any noise after it first opens. At first I thought it might have gone to Silent photo but it appears it is just staying open until I stop the process.
Thanks for this video! With the longer exposures, even those of a minute or two, it usually takes time for the buffer to write to the SD card. This would create a lag between images. When I have had a lag of 30 seconds when stacking images of 20 second durations, the star trails had a bit of a gap in them. (I had an issue with my intervalometer and noticed that the camera stopped taking photos.) Does Starstax fill in the data better when the delay while rendering the image is consistent?
Oh yeah, you'd want to make sure you had a good quality and fast sd card that's for sure. If you do an internet search, you can see free software that helps you run a speed test on your card.
In all my years shooting nightscapes I've never had any issues with card writing speeds. I'd suggest just buying a good quality card. There will always be a gap in star trails as the edge of each trail has rounded edges.
There are lots of different one's on the market. I am more using the in-built one now for the Z6 but I also use fairly cheap ebay ones .. like this: www.ebay.com.au/itm/Time-lapse-intervalometer-remote-shutter-for-Nikon-D90-D5100-D5200-D7000-D600/162460744830?hash=item25d36a3c7e:g:3x8AAMXQCZ1TdGvy&frcectupt=true
Hi Richard, maybe I missed this -- why not a single 30 minute exposure? Are longer exposures 'noisier' or ??? (Just getting back into photography; I'm so old I remember dealing with reciprocity failure!)
Hey David, there is nothing wrong with shooting a long 30 minute exposure but if you make any mistakes along the way you have just wasted 30 minutes. Also if it's warm weather you may get a lot more hot pixel noise with that long exposure. I've found 3 minutes to be a good compromise.
I have used starstax in the past. The problem was always getting hot pixels from the long exposures, even shooting at 30". At that shutter speed and f:2.8 the ISO still will be high enough to create noise. So we are dealing with hot pixels or noise or both. One time I decided to take a single long exposure and use the in camera noise reduction. And bingo! Yes this will duplicate the time that the camera is working, but saves more time in post. The quality and free of noise of the single image is IMO far better than the one produced from a stack because now you can get rid of the hot pixels and shoot at the lowest ISO. If shooting with two cameras, you can dedicate one to take just one single star trails with the in camera long exposure noise reduction on and even go home while the camera is still working in the noise reduction in the car. Finding the right exposure for a 30 seconds shot and then applying reciprocity to calculate the correct exposure for a single much longer shot is key, but if is done correctly the result of a clean well exposed image that doesn't require much work in post is ensured.
Can you get decent star trails close to the full moon? My next two clear nights that I have to shoot are Monday and Tuesday night. The full moon is Wednesday. The moon is in the south so I was hoping to use moonlight to light a train bridge in the north with star trails in the background. The bridge in question is the Puddle Bridge, St Margaret's Bay, Nova Scotia Canada.
@@nightscapeimages.richard instagram.com/p/CEk6jADhXZ4/?igshid=fr70zy54ancg I only stayed out for a little over an hour. I had cars, street lights and the moon. If i had known it was going this well I would have stayed another hour.
Explained that perfectly and what a fantastic old place l think l remember watching the original! Have you ever managed to achieve the bright coloured trails? I have seen a few and always wondered whether it was a way of taking the image or post processing to show it in the trails? Great work, look forward to the next installment 😉
Thanks so much Leigh. The really bright saturated and colourful star trails are created in photoshop .. you won't get that just by shooting and exposing correctly alone.
@@nightscapeimages.richard If you expose the stars for a shorter time you will get more color, Photoshop will enhance the color but stars do have color(blue, yellow, red, and orange). Otherwise, Milky Way shots would be monochrome.
@@nightscapeimages.richard Not sure about that. My last star trail image was with 300 images each shot at 20 seconds, F2.8 at ISO 800 and stacked in photoshop. By slightly under exposing the stars, they do retain more color than you would expect and I got quite brightly colored trails without any color enhancement. Most images I have seen are over exposed to get more stars, but loose color. As with all things, compromises.
Richard, can I say what a great video this is, but what is so putting me off is why the building is leaning backwards and also in from the right hand side. Could you not have done some adjustments to that in Lightroom to correct this or make it a little less severe? This is the only one of your photographs I`ve seen so far in the 3 videos of yours that I`ve watched where I`ve noticed a lean on a building as bad as this one.
Thanks heaps for watching Steve. Your comments are well noted and I agree about the lean on the building. To be honest I shot this image quite a while ago and if doing it now I'd have a slightly different aspect to minimize the lean. It's hard to not have this lean when using ultra wide angle lenses such as the 14mm. Also as this is a basic tutorial I suppose I didn't want to complicate the processing any more than it already is. I do appreciate you watching.
