Wow, Richard! I've seen your work before, but I don't think in a single shot...I'm blown away, and I think I'v found my new guru to follow for astrophotography. Thanks for this!
Thanks Richard, your generous and helpful approach to sharing your experience and knowledge is greatly appreciated and inspiring....and I'm sure many others feel the same way I do...
Fantastic tutorial Richard 👌 Your knowledge and content help so many of us. Who would have imagined older software like I.C.E do such a great job. All the best mate 👍
Thanks so much for this video Richard. I watched it yesterday and went out shooting the milky way last night. I downloaded ICE this morning and was able to stitch a 45 pic panorama together effortlessly. Thank you 😊
I haven't done a pano for a while but Rarely rarely have had a problem stitching in ice, amazing isn't it how so many of the free programs do better than paid one's. As usual an excellent video sharing your knowledge Richard 👍
Thanks so much Ruchard, I've had a number or Panos I could not get to stitch well, I have tried the Microsoft Image editor and it has done the trick, both around 30 image multi row panos, I'll now be a lot more confident and will give these large panos a more serious effort thanks again, Glenn 👌
Great Tutorial! For sure I will try ICE and the manual vignette adjustment. You "hit" the two most important problems people have when stitching panos (finding the correct looking projection-for FREE and getting rid of those devilish vignette lines). Thanks Again!
Good video Richard. You covered pretty much all you need to problem solve any panorama issue. ICE is a pretty solid stitching software that I use every now and then. 👍😁
Great, clear tips. Richard. That feeling when your first pano stitches together correctly is amazing! I should probably start to do more of them - although we need clear skies first!
Thank you Richard, I could not work out why I was having the issue of stretching at the top, I tried more rows but it didn't seem to help. Will try to download ICE if I can find it. Thank you again for an informative video Richard 👍
Thankyou Richard, this came at the perfect time, I have been failing to merge recently!!! I can't wait to try with this Windows software. Thankyou so much ❤
Great timing... I was struggling with light room stich of a 2 row pano last night, looking for other options well past midnight without success. Then i wake up this morning to see your video on my feed!!! Love all the practical info you give. Would love to see a similar video for tracked pano's at some stage too.
Thanks Richard. Just got back from shooting some Milky Way panoramas. I ran into the problem with stitching making those funny vertical lines. So after watching your video I am adjusting the vignette settings to approx. Amount +50 and and 0 Midpoint. This is a great solution. I'm stitching in PT Gui and not getting those vertical lines / aberrations.
Another stellar presentation Richard that is spot on. I've been using ICE on the tracked backgrounds for a while now and I totally agree that its an excellent option. Does a much better job at aligning the stars and resolving the wide FOV distortion. Thanks!
Great video Richard and I loved all of the pano. Like you, in the past I struggled using PS & LR and came across ICE. I too found it to be one of the best options and free of charge as well.
Great video on how to make and fix problems with panoramas, thank you Richard for sharing your knowledge acquired over the years. It's a pleasure to watch your videos, and especially to see your photos.
@@nightscapeimages.richard thanks so much for this Richard, and a massive thanks to you for your amazing youtube videos, they have been an inspiration to me and I’m sure thousands of others.
Thanks Richard, some really useful tips here 👍. I have used ICE in the past and liked the wide choice of projections, but for some reason hadn't twigged that you can then drag the perspective to your liking 15:17 - a real takeaway for me! Super images as per 👏.
Thank you so much. I always learn something new watching your videos. Especially the trick to manually compensate for vignetting. Had the same problem in the past and never found a good solution. Please never stop making videos. Love your images and your channel❤ Greetings from Germany, Nico
Thank You Richard for another education.Keep going,please. I am looking forward to next portion. P.S. My daughter is in Sydney for one year and i told her about rum balls on your recommendation. After few weeks she told me-i got it,from Hungarian pastry shop. They were tasty 🙂
Happy Saturday Richard and another excellent Video for panoramas . I am a big fan of Microsoft ICE and a great software. Just came from an epic 7 days trip and capture multi-row panoramas every night..Should be fun to edit and you need to visit to WA soon.
Rotate Camera around the Nodal Point. One of my in classroom photo instructors was complaining about Lightroom not doing a good job of stitching the images because he could see the seams. I showed him my panos that were rotated around the Nodal Point and they were perfect. He know nothing about nodal points before that day but I'm sure he fixed his technique after that. Good video BTW!!!
Hi Richard, just downloaded the ICE program to test it out. What a ripper of a little program, easy to use and great results. Can’t believe Microsoft no longer support it. Really looking forward to the episode on how to merge and process tracked panorama. Keep up the good work.
Have some astro panoramas that didnt work for me because of the vigneting lines.. with your tutorial I will give a new try..thank you so much.. Like very much this video.😊
Richard, another helpful video for us learning how to do astrophotography. Thank you for all you do for us learners! When I take non-panorama pictures (fixed camera position), I have been taking 5-10 pictures and stacking with Sequator to get enough starlight in the edited product. I'm on the east coast US so Class 3 & 4 Bortle is the best dark sky I have. In this video you are only using a single picture for each movement of the camera. I had been thinking I needed multiple pictures at each camera movement.
Thanks for tuning in Bradley. I rarely stack panoramas but you can do that . .however the key to shooting panoramas is to take the images as close as possible to each other to help the stitching software perform better. Obviously if you're shooting multiple frames for each panel of the panorama .. that will take some time.
