Tips for cleaner Milky Way images using a slow lens (Nikon 14-30 F4)
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Thanks for a great video and some goods music as well. I would love to see your finally result on it. 🤙
Nice video! I often stack the sky plus do a single loooooong foreground exposure and blend like you did in method 1.
Fascinating. Enjoyed watching.
Mike...great video. To the point and clearly explained. Thank you.👍👏👏👏
I'm considering buying this ultra wide compact lens for mostly landscape photography, but also nervous about it's performance for astrophotography as well. This video helped me a lot, Thank you Mike.
Happy to help!
Great video. I'm going to do this the next time I take milky way photos.
Thanks for the tip, Looking forward to trying it out on the 24th and 25th dark sky mornings. 5:30 am best time here in southern New Mexico
Happy Milky Way hunting!
I just bought the 14-30mm this last Christmas. I've used it a little for landscape but not for milky way. My z6 II is currently set up on a bluff overlooking the buffalo river in Arkansas at a horse shoe bend in the river. I wanted to use my 20mm f/1.8 but I'm at an elevated position over the river and I wasn't sure if I could get the river and the milky way in one shot at 20mm. I also took a shot at blue hour for the foreground. I have never used the 14-30mm for astro before but I guess I am tonight. This is one time I wish I had the 14-24mm f/2.8. I did have Sequator so I will be stacking my images. I was going to use ISO 8000 and a 20 sec shutter buy after seeing your video I'm going to change my settings. The good thing about the z6 II is that it's ISO invariant. It won't matter if it's slightly under exposed. I can raise the exposure in Lightroom.
Where are you posting your image? Tag me on Instagram if you use it - milky_way_mike I hope it turns out the way you want!
@@Milkywaymike my Instagram is private because I get so many fake accounts trying to follow me. But I have a Flickr account under my name. I won't get back till Sunday evening. I might have time to edit a few images that might. My IG is my name also.
Thanks, very helpful information as I’m just starting out at Astrophotography. So basic kit f3.5 -5.6 lens at the moment. 🤙
Yeah, kit lenses are doable, but not ideal. I have a video using a kit lens to show the results of stacking as well. It makes a big difference in the quality of you night images! Good luck Here is my kit lens video: ruclips.net/video/ExQDiLaTzBA/видео.html
Glad I watched this. I was trying to decide if I wanted to do a twilight blend or just do an extra long exposure for the foreground. After watching this I'm not sure I see the benefits outweigh the cost for having the tripod set up for that long. Thanks for the video!
Happy to help! Thanks for watching
Appreciate the video! Inspired me to go out and shoot with my Z6 and 14-30 f4 S. Had a successful night! Question: I'm considering the 20mm 1.8 S lens, but a grand... yikes. Would buying a star tracker and sticking with the 14-30 allow me to take sharper, less noisy photos? Or should I drop the cash on the 20 mil? What would you do, Mike?
Great video. Sacking sky and long exposure foreground but what it we would add tracking as well, that would be glory trinity ;)
Yup, I do that as well! I just wanted to help people without trackers for this particular video. I've done tracked milky way stacking videos in the past--> ruclips.net/video/REd5GWnut_g/видео.html
Another awesome video, thanks man! Did you change the focus point for the foreground image? How did you focus for each shot? I still don't understand why people leave the focus point the same for both..surely you can refocus on the tent in this instance for your longer shot..right?
Thanks! I didn't need to refocus the tent for the long exposure... With a wide angle lens at infinite everything is in focus as long as the tent is far enough away from the camera.
@@Milkywaymike Ok, thanks for that. I'm still learning all this. Maybe a video about how to focus at night, for these more advanced techniques would be an idea. I don't understand how everything can be in focus at infinity, there are no videos i can find that explain this principal. Surely refocusing on the tent would yield better results for the foreground shot.
@@Milkywaymike the 14-30 has infinity focus?
Great information. When you take your foreground shot at the lower ISO do you have noise reduction turned on in the camera?
In astrophotography unless it's specified i think no one really uses LENR
For this shot I did not, but I have used it in the past. It does help with hot pixels, however it is the same length of time as your exposure which can get time consuming. I've done 5- 10 minute exposures for the foreground before and if I turn on NR it would double those times so I don't always use it.
Nice video mate, thanks! I'm going to be buying a z6 soon and i'm still debating what lens to buy with it, i do purely landscape and did think about the 14-30mm f/4, but wasn't sure how it would perform, looks good! I was thinking about just going for the 20mm f1.8 s though, only problem with that is i'm a little limited on focal range, what do you think? The 20mm is a beast!
My most used lens for landscape is a 14-24 2.8 (dslr version)... you may want to look into the new 14-24 2.8s. It’s pricey but it will be used 90% of the time and will give the most flexibility
@@Milkywaymike Unfortunately the new 14-24mmS 2.8 is out of my budget :( its $4000 here in Australia.
@@diskosteve holy crap!!! Then I would get a 14-30 F4 and a star tracker. The 14-30 is really sharp and you can do blended Milky Way shots. Take the foreground at twilight and then track the sky
@@Milkywaymike yeah prices here are stupid! Star tracker is definitely something I want to get one day to 👍🏼
wow 10,ooo iso!