@@nightscapeimages.richard Thanks for replying Richard, I also have a 14 - 24mm Sigma lens that I use on my Nikon D500 and D7200`s, so know what can happen when you get close to buildings. I hadn't thought about the fact that to show people how to straighten the building would have over complicated the message that you were trying to convey, which was how to do star trails, so many apologies for that. I`m in the UK, but only found this fantastic video series about a week ago, but I`m thoroughly enjoying it, although I`m one of those guys that as I`ve got older have become more frightened of going out in the dark even though the night sky is beautiful. I hope your videos will try and tempt me back out in the dark and enjoy the wonderful natural display in the heavens that we`ve all been given. Thanks again Richard I will be making a contribution to you.
Another night practicing some light painting last night. Shot same place as recently with low level light. The moon didn't set until the Milky Way was out of the shot, so I'll have to wait a week or more now but I just wanted the practice for the nightscape. D610 / rokinon 24mm f/1.4 i.ibb.co/HxZFJKm/22.jpg That stepping down to F8 for the foreground is handy. Doesn't look like you getting too much per exposure while shooting. Dark photos with just a few small lit sections but enough of 'em and it works. Gets all kinds of light and shadow dynamics. This is pretty neat stuff. I dunno if I'm using too many of the exposures though. Maybe I'm not leaving enough deep shadows in places. The F8 is going to be go to I think. I like the depth of field of everything being in focus in the foreground without worrying about multiple focus stacks. Only pulling in a few stars makes easy masking them out too.
I just took part my new wireless remote, drilled a couple holes in the back case and slide a paracord loop through it. Put it back together and put a clip on a short end. Now I have a little loop and hook I can just clip on a belt loop and keep my hand free and just have to hold the flashlight. When I need, I can just reach down to my side and hit the button to take another exposure. I'm getting set up. :D
Here's another from the same night I just processed. i.ibb.co/dMz238H/23.jpg When I had a crop sensor camera, of course I wasn't using the whole lens. Now with the full frame, I can see this lens (bought it used) has a very large and nasty vignette in the upper left corner. I'm forced to have to crop a lot of it out. I'll have to see about getting a new lens for astro. I always like this lens. It's clean and sharp even shot wide open at 1.4 I can't see any quality increase when I stop it down a bit. This light painting is the way to go. Wish I practiced when I had the crop sensor. I could of taken such better nightscapes even with that. No regrets on going full frame though. Holy smokes. Big upgrade for doing this. You really need that bigger sensor to get clean photos. I got another flashlight coming just so I can yellow gel it and have a devoted yellow and orange gel light to grab. hmm. Something might of been stuck. I took a few shots around f3-f4 and now I don't see the bad vignette (even when I open it wide open at 1.4 and shoot now). I admit I have just been shooting wide open for a long time since I didn't do focus stacking and light painting so maybe the lens just wasn't used to all the internal movement haha. I'll keep using it and see what happens.
Hey Mike, thanks heaps for watching. You are right that all wide angle lenses have lots of distortion , especially on the edges. I did apply lens corrections which helps slightly. But to be honest I was willing to live with it. This building is falling down anyway and isn't particularly straight. It's a compromise by getting down low (which increases wide angle distortion) and getting lots of sky in the shot. To get the sides of the building level you'd have to be square on with it . .this would mean having the camera a lot higher from the ground. Hope that helps.
Hi Richard! You have inspired me with all your videos and I've decided to start doing light painting very first time. I would like to share with you my first try and any comment are extremely appreciated during my first steps towards this. Here is the link to the image: facebook.com/RomanKurdadze/posts/3144413092317649
Hi, well, I think you are missing the typical thing when speaking of Star Trails: colors. I know, you mentioned it, but still you are not aware of it. Lower the ISO (say 400) and more importantly lower that exposure time to a few seconds, say 20-ish. You'll need to play around that, trial & error, but then you'll see what Star Trails colors truely are. Far from the typical washed out star trails with a bit of color here and there.
You did skip two important steps that newbies need help with. How to focus and where and how to figure out where to point in the sky to get the circle.
Last night I drove almost 2 hours away to get to the perfect dark sky. When I got there the southern sky was cloudy and hazy with few stars showing through. The northern sky was clear with countless stars surrounding Polaris. I took a few click but left disappointed. Half way home I realized I could have just changed my plans a bit to come home with stunning star trail photos. I just was close minded to the idea. I won’t make that mistake again. Cheers, Richard.
In your part of the world you'll get the round circles facing North.
Very well done again, you are a wonderful instructor. Thanks!
Thanks a lot for watching Todd, it's really appreciated.
Excellent video again thank you for sharing this .
I'm really pleased you liked it Carey.
I always follow you as you are a Master.
Your very kind Mario
this is my favorite channel on RUclips
. i always wait for a new video.thank you Richard
I'm really pleased you like the videos, really appreciate it.
Thanks Richard, I've just completed my first star trail image thanks to your tutorial.
I'm really pleased to hear that. Thanks for watching.