Excellent tutorial Richard! Also ICE seems to be a fantastic alternative to PTGui. Good tip on the vignette midpoint slider there. Haven't come up with that one myself yet. Cheers from the hospital in La Palma, where I fortunately also shot some potentially spectacular pano's before breaking my leg 🤭. This tutorial will help get a better result 👍
@@nightscapeimages.richard thanks so much Richard! I hope I can edit some soon after surgery and being a bit more mobile. Your tutorial will definately help!
With the amount of money Adobe charges for their products you would think they would have managed to work out how to merge panoramas correctly.. Awesome stuff, great tips, as usual!
Thanks for sharing your insight here Richard, always a pleasure watching your videos! I agree that Lightroom/Camera Raw are limited in terms of pano capabilities, but there's a trick to work around the first issue you showed at 7:20 where the vertorama got badly distorted to the point of being unusable. The algorithm that Adobe uses for stitching seems to assume that the frames are laid out horizontally, not vertically, so rotating the individual images 90º (either direction) then stitching will often do a much better job - you just need to rotate the resulting image back to the correct orientation again (and turn your head sideways to evaluate the preview before confirming the projection etc. 😜). Of course, dedicated pano software with different projection options will always give more flexibility etc., but for someone looking to just get a vertorama stitched quickly and without needing to have additional software, it's a useful thing to try.
Hi Richard, great tutorial about alternative stitching software. Concerning the vignette issue: On Nikon Z cameras you should put 'Vignette Control' to 'High' in the shooting menu when using native Z-lenses. On older bodies with F-mount lenses these settings would only affect JPEG images. But now they get baked into the integrated lens correction profile which is then applied in Lightroom
Your pano tips got me started with mw panos Richard, thank you for your info. Recently Aaron king did avideo of a pano method, which works really well. 3c3o, 3rd, centre, 3rd, off, so you find a significant star, antares, put on right 3rd, then centre, then left third, then out of frame, by which point, next bright star should in ftames, same process. Guess it would be opposite for SH, because it was aimed at NH mw. Seems to work quite well. Also easy to remember when out in the field
@@nightscapeimages.richard p. S I've started doing the reduce vignetting in lightroom too, really helps, cheers Richard, always look forward to your videos. Thank you for showing your editing process too...... This nightscape photography malarkey is quite a faff when it comes to editing, lol
And once we go to track pano, it will be more challenge. I did a few couple years ago. Hard to do on the field and hard to do in post process imo. I would shoot track pano when we have a really good clear sky for long hours
Hi Richard! Thanks for the information. Is there any advantage to using a 50mm lens versus a wide angle lens? Love the examples you showed us. Take care, Jerry
Thanks Jerry. Well a 50mm lens will have a lot less distortion, but it requires many more images to create the same field of view. . however you'll have far more detail in the final result.
You are cruel Richard. It’s the middle of the afternoon and rain is moving in for tonight and tomorrow so I won’t be able to run out and try your tips. Just kidding! Thanks for the great tips and insights in another fantastic video!
Great video as always fella, some excellent tips. I had heard about Microsoft ICE before but wasn't sure if it was worth hunting it down but I am going to have a wee hunt for it. Now I just need to wait till mid August for darkness to return so I can out these methods into practice.
Thank you for sharing these wonderful techniques. Can you please explain or make a video on how to shoot the two row panorama especially for the milkyway... what are the sequence to follow as the milkyway is constantly moving and the ground is stationary... Thanks in advance....
Thanks for watching. Yes the sky is moving and that's why you need to shoot each frame quickly. The stitching software takes care of the alignment of both the sky and the foreground so it all comes out looking correct.
Hi Richard, I was wondering if you can refocus on the subjects as you progress up the pano shots in a vertical pano. ie The near foreground, midground, and distant objects. Thanks for spending the time to produce these great videos.
That would be technically possible Francis, but with a wide angle lens this may be unnecessary on many occasions . .and you'd have to make sure that any shots that include stars are in focus in the background.
As usual, great content! You made me think -- when you said programs stitch more accurately when the image is bright - what if you over exposed the individual images along with raising shadow to stitch and then readjust back? Of course, files would need to remain raw or tiff to keep info.
Yes very good comments Kerry .. I love how you're thinking. I'm not too sure the programs will allow you to re-edit the raw details once they are stitched . .but I may be wrong. Maybe a half way point may work . .something that can be edited back to what is required even after stitching.
Hi there, great video as always. Here is a long question, if you shoot lets say a 2 row by 6 shot pano of the MW and you want carefull foreground subject lighting in each shot of the bottom row, you can't delay shooting the pano while you make multiple torch lit shots of each shot in the bottom row, as the stars will have moved too much and it will never stitch. At best you can torch light each shot in the bottom row during the 15s exposure and hope that you don't unrecoverably blow out the highlights with too much torch time, but I have done that several times, then you have to reshoot the whole pano again. Have you ever used a pano head and noted the angle of each shot in the bottom row on the first pass and then returned to the same angle of shot 1 and done 1 or more torch lit shots and so on for each shot in the bottom row. And then brought each set of bottom row shots into PS, aligned each set of shots, applied masks etc to get the image you want (e.g. stars from pass one plus torch lit stuff from the later shots) then export a final image for each bottom row shot and then stitched them with the top row shots?