I usually use the nikon 14-24 f2.8 lens for my milky way shots, but I find it is quite bad for coma on the stars, especially at the edges of the image. Is there a relatively easy way to control or correct this in post, I usually shot at anywhere from 4000 to 6400 iso at 10 seconds, and still get quite a bit of coma on the stars. Thinking of getting another lens that has better control of this, but in the interim, I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks
The only way that I know to combat this issue is to stop the lens down to F3.5 or F4 but that means you will have to raise your ISO. If you are stacking your images it shouldn't be an issue to raise the ISO since stacking will clean up that extra noise. Or if you get a star tracker you can take a long exposure of your foreground then turn on the star tracker and take a long exposure of the sky at F 3.5, F4 or even F5 and then you have to composite the 2 photos together.
Great video. A question, when taking the stack shots of the sky, the sky is obviously moving (or the earth is moving making the sky appear to move more accurately), does the stacking software compensate for this movement?
Yes.
Love the video, very informative. I have a Z6. Contemplating the new 20mm 1.8 z or the 14-30mm 4 z. Want to do landscape and Astro. Was wondering if I can use the 14-30 for Astro.
Arlene Cruz I also am contemplating the same thing. What did you go with?
@@robertpizzo5681 Hi Robert. I went with the 20mm 1.8 S. I am happy with it. I don’t think I would really need wider after all. The 20mm is super sharp and I have used it for some Astro. Check out my IG @arlenebcruzphoto. I have a lot of seascapes taken with the 20mm and some a star trails image.
@@arlenecruz9578 awesome! I will check it out! I’m sorting searching for the best of both worlds and I think the 20mm might be the best bet
@@robertpizzo5681 I am happy I chose the 20mm. For me I think it is wide enough. Can’t go wrong with a Nikon prime either.
@@arlenecruz9578 love the beach shots in Avalon at night, is that the 20mm?
Please give us the name of the stacking software for Windows you mentioned in the video.
Daniel Holahan sequator
Now would you avoid all this post processing of the noise reduction if you used a 2.8 lens?
Personally no, since I sell images on stock sites which require clean images so I’m constantly trying using / experimenting with techniques to get cleaner and sharper Milky Way photos. For people that aren’t selling their work and don’t mind some noise then a 2.8 should be fine without doing a ton of post processing.
Hi Mike, If you can please help me with one confusion. What's the difference between following this process with SLS/Sequator and stacking multiple sky shot in PS (Mean / Median)? Which one does yeild better result?
Krishnandu Sarkar sequator and starry landscape stacker will separate the sky and foreground to align the stars and stack them.. PS doesn’t separate the sky and foreground when stacking. For best results do a blend of PS stacking with really long exposures for the foreground (2-5 minutes at a lower iso) and the shorter higher iso exposures for the sky stack in sequator or sls
@@Milkywaymike Thanks a lot Mike for your reply. I meant blending multiple sky shots in PS (mask out the foreground, align image and then blend) and then use a long exposure foreground and mask out the sky.
So I wanted to know if using SLS / Sequator yeilds better results than the above mentioned process. But I think I got my answer. Thanks a lot again for your reply 🙏
Your videos have always been so helpful to learn capturing and processing night sky.
Thanks, but what was the name of the stocking software you mention? (It was hard for me to hear in the video)
Starry Landscape Stacker = 40$
Sequator
I’m not sure I understand why you used 15 seconds for your shutter speed because if we consider the 500 rule you could have shot at around 30 seconds and that way reducing your ISO by alot
Hello friend, good video ... I think that with the Nikon Z6 it would have given you better results ... don't you think?
The Z6 handles higher ISO better and is less mega pixels so yes it should produce a cleaner night image.
Why you didn't considered taking darks, flats and bias to get help with the noise and vignette?
I'm not opposed to adding darks / flats / bias, if I have enough time. Sometimes I take multiple compositions at night and the Milky Way may only be in an optimal position for a short period of time so that is usually my top priority. If I have enough time then I might do darks or Long Exposure Noise Reduction for the foreground. Thanks for sharing!
Nice, but why not edit the Milky Way first BEFORE blending in the foreground?
Mike Page you can do that if you want but in my experience it is better to wait. If you over process your images, you may reintroduce more noise. Also if you decide to change your editing style and get rid of your original rates then you may screw yourself. To each their own though... so do what works best for you.
ISO 10000 is way too high. If you are going to stack anyway. Shooting at 1600 or 3200 gives much better colour and dynamic range. Just add exposure in post.
ISO 1600 / 3200 is not doable with an F4 lens and a shorter shutter speed if you are trying to capture sharp stars (*depending on the camera model and bortle class) as the exposure would be too dark to salvage in post. There are numerous variables like dynamic range of the camera body being use, bortle class of the sky, objective of the photo (short exposure time for sharp stars but a noisier image vs longer exposure times for a cleaner image but elongated stars) for a blanket statement like yours since it is definitely not always that simple.