Thank you for your video Richard
Really appreciate you watching David.
Great instruction Richard! keep em coming!
Thanks a lot Russell. I'll do my best.
Just another great video from you .
I'm glad you like it my friend.
Спасибо Ричард !!!
Thank you so much for watching Kella
Wow you make it look great. You are so gifted in the art of training, too.
Thanks so much for your encouraging words Patricia, really appreciate that.
So pumped to try this out. Headed to Arches Nat. Park and Moab, Utah in two weeks. Can't wait... Thanks as always for the videos
You're welcome my friend. I hope your trip goes well.
Incredible !!!!
thanks for the simple tips and now to go and look back at past images and re-edit
Thanks heaps Richard. Yes it's always good to have a refresher I reckon.
As always excellent explanation with dedication and excitement that you cut your breath. Stay safe and take care.
I really appreciate that Mario
This is brilliant. How does this not have a million views? Thank you, Richard. I'll be on my first star trail soon and you have taught me so so much.
I really appreciate your comments Arnab
New to photographer here, I love taking pictures of nature and wild life, but I’d love to take some night sky photos too, that’s a beautiful photo and I loved the video you made, very informative, I saved it and subscribed to you so I could learn more. Thank you
Thanks so much Joshua, I really appreciate your support.
Great channel Richard. Really enjoy and have watched all your videos. Best on YT ! Keep it up ! from South Africa.
Thanks so much for watching Keith, really appreciate your support.
Excellent tips on how to illuminate foreground. Great work.
Thanks so much for watching my friend.
great video lovely old building phill
Thanks so much Phill
Super cool 👏👏
Many thanks again Vivian
Always fun to do star trails. Thanks Richard.
Thanks very much for watching Tony
Fantastic Richard
Thanks so much for watching Heather.
Tks Richard nice job!
I really appreciate that Doume
Nice and easy explain. Good richard
Thank you so much for watching Pablo.
Merci beaucoup! Once again, a great video. Very well explained!!
Thank you so much for your comments Andre
Thanks Richard. I have introduced my granddaughter to your channel because she has shown interest in nightscape photography.
Thanks so much Mike, hope you're well.
Love ya work mate, and your vids. Smashing 👍👏👏🇬🇧
Thanks so much for watching Gary
Another great episod.
I really appreciate you watching
Realy nice, love your work
Thank you very much Jeroen.
Hello Richard, thanks for another informative and entertaining video to watch.
You make it easy to follow along and learn the steps it takes to make a star trail from the camera settings the exposures to editing and programming the intervalometer!!!
Now that the lightning bugs are gone where I live in the states, I can go back to making them.
Stay safe, looking forward to your next video!!
Thanks a lot for watching Gary, really appreciate it.
Stars trails adds another dimension to your cosmic pictures...Learning so much...Like your tip regarding trial and error to find your best picture. What a marvellous app to stitch all your star trail pictures together. Thank you.
Thanks a lot mate. Once again I very much appreciate your comments.
Just Ruddy Awesome Richard, keep these coming please.
I'll do my best Paul.
Fantastic as always
T?hanks so much
Best video tutorial yet
Thanks heaps for watching my friend.
@@nightscapeimages.richard I’m putting all your advice into practice, I’m heading out again tonight for starTrails at Terrigal nsw
@@dronepilot4209 Wonderful, hope it goes well.
Thanks Richard
Really appreciate that Colin.
Easy to follow tutorial, thank you Richard.
Thanks a lot Tony, that's what I'm trying to do.
great video mate, thank again. Did not know it was that simple, must give ago.
Thanks again for watching Patrick. You've got nothing to lose.
I've been told by my wife, that I need to take something other than Milky Way images, therefore this video, done about 18 months ago is very timely. Thank you for producing and sharing. Speaking of which, I have been giving your channel and RUclips site a vey high recommendation to others wanting to learn nightscape photography. Cheers.
I very much appreciate your support g Dan. Star trails are a good thing to shoot at any time of year and you can get them pointing in any direction. Good suggestion by your wife ...!!! Thanks for watching.
thank you Richard. I am planning to try this tonight, hope the weather is going to be clear in Brisbane tonight. will keep you posted if I did get the star trails image. wish me luck. 😊
Awesome mate. Hope it goes well.
@nightscapeimages.richard unfortunately the weather is not good, cloudy with shower, have to postponed to the weekend.
I did it last night and I made it. thank you Richard 🙏
Just wanted say thanks for sharing all these videos and your knowledge..I am just getting into Astrophotography partly down to yourself and partly because I work into the night now and finish around midnight..so all your help is proving really useful..Thanks
I'm really pleased you're getting something out of the videos Martin, thanks so much for the comments.
Brilliant mate
Thanks so much Chetan
G'day again Richard. Been watching your vids all afternoon and you've really set my brain sparking. Love what you do mate.