Well I have done plenty of foreground panoramas separately from the sky pano and then blended them together. If I want to shoot the sky and foreground as one panorama then the easiest way is to use low level lighting so the lighting is consistent between all the shots. I have shot many panoramas with a flashlight, lighting each panel but that's a lot harder to get even light as you suggest. I never shoot multiple shots per panel for either foreground or sky. I never use a dedicated pano head but that may help to get the exact same overlap with each panel.
Great breakdown Richard, had similar issues with multirow panoramas in Affinity Photo. Shame that Microsoft pulled the plug on ICE, such a solid and simple to use app.
Another excellent tutorial Richard, I am a Mac user so I guess will have to look at different software in the future, my change from F mount to Z mount has reduced my bank balance to will have to wait a while :) But, a great tutorial in any case Regards, ................ Gary .......................... AU
Great tutorial as usual, Richard! I'm surprised you didn't mention having a set white Balance on your tips rather than the AWB setting. (That will surely get you into stitching problems!) I just wish I could find a source for Microsoft ICE. Wonder why they discontinued it?
I enjoyed this vid, thanks for the tips and tricks. A quick question if i may. 'lens profile corrections' enabled or disabled before exporting from lightroom? great images by the way🙌
Thanks again Richard for your efforts. I did some pano shots recently but found it difficult to see the amount and position of the overlap of the frames. Would you happen to have a solution? Many thanks, Francis.
As I mentioned Francis. It can be tricky when you can't see much in the viewfinder of the camera. In that case I estimate based on the lens focal length and err on the side of more overlap.
Great video! I’ve enjoyed learning from you as I’m new to astrophotography. I did my first panorama tracked with a 50mm this past week. I noticed that in Lightroom my 50mm shots with 30% overlap have stitched very easily in Lightroom. I am considering getting a 20mm lens. I am wondering if the 20mm is harder to stitch compared to the 50mm due to some distortion? I’m looking at a 20mm for non pano shots for a trip on the coast but was thinking of using it for astro as well.
I like the longer lenses for panos. It takes more photos, but you get a better perspective and compressed (pulled in/large) Milky Way and just a much nicer pano than when using a wide lens. A 50mm is great for panos at night. 85mm for day. You can try an 85mm for night too but it takes some fast glass and a lot of shots! You'll really pull that Milky Way in though if you can get the photos in time.
I was going to suggest the Microsoft Image software and Bang! You Show it :) My tip for the Microsoft Image Software is to export as a photoshop Doc and include all the layers as a PSB not a PSD as the files sizes are quite High and will exceed the 4gb limit of a PSD file ...
very interesting Richard some great points to remember, i am coming to OZ in a couple of weeks to Forest Beach QLD. Have you any Vlogs on setting up the Nomad in the southern hemisphere as i will be bringing one with me and it will be the first time use of a star tracker. Any help would be appreciated.
This is a fantastic introduction to nightscape panos. Imaging Composite Editor looks fantastic with one big problem; it isn’t available for Mac; can you suggest an editor for Mac please?
Fantastic images and an amazing "hidden gem" of a piece of software! A quick question regarding panoramas; If I shoot, say, a "vertorama"with a 24mm lens and end up with a stitched image of, say, 12mm field of view equivalent, does this mean I can get away with using a shutter speed that I would have used with a 12mm lens? (i.e to avoid star-trailling). The reason I ask is that I'd like to experiment with panoramas using my 24mm tilt-shift, using the shift function, but its max aperture is f/3.5 so it's a bit limited when it comes to light-gathering. TIA, and sorry if it's an obvious question. I'm guessing the answer will be somewhere in between. i.e the wider field of view of the final shot means I can get away with a longer shutter-speed, but the greater detail in the pano will mean star-trailling shows up a bit more readily. (The reason I'm asking you rather than just going and trying it, is that I'm in Northern Scotland in the height of summer. I'll need to wait till September before it's dark enough!😂)
Thanks so much Mark. Yes it's pretty much as you suggested. You certainly can shoot a little bit longer when shooting panoramas as the detail is spread further across the image. .but of course when you zoom in you will see the slight trailing. I do often shoot longer shutter speeds when shooting panos to get more light input.
MS ICE can be so hard to find.....I have used PTGUI for years and you are right its expensive....but you get free updates from them for 2 I think on pro version.....and there is nothing you cannot do.... If you luv astro you use PTGUI....but ICE does look really good if you can get it and only shoot astro occasionally......great vid Richard...PTGUI can remove the vignette also...
Google this: Microsoft ICE - No Longer Available? have a Download? Click the first result (dpreview). Then scroll down to the 4th comment. Look for cnet link. The 5th comment says it downloads older version. It doesn't anymore. You'll get latest v2.0.3 from there now.
Awesome video! Been hunting for this info for a while thank you, Are you able to help with a place to purchase those Z \ V camera mounts? I’m in Perth but don’t mind shipping
Thanks for watching Rob. I think you'll have to buy the Z/V plates from MSM. www.moveshootmove.com/products/z-v-platform-designed-with-alyn-wallace-preorder
Thank you so much. I literally just discovered you this past week, in preparation for a new moon milky way session in Bryce Canyon. I've learned so much, yet i know I'm just starting. One thing i haven't seen answered in any video i have watched is the right order to take a pano you plan to stack to reduce noise. Are we supposed to take all the frames we plan to stack one after the other before we pan to the next conposition, or should we take the entire pano first and then go back and redo it for the total number of images per stack? What is the best practice here and can you point me to a video where you explain this? Thanks
Thanks so much for tuning in to my channel Carlos, I really appreciate it. If you plan on stacking your panels for a panorama.(Which I rarely do by the way) then you would always stack them on that single frame before you move to the next one. If you don't do that you'll never be able to align the exact shot later. I don't have a video specifically discussing this unfortunately, but just keep in mind that if you're ever stacking any image sequence then each of the images you intend to stack have to be exactly the same. Any variation will render them useless.