Thanks a lot John. I hope that's a good thing ..!!!
Despite being simplified, still lots of good solid information. Keep up the good work !
Thank you so much David, I really value your encouragement and great support my friend.
I've been wanting to try this but didn't know where to start! A quick search netted this awesome video! I've taken notes on an index card and await the next clear night! Thank you! I'm also going to hit up PayPal to send you some extra appreciation! 🙂
That's very kind of you Robin . .thanks for your support my friend.
Hi Richard, that day I was asking about taking less circle star trail now I got the answer as I thought of setting exposure time interval or gap time. Actually this tutorials is to take less amount of time like here was 30 mins if I purposely don't want too much circles dominate the scene.
I'm glad this video was helpful Graeme.
Richard, thank you for sharing the knowledge and the free software link to create the startrail images. Awesome tutorial!
I'm pleased you like it Victor
Thanks for another great video. I recently tried taking a star trail image. One thing I forgot to do is turn off the picture display mode on my camera, this drained my fully charged battery really quickly. Maybe not a problem with only 10 images but I was experimenting with shorter exposures over a longer period of time. Cheers.
Thanks a lot for watching David. There is always something ready to spoil the party isn't there.
Two lessons learned. Keep live view off after your done focusing and secondly, always have at least 1 spare and fully charged battery, ready to go.:)
Really really love this tutorial about star trail.. amazing of how simple it is..hopefully I will give a try. Thanks a lot.
Your comments are always appreciated Luis, thanks so much.
I edit my first photo and then shift select the last one but I don’t get a sync button. 🤔
Awesome work mate loving the new workshop series.
Thanks heaps Brad, really appreciate that mate.
Another great tutorial, and I reckon you hit the spot perfectly for keeping it simple. Thanks again. It's amazing to see so much colour in the trails.
Thanks very much Simon, always appreciated.
I just love your videos. :) Thank you for all your tips.
You're very welcome Sandra, thanks so much for tuning in.
Richard, once again a very well done piece that is details informative and fun to watch and learn. Your work has been a BIG help in my night photography progression, I am truly appreciative!
I very much appreciate your kind comments John, thanks so much.
i love your last 2. video. Im ready to go to the mounten to try it out.
Hey that's fantastic Terje. Really appreciate you watching.
Very use full thanks Richard
Pentax brand can go for as long as 20 minutes on bulb mode well at least my K70 does
Thanks again for watching Jeff.
@@nightscapeimages.richard my K70 Pentax can do 20 minutes on bulb mode
Richard, thanks so much for your easy to follow advice, took my first star trail photo & very happy with results thanks to your instruction.
Shooting at 2am in middle of winter in UK... You quickly learn what things you'll take with you next time!
Love your videos & can't wait for more clear nights
I'm so pleased to hear you were able to get out and shoot some star trails Matthew. Thanks a lot for watching. All the best for your future adventures.
Thanks for another excellent and timely video, I've shot three star trails in the past two weeks. Mine have been a bit longer, around 90 minutes, and the foreground a bit more distant(I think the closest was about 70 yards). I had an old windmill at Joshua Tree National Park in mind as a foreground but found that the area was "Day Use Only", so I continue my hunt.
Thanks so much for watching William, yes I think at 90 minutes you'll get spectacular results.
Such great instruction. Well done Richard on putting this video together. Those star trails looked awesome! Thanks for sharing the video mate, cheers 👍🙏
Thanks so much Adrian, really appreciate that mate.
Another well made and delivered video detailing the star trail capturing process. You are indeed a very talented and hard working educator, appreciate the effort you are putting into this new series.
Always appreciate your support my friend.
Will definitely give it a go as soon as the rain stops. We are having the same weather.
Good on you Bruce, thanks for watching.
Just the best Richard, that little piece about the intervalometer was so easy to take in and I always forget how to use the damn thing, so thanks for that. I managed to catch the Comet but I was too crook to go out so had to do it from my garden. Not the best foreground but glad I was able to see it. Thanks once again, love your work.👍🏻👍🏻🍺🍺
Thanks so much Michael, really appreciate that. You did better than me regarding the comet.
@Michael J. McKenna Hope you get it mate.
Michael J. McKenna Haha I’m from Manchester really, thought I would make him feel at home. Is the Comet still about? I might try again if it is.
Michael J. McKenna I will deffo try again then, I live in Spain now but, daisy nook oh my god I used to walk through the countryside there when I was very young like under 15, Born in Oldham so it was on my doorstep.
Michael J. McKenna Unreal, I am from Welsh / Irish background as well. I will try from garden tonight as still not feeling brilliant, had food poisoning for 2 and a half weeks, then if I manage to catch it I will try and get out over the next few days. Nice to chat cheers Michael.