It's interesting that the Atoll mounting bracket that I'm using these days brings the pivot point very close to the nodal point of the lens. The vast majority of my panoramas don't have very important objects close to the camera so it's less of an issue.
Some good tips! Especially fixing the vignette before stitching, if you run into those dark lines. Slick.
Always appreciate your comments my friend.
Thank you very much Richard, Very helpful. Thank again from Indonesia 🇮🇩
You're welcome my friend.
Wow, Richard! I've seen your work before, but I don't think in a single shot...I'm blown away, and I think I'v found my new guru to follow for astrophotography. Thanks for this!
You're very kind indeed. Thanks for your support.
Thanks Richard, your generous and helpful approach to sharing your experience and knowledge is greatly appreciated and inspiring....and I'm sure many others feel the same way I do...
Thanks for your kind words Steve.
Fantastic tutorial Richard 👌 Your knowledge and content help so many of us. Who would have imagined older software like I.C.E do such a great job.
All the best mate 👍
Your comments are always very welcome Colin. Yes I love ICE.
Thanks so much for this video Richard. I watched it yesterday and went out shooting the milky way last night. I downloaded ICE this morning and was able to stitch a 45 pic panorama together effortlessly.
Thank you 😊
That's fantastic Anthony. Did you have any trouble finding an ICE download site ..??
@@nightscapeimages.richard yes a little bit I did find it and worked great.
Thanks for the tips and tricks. We don't have quite the scenery.
Yes, you do and that beautiful arch of the Milky Way. I do miss that.
It's a wonderful sight isn't it Jeff
I haven't done a pano for a while but Rarely rarely have had a problem stitching in ice, amazing isn't it how so many of the free programs do better than paid one's. As usual an excellent video sharing your knowledge Richard 👍
Thanks as always Rob, appreciate your comments.
Thanks so much Ruchard, I've had a number or Panos I could not get to stitch well, I have tried the Microsoft Image editor and it has done the trick, both around 30 image multi row panos, I'll now be a lot more confident and will give these large panos a more serious effort thanks again, Glenn 👌
That's great to hear Glenn, thanks for watching.
Great Tutorial! For sure I will try ICE and the manual vignette adjustment.
You "hit" the two most important problems people have when stitching panos (finding the correct looking projection-for FREE and getting rid of those devilish vignette lines).
Thanks Again!
Thanks so much for your kind comments.
Good video Richard. You covered pretty much all you need to problem solve any panorama issue. ICE is a pretty solid stitching software that I use every now and then. 👍😁
Thanks Geoff. It can be a very complex thing if we really delve into it .. but simple is always good.
Thanks, Richard. I had totally forgotten about ICE! Great video.
It works really well Chris.
Another great and practical video Richard with heaps of good tips. It is a shame that Microsoft gave up on ICE, had huge potential. Thanks as always.
Always appreciate your comments Eric, thank you.
Thanks Richard. Always pick up fantastic tips & tricks: particularly the Vignetting correction was very productive. Much appreciated
Thanks for tuning in again Manjul.
Another brilliant tutorial Richard. I particularly love the Bay of Fires images 🙂
Thanks as always for your kind comments Les.
Great, clear tips. Richard. That feeling when your first pano stitches together correctly is amazing! I should probably start to do more of them - although we need clear skies first!
Thanks as always Paul. I've been impressed with many of your recent videos with the clearish skies ...!! I hope you get plenty more.
oh wow, that tipp with the manuell vignetting- correcture is gold! 👌😍🫶
Really appreciate you watching again.
Great information, Richard! I have always struggled with Panos and editing! This helps!!!
Always happy to assist Gary
Thank you Richard, I could not work out why I was having the issue of stretching at the top, I tried more rows but it didn't seem to help. Will try to download ICE if I can find it. Thank you again for an informative video Richard 👍
You're always very welcome Dennis.
👍 I don't have the patience for recordings like this... that's why I prefer to watch you in a relaxed manner
Everybody likes different things. I hopefully have something for everybody.
Thankyou Richard, this came at the perfect time, I have been failing to merge recently!!! I can't wait to try with this Windows software. Thankyou so much ❤
I'm glad you found the video useful Clare.
Great tips Richard, specially the vignette removal, I'm about to re edit a pic and try this, thanks so much, have a great weekend.
Always happy to help Rob mate
love your content and explanations and tips👍
You're very welcome. Thanks for watching.
thx for your insights Richard 👍
Always a pleasure my friend.
Great tutorial and easy to follow. You make it very clear and don't rush the process. Just what I needed and will follow your processes.
Thank you so much for your kind words Steven.
Great timing... I was struggling with light room stich of a 2 row pano last night, looking for other options well past midnight without success.
Then i wake up this morning to see your video on my feed!!!
Love all the practical info you give.
Would love to see a similar video for tracked pano's at some stage too.
Thanks so much for your comments Dean. Tracked panos are a lot more difficult to edit and shoot but not a lot different in concept.