I used your previous tutorials to shoot my first star trails some time ago but reduced the exposure time and increased the number of images. My Lumix GX8 has a built in intervalometer with exposure time limited to 60". I decided to take 70 images at 30" each with a 2" interval to allow writing time to my SD card At ISO 800 and a 7mm f/4 lens and using Starstax and Lightroom to post process I was happy with the result, but I couldn't have made those decisions without your insight. Thanks once again
Thanks so much for watching Peter, I'm pleased you got some good shots.
Please show how to do Star Trails in Photoshop, Richard. I love your work and your instruction. Thank you.
Hey bassplayer have a look at this video. ruclips.net/video/-KCWxgQBbSE/видео.html
Thank you Richard 💟
$$$$$$ coming your way.
You're a champion Guy, really appreciate your suppoirt.
Always enjoy your You Tube videos, you inspire me to get out there and keep improving. I have a Nikon D7100 and have used the international intervalometer but want to try star trails longer than 30sec. What would you recommend for a external intervalometer. Happy clicking.
Thanks a lot Bevin. All you need is a very cheap device like this one. www.ebay.com.au/itm/Time-Lapse-Intervalometer-Remote-Timer-Shutter-for-Nikon-D7000-D5000-D3100-D90/233643350389?hash=item36663a9975:g:IVAAAOSwtqFfBVXe&frcectupt=true
Hi Richard. Thanks for another great tutorial. Your knowledge & enthuisasm is fantastic. I notice that bit of the milky way on the right hand side of the sky seems to go a bit milky after you blend the images. Is there a way of cleaning this up?
Thanks a lot for watching Larry. Yes that is moire. It may help to not enable profile corrections when doing edits in Lightroom.
From Brad Welton. Dear Richard, I am so impressed with your work. It is inspiring me to start learning the curve of star trail photography, and hopefully utilize my skills in July at a family reunion. By then I pray my skills have evolved enough to add that additional feature that I see you have mastered, and that is including people in your star trail compositions. Do you have any tutorials out yet on accomplishing this? Thank you again, and I will be making a generous contribution to your gracious efforts.
Thanks so much for your great support Brad. I don't have any specific videos about people in star trails but the principles are the same for any background. See here: ruclips.net/video/CNOHxtoUyJE/видео.html or here: ruclips.net/video/cS3UE3XBWMw/видео.html
Enjoyed the video/tutorial immensely , Re the comment below, could you take time to explain what the Bortle scale is?
Thanks so much Bill. The bortle scale basically relates to how dark the sky is as it relates to light pollution in a particular region. www.handprint.com/ASTRO/bortle.html
Thanks a lot for this nice instruction video!
I would like to know why you used Star Stack instead of Sequator? I recall you have been using that in the past.
Thanks for watching Marc. I always use Sequator for stacking my images for noise reduction but a lot of people have starstax so I thought I'd use that this time.
Sorry to keep bothering you with questions, but you’re the best out there!! Lol. My last outing went well. I liked the shot I got. However, I was wondering. My last shot I shot with a 16-35 at f/4. It looked good but would I get even more star trails if I had used my Nikon 20mm and opened it up to f/1.8 ???
Yes you'd get more stars but also more ambient light, so if there is significant light pollution it may blow out a lot more. Give it a try and see how you go.
Great tutorial for beginners and everyone else. Simple and useful. I would like to ask if you tried using speedlight for light painting. Godox has nice accessories for v1 version, me myself have ad 200 with round flash head and was thinking to try to use it instead of flashlight.
I have used speedlights, but usually for when I have people in the shots. See here: ruclips.net/video/CNOHxtoUyJE/видео.html
I would like to know if one gets some benefits of making darks after shooting the actual images in this case. I´ve seen, that there is a possibiltiy to add those kinds of pictures in the StarStaX program.
I've tried shooting dark frames, but to be honest I didn't see any difference in my nightscape shooting.
Thanks for another great and informative video Richard! One question about star trails and what's always stopped me from attempting them .... I've always wondered to what extent these super long exposures are going to fry my camera's sensor? How much of a danger is that, or am I completely imagining something that's not even an issue? I have a Nikon D750 by the way. Thanks again Richard! Regards, Danny.
Hey Danny, I've been shooting long exposure photography for many years and never had any issues with any of my cameras. . you'll be fine. Thanks again for watching.
@@nightscapeimages.richard OK I'm onto it then. Thanks again Richard!
Great tutorial Richard,one quick question what gel do you use on your torch for the light painting
Thanks Chris. I use a 1/2 cto gel. See here: www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/44201-REG/Rosco_RS340811_3408_Filter_RoscoSun.html
Great video, well explained. Is it possible to use software other than LightRoom, such as Luminar or even a free program like Gimp, before heading into StarStax? Cheers.
Yes absolutely, as long as it will edit raw files.
Great Video, have you created star trails with the Z6II and processed them in Sequator?
The Z6ii is great for star trails, but I've never used Sequator to process star trails.
Thank you, I love your work, it’s very inspiring.