Nailed it Richard! Great video. Panos.... something that I have struggles with in the exact areas you covered. Thanks. Bruce Mc.
Very kind of you to comment Bruce, many thanks.
Thanks Richard, very informative as always. Will try some more panoramas , I just forget to do them so early in the year
Thanks Kim. Just remember that you don't have to shoot dozens of images to produce a very cool ,panorama image.
Great video, awesome tips , and beautiful photos of Tassie at the end there.
Thanks as always for checking it out Jeff.
Great video Richard, as always we all pick on one or two things, the vignette fix was a great tip, thank you. :)
Thanks as always Al
Hi Richard, a big thank you for the tip on panoramas. Love your channel.
Really appreciate your support Don, thanks so much.
Thanks Richard. Just got back from shooting some Milky Way panoramas. I ran into the problem with stitching making those funny vertical lines. So after watching your video I am adjusting the vignette settings to approx. Amount +50 and and 0 Midpoint. This is a great solution. I'm stitching in PT Gui and not getting those vertical lines / aberrations.
Yes it's a problem we have all encountered from time to time John. Thanks for watching.
Another stellar presentation Richard that is spot on. I've been using ICE on the tracked backgrounds for a while now and I totally agree that its an excellent option. Does a much better job at aligning the stars and resolving the wide FOV distortion. Thanks!
Thanks for your comments Robb, much appreciated.
Thnx Richard. Again helpful and very much appreciated.
Yo
Thanks so much for watching.
I went out last night to try my first Pano, I likely needed this video a day earlier 😅 we'll see 🤞
Better late than never Damien. Hope it goes ok.
Great video Richard and I loved all of the pano. Like you, in the past I struggled using PS & LR and came across ICE. I too found it to be one of the best options and free of charge as well.
Yes it's very good isn't it David.
Again, quite a wonderful video, giving so much information. Pictures are amazing, as usual, my DEAREST ❤
As always you are very kind Carole.
Great explanation as always Richard and just love those stunning results.
Thanks for your kind words as always Levin.
Love your work Richard! Definitely an inspiration in the astrophotography world!
Thanks so much for your kind words Matt
Great video on how to make and fix problems with panoramas, thank you Richard for sharing your knowledge acquired over the years. It's a pleasure to watch your videos, and especially to see your photos.
Thanks again for watching Mario.
That was good cobber,nice n easy to follow on,no bs approach.Thanku for your efforts.💯
Many thanks indeed. Appreciate your comments.
I managed to find an ICE download and it worked fantastic with a daytime pano. Wish me luck on some MW panos. Yours are brilliant. Thank you
That's fantastic. I love using it.
I have tried to find a download of ICE with no luck. I would be very greatful if you could point me towards it
@@peterdavies4052 Try this link Peter: download.cnet.com/image-composite-editor-64-bit/3000-2192_4-75207152.html
@@nightscapeimages.richard thanks so much for this Richard, and a massive thanks to you for your amazing youtube videos, they have been an inspiration to me and I’m sure thousands of others.
Thanks Richard, some really useful tips here 👍. I have used ICE in the past and liked the wide choice of projections, but for some reason hadn't twigged that you can then drag the perspective to your liking 15:17 - a real takeaway for me! Super images as per 👏.
I'm very pleased you found it helpful Paul. Thanks again for watching.
Great video thank you Richard, some very useful information and wisdom in there. Cheers, Robert.
Thanks a lot Robert
Thank you so much. I always learn something new watching your videos. Especially the trick to manually compensate for vignetting. Had the same problem in the past and never found a good solution. Please never stop making videos. Love your images and your channel❤ Greetings from Germany, Nico
Thanks so much for your very kind words Nico.
Brilliantly explained(as usual) Thanks Richard 👍
You're very welcome Ian. Thanks for watching.
Thank you Richard, I’ve been thinking about trying to shot Pano’s. You’ve inspired me to try🙂
Thanks again for your support Julie. Give it a try and see how you go.
Great subject, Richard, I'll have to watch again. Have a good weekend
Always appreciate your comments Phil.
Thank You Richard for another education.Keep going,please. I am looking forward to next portion.
P.S. My daughter is in Sydney for one year and i told her about rum balls on your recommendation. After few weeks she told me-i got it,from Hungarian pastry shop. They were tasty 🙂
A good rum ball is very hard to find . .!!!! Thanks so much for your great support my friend.
Thanks for this Richard! Really helpful.
Just wondering if you'd ever do a video on printing tips and tricks?
Thanks!
Thanks for watching Jeelan. I don't consider myself an expert in relation to printing.
Thank you! I’ve pretty much given up making night panoramas, exactly because of the warped stretching that killed them.
I'd suggest trying smaller number of shots. Start simple and go from there.
Happy Saturday Richard and another excellent Video for panoramas . I am a big fan of Microsoft ICE and a great software. Just came from an epic 7 days trip and capture multi-row panoramas every night..Should be fun to edit and you need to visit to WA soon.
Thanks Virat. I'll be very keen to see what you come up with. No WA trip this year I'm afraid.
Thank you Richard another great presentation.
Thanks for tuning in Alec.
Rotate Camera around the Nodal Point. One of my in classroom photo instructors was complaining about Lightroom not doing a good job of stitching the images because he could see the seams. I showed him my panos that were rotated around the Nodal Point and they were perfect. He know nothing about nodal points before that day but I'm sure he fixed his technique after that. Good video BTW!!!