Love your work! Best way to learn nightscape photograph. May I ask you what sort of gel do you use on the touch? The forground colour turned up so natural.
Thanks a lot for watching. I use a 1/2 cto gel on my torch. If you look at episode 1 you'll see I talk about that.
I love your videos and your work. I’ve recently completed a degree in photography, but mainly the work was on various permutations of portraiture. So night time photography wasn’t an area I’d tried out. Until discovering your channel today. I do have a full frame camera, but no remote shutter release besides my phone, which allows me to connect to Canon’s app and fire from there. So I couldn’t use shutter speeds longer than 30 secs. But worse than that, no amount of me shouting, “Stars come out and shine!” made them want to play ball. I used a compass to face north (I’m in the UK). So my question is, what app is there that will alert photographers to potential cloud-free, starry starry nights where astro-photography becomes a possibility? I’ve seen time & date dot com, but that is more about planets and not Orion, Ursa Major etc... I live in a coastal town on the south coast of the UK.
Hey Mark, thanks so much for watching my videos I really appreciate that. check out Clear Outside . .It's wonderful for cloud predictions. clearoutside.com/forecast/50.7/-3.52
When you scout out your locations, I’m sure you are taking light pollution into consideration. Using the Bortle scale, what is your cut off point where it is too light to shoot ??? Thank you for sharing all your expertise. Most of us would be lost without it !! Lol
Thanks for watching Joseph. I live in a very dark sky area so light pollution isn't a major concern. With star trails you can shoot in reasonable light polluted or moonlit skies and still get great results though. You'll get good results in Bortle 4 skies.
So does your camera has to be in bulb mode in order to use that valometer to extend your exposure? My camera only goes to 30seconds
Yes that's correct.
Hi Richard, once again I'm loving your work & Tutorials. I've been trying to do star trails with my Z6 and despite re-checking instructions and trying many times just can't get it to work.
I'm using a Captur Intervalometer and use the settings you recommend (or at least my interpretation of same) that is delay of 5s, 3m long, interval of 1 and infinity in number. I have the Z6 on Bulb and after I start the sequence it all appears to be going fine. When I come back to the camera some time later to see the result all I end up with is one frame that has been completely burnt out white. I'm assuming that the exposures are happening but it's not advancing to the next frame so it just becomes multi-exposure. Is there something I'm missing on the Z6, is it faulty or is the intervalometer not working properly.
If I don't use bulb and set the shutter on the camera to 30s I do then get the appropriate number of frames one after the other. While I could do this I'm trying to reduce the number of files to process as you've suggested.
Hmmm, that's interesting Brian. Do you have Long Exposure Noise Reduction turned off in the menu ..?? If not, it should be off. I'd be interested in which Capture Intervalometer you're using. I've seen people have problems with some models in the past. There is nothing wrong with your setting in camera. What iso were you using ..???
@@nightscapeimages.richard Thanks Richard for getting back to me so quick. It's a Hahnel Captur-timer wireless. I didn't have Exposure Noise Reduction turned off (it was set to normal) but I just tried again after changing it and it didn't make any difference. I have tried a number of times usually around ISO 6400 but today I was at 100 while I was trying to test in daylight for the same lack of action. When I tried today the sequences ran through and you could see them on the LCD, but the shutter doesn't make any noise after it first opens. At first I thought it might have gone to Silent photo but it appears it is just staying open until I stop the process.
Thanks for this video! With the longer exposures, even those of a minute or two, it usually takes time for the buffer to write to the SD card. This would create a lag between images. When I have had a lag of 30 seconds when stacking images of 20 second durations, the star trails had a bit of a gap in them. (I had an issue with my intervalometer and noticed that the camera stopped taking photos.) Does Starstax fill in the data better when the delay while rendering the image is consistent?
Oh yeah, you'd want to make sure you had a good quality and fast sd card that's for sure. If you do an internet search, you can see free software that helps you run a speed test on your card.
In all my years shooting nightscapes I've never had any issues with card writing speeds. I'd suggest just buying a good quality card. There will always be a gap in star trails as the edge of each trail has rounded edges.
If you are using Long Exposure Noise Reduction, the camera takes a dark frame after every normal frame. This would account for the delay.
@@SchatzFamilyHF In this case that would be a 3 minute delay . .not good at all.
Loving your tutorials Richard, really informative. Just wondering whether you disable the long exposure compensation function for your star trails
Thanks a lot John. Yes I do disable Long exposure noise reduction as you need to be able to shoot consecutive images quickly.
hi again! I have purchased the same intervalometer shown here. What do I set my camera to when using one? Bulb?
Yes put your camera into Bulb mode.
@@nightscapeimages.richard Thank you VERY much!!
Looking for an interverlometer for my Z6. Can you reccomend one please??
There are lots of different one's on the market. I am more using the in-built one now for the Z6 but I also use fairly cheap ebay ones .. like this: www.ebay.com.au/itm/Time-lapse-intervalometer-remote-shutter-for-Nikon-D90-D5100-D5200-D7000-D600/162460744830?hash=item25d36a3c7e:g:3x8AAMXQCZ1TdGvy&frcectupt=true
is it a good idea before stacking them to open them in PS and do a median noise reduction then making the trail? just wondering.
No Mel, that's not necessary. I often do process my star trails in photoshop but I never do any noise reduction.
@@nightscapeimages.richard thank u!
Hi Richard, maybe I missed this -- why not a single 30 minute exposure? Are longer exposures 'noisier' or ??? (Just getting back into photography; I'm so old I remember dealing with reciprocity failure!)
Hey David, there is nothing wrong with shooting a long 30 minute exposure but if you make any mistakes along the way you have just wasted 30 minutes. Also if it's warm weather you may get a lot more hot pixel noise with that long exposure. I've found 3 minutes to be a good compromise.
I have used starstax in the past. The problem was always getting hot pixels from the long exposures, even shooting at 30". At that shutter speed and f:2.8 the ISO still will be high enough to create noise. So we are dealing with hot pixels or noise or both.
One time I decided to take a single long exposure and use the in camera noise reduction. And bingo! Yes this will duplicate the time that the camera is working, but saves more time in post. The quality and free of noise of the single image is IMO far better than the one produced from a stack because now you can get rid of the hot pixels and shoot at the lowest ISO. If shooting with two cameras, you can dedicate one to take just one single star trails with the in camera long exposure noise reduction on and even go home while the camera is still working in the noise reduction in the car. Finding the right exposure for a 30 seconds shot and then applying reciprocity to calculate the correct exposure for a single much longer shot is key, but if is done correctly the result of a clean well exposed image that doesn't require much work in post is ensured.
Enjoyed starstacks thanks once again,please have a coffee and run ball on me
Managed 2 of your videos today I'll have to visit Hollow Mt
Thanks so much Phillip, really appreciate your support my friend.
Can you get decent star trails close to the full moon? My next two clear nights that I have to shoot are Monday and Tuesday night. The full moon is Wednesday. The moon is in the south so I was hoping to use moonlight to light a train bridge in the north with star trails in the background. The bridge in question is the Puddle Bridge, St Margaret's Bay, Nova Scotia Canada.
Yes you can certainly shoot star trails with a bright moon. You'll have to lower your exposure settings as it will be very bright.
@@nightscapeimages.richard I will link an instagram photo of my results.
@@JungleEddie Fantastic
@@nightscapeimages.richard instagram.com/p/CEk6jADhXZ4/?igshid=fr70zy54ancg I only stayed out for a little over an hour. I had cars, street lights and the moon. If i had known it was going this well I would have stayed another hour.
@@JungleEddie Good stuff Eddie, great to see you're getting out there.
Explained that perfectly and what a fantastic old place l think l remember watching the original! Have you ever managed to achieve the bright coloured trails? I have seen a few and always wondered whether it was a way of taking the image or post processing to show it in the trails? Great work, look forward to the next installment 😉
Thanks so much Leigh. The really bright saturated and colourful star trails are created in photoshop .. you won't get that just by shooting and exposing correctly alone.
@@nightscapeimages.richard If you expose the stars for a shorter time you will get more color, Photoshop will enhance the color but stars do have color(blue, yellow, red, and orange). Otherwise, Milky Way shots would be monochrome.
@@nightscapeimages.richard Not sure about that. My last star trail image was with 300 images each shot at 20 seconds, F2.8 at ISO 800 and stacked in photoshop. By slightly under exposing the stars, they do retain more color than you would expect and I got quite brightly colored trails without any color enhancement. Most images I have seen are over exposed to get more stars, but loose color. As with all things, compromises.
Richard, can I say what a great video this is, but what is so putting me off is why the building is leaning backwards and also in from the right hand side. Could you not have done some adjustments to that in Lightroom to correct this or make it a little less severe? This is the only one of your photographs I`ve seen so far in the 3 videos of yours that I`ve watched where I`ve noticed a lean on a building as bad as this one.
Thanks heaps for watching Steve. Your comments are well noted and I agree about the lean on the building. To be honest I shot this image quite a while ago and if doing it now I'd have a slightly different aspect to minimize the lean. It's hard to not have this lean when using ultra wide angle lenses such as the 14mm. Also as this is a basic tutorial I suppose I didn't want to complicate the processing any more than it already is. I do appreciate you watching.