I really appreciate you watching Earl, thank you.
Very well explained , thank you very much .
You're very welcome my friend.
Hi Richard, just downloaded the ICE program to test it out. What a ripper of a little program, easy to use and great results. Can’t believe Microsoft no longer support it. Really looking forward to the episode on how to merge and process tracked panorama. Keep up the good work.
Glad it was helpful to you Trevor. I've loved using it.
Trevor, could you please share where you can download ICE from .... cheers 😀
@@madhatterbakery-artisanmad7631 Try here: download.cnet.com/image-composite-editor-64-bit/3000-2192_4-75207152.html?ex=RAMP-2070.2
Great info Richard, really informative, thank you.
You're very welcome David.
Very helpful! I’m going to get Image Composite Editor and try it out on some images that I’ve given up on in the past. Thanks!
Thanks for watching. I hope you get good results.
Have some astro panoramas that didnt work for me because of the vigneting lines.. with your tutorial I will give a new try..thank you so much.. Like very much this video.😊
As always I very much appreciate your comments Luis.
Thanks so much for all that information, I have a reason to dig up Microsoft ICE now!
Yes I think a lot of people are thinking the same thing Andrew.
Richard, another helpful video for us learning how to do astrophotography. Thank you for all you do for us learners! When I take non-panorama pictures (fixed camera position), I have been taking 5-10 pictures and stacking with Sequator to get enough starlight in the edited product. I'm on the east coast US so Class 3 & 4 Bortle is the best dark sky I have. In this video you are only using a single picture for each movement of the camera. I had been thinking I needed multiple pictures at each camera movement.
Thanks for tuning in Bradley. I rarely stack panoramas but you can do that . .however the key to shooting panoramas is to take the images as close as possible to each other to help the stitching software perform better. Obviously if you're shooting multiple frames for each panel of the panorama .. that will take some time.
Excellent tutorial Richard! Also ICE seems to be a fantastic alternative to PTGui. Good tip on the vignette midpoint slider there. Haven't come up with that one myself yet. Cheers from the hospital in La Palma, where I fortunately also shot some potentially spectacular pano's before breaking my leg 🤭. This tutorial will help get a better result 👍
Oh no Jeroen . .I hope you are recovering well my friend. I suppose at least that will give you some editing time to work on images hopefully.
@@nightscapeimages.richard thanks so much Richard! I hope I can edit some soon after surgery and being a bit more mobile. Your tutorial will definately help!
With the amount of money Adobe charges for their products you would think they would have managed to work out how to merge panoramas correctly..
Awesome stuff, great tips, as usual!
Yes I think they do ok for daytime stuff. .but not so good at night.
Thanks for sharing your insight here Richard, always a pleasure watching your videos! I agree that Lightroom/Camera Raw are limited in terms of pano capabilities, but there's a trick to work around the first issue you showed at 7:20 where the vertorama got badly distorted to the point of being unusable. The algorithm that Adobe uses for stitching seems to assume that the frames are laid out horizontally, not vertically, so rotating the individual images 90º (either direction) then stitching will often do a much better job - you just need to rotate the resulting image back to the correct orientation again (and turn your head sideways to evaluate the preview before confirming the projection etc. 😜). Of course, dedicated pano software with different projection options will always give more flexibility etc., but for someone looking to just get a vertorama stitched quickly and without needing to have additional software, it's a useful thing to try.
That's a great suggestion Andrew. I must give it a try. Appreciate you watching.
Hi Richard, great tutorial about alternative stitching software. Concerning the vignette issue: On Nikon Z cameras you should put 'Vignette Control' to 'High' in the shooting menu when using native Z-lenses. On older bodies with F-mount lenses these settings would only affect JPEG images. But now they get baked into the integrated lens correction profile which is then applied in Lightroom
Yes that's a very good tip, thanks for watching.
those are the best panos i have seen. very good tips
Very kind of you. Thanks for watching.
Your pano tips got me started with mw panos Richard, thank you for your info.
Recently Aaron king did avideo of a pano method, which works really well. 3c3o, 3rd, centre, 3rd, off, so you find a significant star, antares, put on right 3rd, then centre, then left third, then out of frame, by which point, next bright star should in ftames, same process. Guess it would be opposite for SH, because it was aimed at NH mw. Seems to work quite well. Also easy to remember when out in the field
Thanks again for your great comments Suzie. I think anything that assists to get enough overlap is a good thing.
@@nightscapeimages.richard p. S I've started doing the reduce vignetting in lightroom too, really helps, cheers Richard, always look forward to your videos. Thank you for showing your editing process too...... This nightscape photography malarkey is quite a faff when it comes to editing, lol
@@andysuzierawlins5462 Yes it's 50% of the whole thing for sure.
And once we go to track pano, it will be more challenge. I did a few couple years ago. Hard to do on the field and hard to do in post process imo. I would shoot track pano when we have a really good clear sky for long hours
Yes it sure does add a greater level of complexity that's for sure.
Awesome vid Richard plenty of inspiration 🤙🏼
Thanks so much Rob
Hi Richard! Thanks for the information. Is there any advantage to using a 50mm lens versus a wide angle lens? Love the examples you showed us. Take care, Jerry
Thanks Jerry. Well a 50mm lens will have a lot less distortion, but it requires many more images to create the same field of view. . however you'll have far more detail in the final result.