@@nightscapeimages.richard Thanks for replying Richard, I also have a 14 - 24mm Sigma lens that I use on my Nikon D500 and D7200`s, so know what can happen when you get close to buildings. I hadn't thought about the fact that to show people how to straighten the building would have over complicated the message that you were trying to convey, which was how to do star trails, so many apologies for that. I`m in the UK, but only found this fantastic video series about a week ago, but I`m thoroughly enjoying it, although I`m one of those guys that as I`ve got older have become more frightened of going out in the dark even though the night sky is beautiful. I hope your videos will try and tempt me back out in the dark and enjoy the wonderful natural display in the heavens that we`ve all been given. Thanks again Richard I will be making a contribution to you.
@@stevejarvis186 Thanks again Steve, I appreciate you watching.
Another night practicing some light painting last night. Shot same place as recently with low level light. The moon didn't set until the Milky Way was out of the shot, so I'll have to wait a week or more now but I just wanted the practice for the nightscape. D610 / rokinon 24mm f/1.4
i.ibb.co/HxZFJKm/22.jpg
That stepping down to F8 for the foreground is handy. Doesn't look like you getting too much per exposure while shooting. Dark photos with just a few small lit sections but enough of 'em and it works. Gets all kinds of light and shadow dynamics. This is pretty neat stuff.
I dunno if I'm using too many of the exposures though. Maybe I'm not leaving enough deep shadows in places. The F8 is going to be go to I think. I like the depth of field of everything being in focus in the foreground without worrying about multiple focus stacks. Only pulling in a few stars makes easy masking them out too.
I just took part my new wireless remote, drilled a couple holes in the back case and slide a paracord loop through it. Put it back together and put a clip on a short end. Now I have a little loop and hook I can just clip on a belt loop and keep my hand free and just have to hold the flashlight. When I need, I can just reach down to my side and hit the button to take another exposure. I'm getting set up. :D
Here's another from the same night I just processed.
i.ibb.co/dMz238H/23.jpg
When I had a crop sensor camera, of course I wasn't using the whole lens. Now with the full frame, I can see this lens (bought it used) has a very large and nasty vignette in the upper left corner. I'm forced to have to crop a lot of it out. I'll have to see about getting a new lens for astro. I always like this lens. It's clean and sharp even shot wide open at 1.4 I can't see any quality increase when I stop it down a bit. This light painting is the way to go. Wish I practiced when I had the crop sensor. I could of taken such better nightscapes even with that. No regrets on going full frame though. Holy smokes. Big upgrade for doing this. You really need that bigger sensor to get clean photos. I got another flashlight coming just so I can yellow gel it and have a devoted yellow and orange gel light to grab.
hmm. Something might of been stuck. I took a few shots around f3-f4 and now I don't see the bad vignette (even when I open it wide open at 1.4 and shoot now). I admit I have just been shooting wide open for a long time since I didn't do focus stacking and light painting so maybe the lens just wasn't used to all the internal movement haha. I'll keep using it and see what happens.
Why didn't you straighten the building? All wide angle lenses is do this. How would I go about this?
I eagerly follow your channel, thanks
Hey Mike, thanks heaps for watching. You are right that all wide angle lenses have lots of distortion , especially on the edges. I did apply lens corrections which helps slightly. But to be honest I was willing to live with it. This building is falling down anyway and isn't particularly straight. It's a compromise by getting down low (which increases wide angle distortion) and getting lots of sky in the shot. To get the sides of the building level you'd have to be square on with it . .this would mean having the camera a lot higher from the ground. Hope that helps.
With such a long shutter speed, why not drop the ISO down to the lowest setting to reduce noise?
Thanks for watching. There's not much difference in noise between these shutter speeds and iso's. I get a better exposure at iso640
Second 😄
Thanks for watching Shabin.
First
Well done my friend.
Does the light painted image need to be first in the list in StarStaX?
When you use the lighten blend mode it shouldn't matter. I'm not so sure with some of the other modes though. Thanks for watching.
Hi Richard! You have inspired me with all your videos and I've decided to start doing light painting very first time. I would like to share with you my first try and any comment are extremely appreciated during my first steps towards this. Here is the link to the image:
facebook.com/RomanKurdadze/posts/3144413092317649
Sorry I've only just seen this comment. Really nice work.
Hi, well, I think you are missing the typical thing when speaking of Star Trails: colors. I know, you mentioned it, but still you are not aware of it. Lower the ISO (say 400) and more importantly lower that exposure time to a few seconds, say 20-ish. You'll need to play around that, trial & error, but then you'll see what Star Trails colors truely are. Far from the typical washed out star trails with a bit of color here and there.
Thanks so much for watching, appreciate the comments.
Interesting. Share your results with us flexable.
@@Warrior_Resisting_Colonialism What about that: www.lincolnharrison.com/ (and no, that's not me)
@@flexable9256 Very interesting. I suspect he's using software to add such vibrant color though.
@@flexable9256 I also wonder how he creates those star burst shots where it looks like the stars are shooting towards earth. That's cool.
You did skip two important steps that newbies need help with. How to focus and where and how to figure out where to point in the sky to get the circle.
I did mention both those things in passing, but you are right about focusing.