Damn! Richard - absolutely awsome panoramas 😍 Beautiful 😍👌 top notch!!!…
You're very welcome Michael.
You are cruel Richard. It’s the middle of the afternoon and rain is moving in for tonight and tomorrow so I won’t be able to run out and try your tips. Just kidding! Thanks for the great tips and insights in another fantastic video!
Haha, you're very welcome Pat. Hope the clouds clear soon.
Great video as always fella, some excellent tips. I had heard about Microsoft ICE before but wasn't sure if it was worth hunting it down but I am going to have a wee hunt for it. Now I just need to wait till mid August for darkness to return so I can out these methods into practice.
Thanks William. It can be hard to find but well worth it.
Thank you for sharing these wonderful techniques. Can you please explain or make a video on how to shoot the two row panorama especially for the milkyway... what are the sequence to follow as the milkyway is constantly moving and the ground is stationary...
Thanks in advance....
Thanks for watching. Yes the sky is moving and that's why you need to shoot each frame quickly. The stitching software takes care of the alignment of both the sky and the foreground so it all comes out looking correct.
Merci vraiment intéressant bon ciel et bonnes photos !
I very much appreciate your comments Patrick, thank you.
Hi Richard, I was wondering if you can refocus on the subjects as you progress up the pano shots in a vertical pano. ie The near foreground, midground, and distant objects. Thanks for spending the time to produce these great videos.
That would be technically possible Francis, but with a wide angle lens this may be unnecessary on many occasions . .and you'd have to make sure that any shots that include stars are in focus in the background.
I don't have LR, but it's great to see your process.
Appreciate you tuning in Leon.
Richard, excellent tips!
Thank you for watching.
Nice video. Thank you very much from Spain.
I very much appreciate you watching.
As usual, great content! You made me think -- when you said programs stitch more accurately when the image is bright - what if you over exposed the individual images along with raising shadow to stitch and then readjust back? Of course, files would need to remain raw or tiff to keep info.
Yes very good comments Kerry .. I love how you're thinking. I'm not too sure the programs will allow you to re-edit the raw details once they are stitched . .but I may be wrong. Maybe a half way point may work . .something that can be edited back to what is required even after stitching.
Hi there, great video as always. Here is a long question, if you shoot lets say a 2 row by 6 shot pano of the MW and you want carefull foreground subject lighting in each shot of the bottom row, you can't delay shooting the pano while you make multiple torch lit shots of each shot in the bottom row, as the stars will have moved too much and it will never stitch. At best you can torch light each shot in the bottom row during the 15s exposure and hope that you don't unrecoverably blow out the highlights with too much torch time, but I have done that several times, then you have to reshoot the whole pano again. Have you ever used a pano head and noted the angle of each shot in the bottom row on the first pass and then returned to the same angle of shot 1 and done 1 or more torch lit shots and so on for each shot in the bottom row. And then brought each set of bottom row shots into PS, aligned each set of shots, applied masks etc to get the image you want (e.g. stars from pass one plus torch lit stuff from the later shots) then export a final image for each bottom row shot and then stitched them with the top row shots?
Well I have done plenty of foreground panoramas separately from the sky pano and then blended them together. If I want to shoot the sky and foreground as one panorama then the easiest way is to use low level lighting so the lighting is consistent between all the shots. I have shot many panoramas with a flashlight, lighting each panel but that's a lot harder to get even light as you suggest.
I never shoot multiple shots per panel for either foreground or sky. I never use a dedicated pano head but that may help to get the exact same overlap with each panel.
Great breakdown Richard, had similar issues with multirow panoramas in Affinity Photo. Shame that Microsoft pulled the plug on ICE, such a solid and simple to use app.
Thanks Dominic. Like most things related to astro . .the search for the perfect tools continues ..!!!
Another excellent tutorial Richard,
I am a Mac user so I guess will have to look at different software in the future, my change from F mount to Z mount has reduced my bank balance to will have to wait a while :)
But, a great tutorial in any case
Regards,
................ Gary
.......................... AU
Always appreciate your comments Gary, thanks mate.
Cheers from Okanagan valley British Columbia 🇨🇦
Thanks as always for watching Rick, very much appreciated.
Great tutorial as usual, Richard! I'm surprised you didn't mention having a set white Balance on your tips rather than the AWB setting. (That will surely get you into stitching problems!) I just wish I could find a source for Microsoft ICE. Wonder why they discontinued it?
Yes I probably should have mentioned white balance for sure Andrea. I never shoot in Auto.
Found the software thanks Richard... way better than Lightroom
Yes it sure is. Thanks for watching.
I enjoyed this vid, thanks for the tips and tricks. A quick question if i may. 'lens profile corrections' enabled or disabled before exporting from lightroom? great images by the way🙌
Thanks for watching. Mostly I enable lens corrections.
Thanks again Richard for your efforts. I did some pano shots recently but found it difficult to see the amount and position of the overlap of the frames. Would you happen to have a solution? Many thanks, Francis.
As I mentioned Francis. It can be tricky when you can't see much in the viewfinder of the camera. In that case I estimate based on the lens focal length and err on the side of more overlap.
Great video! I’ve enjoyed learning from you as I’m new to astrophotography. I did my first panorama tracked with a 50mm this past week. I noticed that in Lightroom my 50mm shots with 30% overlap have stitched very easily in Lightroom. I am considering getting a 20mm lens. I am wondering if the 20mm is harder to stitch compared to the 50mm due to some distortion? I’m looking at a 20mm for non pano shots for a trip on the coast but was thinking of using it for astro as well.
I like the longer lenses for panos. It takes more photos, but you get a better perspective and compressed (pulled in/large) Milky Way and just a much nicer pano than when using a wide lens. A 50mm is great for panos at night. 85mm for day. You can try an 85mm for night too but it takes some fast glass and a lot of shots! You'll really pull that Milky Way in though if you can get the photos in time.
Thanks Scott. Yes I think the longer lenses with less distortion do stitch better but the 20mm focal length is wonderful for milky way photography.
I was going to suggest the Microsoft Image software and Bang! You Show it :) My tip for the Microsoft Image Software is to export as a photoshop Doc and include all the layers as a PSB not a PSD as the files sizes are quite High and will exceed the 4gb limit of a PSD file ...
Yes that's a good suggestion John, and particularly applicable when shooting full arch panoramas with lots of overlap.
very interesting Richard some great points to remember, i am coming to OZ in a couple of weeks to Forest Beach QLD. Have you any Vlogs on setting up the Nomad in the southern hemisphere as i will be bringing one with me and it will be the first time use of a star tracker. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks for watching. Have you seen this video. ruclips.net/video/seQiDJK2pg0/видео.html
And this may help. ruclips.net/video/5D_n6ZtsZ4o/видео.html
This is a fantastic introduction to nightscape panos. Imaging Composite Editor looks fantastic with one big problem; it isn’t available for Mac; can you suggest an editor for Mac please?
No unfortunately I don't think Mac have ever designed a pano stitching program David. You can use PtGui though.
Thank You Richard
You're very welcome Chris
perfectly explained👍
Thanks so much for tuning in Tony
Fantastic images and an amazing "hidden gem" of a piece of software! A quick question regarding panoramas; If I shoot, say, a "vertorama"with a 24mm lens and end up with a stitched image of, say, 12mm field of view equivalent, does this mean I can get away with using a shutter speed that I would have used with a 12mm lens? (i.e to avoid star-trailling). The reason I ask is that I'd like to experiment with panoramas using my 24mm tilt-shift, using the shift function, but its max aperture is f/3.5 so it's a bit limited when it comes to light-gathering. TIA, and sorry if it's an obvious question.
I'm guessing the answer will be somewhere in between. i.e the wider field of view of the final shot means I can get away with a longer shutter-speed, but the greater detail in the pano will mean star-trailling shows up a bit more readily.
(The reason I'm asking you rather than just going and trying it, is that I'm in Northern Scotland in the height of summer. I'll need to wait till September before it's dark enough!😂)
Thanks so much Mark. Yes it's pretty much as you suggested. You certainly can shoot a little bit longer when shooting panoramas as the detail is spread further across the image. .but of course when you zoom in you will see the slight trailing.
I do often shoot longer shutter speeds when shooting panos to get more light input.
@@nightscapeimages.richard Brilliant. Thanks for the quick reply. Looking forward to giving it a go!
MS ICE can be so hard to find.....I have used PTGUI for years and you are right its expensive....but you get free updates from them for 2 I think on pro version.....and there is nothing you cannot do.... If you luv astro you use PTGUI....but ICE does look really good if you can get it and only shoot astro occasionally......great vid Richard...PTGUI can remove the vignette also...
I found it within a minute, searching google. Someone posted a link to cnet if it helps.
Google this:
Microsoft ICE - No Longer Available? have a Download?
Click the first result (dpreview). Then scroll down to the 4th comment. Look for cnet link.
The 5th comment says it downloads older version. It doesn't anymore. You'll get latest v2.0.3
from there now.
Thanks Steve .. yes PtGui is excellent for astro panos.
Awesome video! Been hunting for this info for a while thank you,
Are you able to help with a place to purchase those Z \ V camera mounts? I’m in Perth but don’t mind shipping
Thanks for watching Rob. I think you'll have to buy the Z/V plates from MSM. www.moveshootmove.com/products/z-v-platform-designed-with-alyn-wallace-preorder
@@nightscapeimages.richard legend! Thank you
Richard Now show us in the field how to get a big pano
I'll get around to that one day.
Thank you so much. I literally just discovered you this past week, in preparation for a new moon milky way session in Bryce Canyon. I've learned so much, yet i know I'm just starting. One thing i haven't seen answered in any video i have watched is the right order to take a pano you plan to stack to reduce noise.
Are we supposed to take all the frames we plan to stack one after the other before we pan to the next conposition, or should we take the entire pano first and then go back and redo it for the total number of images per stack?
What is the best practice here and can you point me to a video where you explain this? Thanks
Thanks so much for tuning in to my channel Carlos, I really appreciate it. If you plan on stacking your panels for a panorama.(Which I rarely do by the way) then you would always stack them on that single frame before you move to the next one. If you don't do that you'll never be able to align the exact shot later.
I don't have a video specifically discussing this unfortunately, but just keep in mind that if you're ever stacking any image sequence then each of the images you intend to stack have to be exactly the same. Any variation will render them useless.
@@nightscapeimages.richard thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my comment/question.
Nodal rail is imperative to combat the stitching concerns.
It's interesting that the Atoll mounting bracket that I'm using these days brings the pivot point very close to the nodal point of the lens. The vast majority of my panoramas don't have very important objects close to the camera so it's less of an issue.