Haha, man that sky replacement procedure does almost all the heavy lifting which was previously often done by hand. I remember Topaz Remask with the tri-color area painting (in, out, transition) which did a fabulous job also at its time. Thanks a bunch for providing this highly valuable free of charge. Long time ago I decided to contribute a tiny support by PayPal and every time one of your videos pop up I'm happy I did. Stay save🍻☕🙂
I very much appreciate your support of my work my friend. Yes there are lots of new ways to improve our workflow and I guess we just have to keep moving with the technology. Thanks for watching.
I'm going to be watching this video several times.....and with a notebook! It's packed with real gems of advice and guidance.....perfectly explained and illustrated, as usual. Thanks so much for this, Richard.
Absolutely DEADLY video, Thanks Richard. I was just excited about the sky replacement feature as well. I think the reason it fails blend some item in a photo depends on how sharp or in focus they are...i.e. if there's a house as the main subject and is 100% focus but there's a tree or tree's also in the frame. It can nail the trunk but fail in the smaller branches. The sky replacement works so well that when I'm taking the foreground images I take a extra few, moving focus to different part of the scene and then focus stack. Lastly I was delighted to see you are also a StarXTerminator user. It's a great plugin for Photoshop. Thanks again for the great workflow tutorial
Thanks a lot for watching Trevor. I like how we all find different features and work arounds when editing these type of images. I reckon the sky replacement is fantastic and a great starting place for tracked images.
Hi Richard, Finally you have done this useful tutorial I have been looking for. Thanks so much. Those editing tutorials you made couple years ago, I always use them as a guide every time when I start editing MW. You are so generous for the unpaid useful tutorials so far Thanks I am not too sure if you are going to do tracked pano one day in the future. it is quite tricky in the field as I have watched a few on youtube and they did not really show the detail of how we do tracked pano in the field. So I hope you will do this tutorial (Pre and Post process) in the future. This will be also game changer for all of us too. Thanks
Great tutorial Richard. You've certainly mastered the art of tracking and post on these fantastic images you create. Top work mate. Cheers for sharing the info 👍🙏
Thanks a lot for having a look Adrian. There is a lot of technique required with some of these images ... especially in post production. Always appreciate your comments mate.
Hi Richard , awesome instructional video again , haven't had the opportunity to do any astro since last year , due to work and the weather in Sydney it's been crap. I have never used Sky Replacement but if the gods decide that we can , i will have to give it a go for sure. thanks for all your work and dedication to this channel.
Many thanks indeed Erny. Yes it's been a difficult time for shooting due to weather . . particularly in your part of the world. I'm sure it will change for the better soon.
Good on you John. There are so many ways to shoot and edit these images .. it's always interesting to try some new ideas. Appreciate your comments mate.
Thank you so much for this video, Richard. I am slowly watching every free lesson you offer and I am learning so much. You've inspired me, as well as many others to pursue a passion! You are very kind to offer all of this knowlege to the public. When I can start turning photography into a side job, I will be sure to give you a fair donation for all of your generous help. Already looking forward to your next video! Keep it up!
Richard, this is great. I did experiment before with nebulosity and star separation without too much of a success, perhaps because I was using a different technique to separate them. That was really useful, thanks for sharing!
Thankyou your top shelf is getting full,excellent video When you brushed the nebula it was on black, I though it was ment to be white or do have the black and white thing wrong, Great photo, these videos start my sat off on a good step
Thanks for watching Phillip. You can either brush away detail (Black brush) or brush detail back in (White Brush). It works both ways. Also if you want to you can invert the mask so then you only reveal the changes when you brush away some of the item. Lots of options.
I've watched this video three times already, what fantastic tips (especially the star glow!). I recently started using PS sky replacement to blend my own skies and foregrounds and sort of felt I was cheating compared to the hard work it used to be, so I was glad to see you use this too. Whatever tools work best, use them I say. Thank you Richard for putting this together.
Thanks so much for watching Stillfilm. I think the tools are there for us to use and anything that makes it easier is good. This genre of photography is tough as it is.
Thanks for the edit video Richard, very detailed, awesome shots. You're a very inspiring kind of guy. I find sequator can't deal with more than 15, I have to do them from my camera card, tried doing from lr but it didn't work. Doing the copy and paste thing is a different way of getting files from different folders into same canvas from what I learnt from Kristine, but useful nonetheless. Thanks again Richard for your generosity in sharing your knowledge.
Thanks as always Suzanne. The copy and paste method is quite simple but there are always many ways to achieve the same thing in photoshop. I don't have any issues with 20 or more images into sequator, although I only ever load tiff files into it.
@@nightscapeimages.richard oh, I use raw, maybe that makes a difference, I tried going from lr, but it didn't work for me, when I'd go into sequator, I then couldn't find what I'd highlighted in lr
@@andysuzierawlins5462 What I do is export the images from Lightroom as tiff files into a specific folder.. Then import those into Sequator. You can put raw files into Sequator .. if you do that then you don't need the Lightroom step at all .. just get them from where they are located on your computer.
Hi Richard Glad I found your video and it seems I've have been using some of these editing ideas already and have the starless plugin for photoshop already
Thanks for watching John. I don't always use these steps for many of my images but it's good to try new features. The editing of these images is getting a little easier with new innovations with software. Hope you're well.
@@nightscapeimages.richard I'm well thanks mate and yes so many different ways of editing an image! Some workflows are time consuming others not ! But always Interesting to find out something New to try?
38 minutes of great instruction Richard. I like the StarXterminator software and the Photo Kemi Star tools action set. They will both make for better outcomes for sure. The colour correction section was also pretty helpful as it seems that a lot of modified astro camera users don't seem to get this balance right in post processing. Great video Richard. 👌👍😁
Thanks heaps for watching Geoff. I'm not professing to get the colours right either for the modded camera. But in the end it really comes down to what we like the look of. I think there are so many new products out there that make the post processing easier . .albeit harder to get our heads around sometimes.
fantastic Richard, I've actually gone back and watched a few videos of yours,so im ready for the milky way out here. I'd love some one on one mate so if you want free accommodation for some lessons and want to drive 20 hours hit me up haha. Tennant creek at night is like nothing I've ever seen. Great tutorial once again mate.
Haha, maybe a little bit too far for a drive Jeremy, but I'm sure you'll have heaps of opportunities to spend some quality time under the outback stars mate. Take care.
@@nightscapeimages.richard I known your busy ,but nikon have a new 28mm 2.8 lens @400 dollars I can't afford the 20mm is 28 wider enough?. Thanks Richard.
Excellent! My top tip is to use a flash on the foreground, especially for moving trees if it's windy. Ideally, it will be horrible flat lighting, originating from the camera point. This is not to be used in the final image, but purely so Photoshop has more defined lines to work with for the sky replacement. You can then transfer the resulting mask to the nicer-looking foreground image.
@@nightscapeimages.richard you need to join different social media platform. I can and promote your RUclips channel on them to. U can join Twitter iam too on Twitter Eeven though iam not a good photographer I was able to have over 1.3 k followers there I try to promote other photographer also. Why not to help each other out..plz make Twitter accout promote ur channel on that too post vids stories and pics there..I'll also pitch in. Regards
thank you Richard for this amazing tutorial.. I have a little tip to balance the color tone of the sky (it can only works in camera raw on photoshop and maybe you already know it). Anyway.. if you apply a camera raw filter on a layer you can use the white balance color picker to draw a square in a part of the sky where there is no nebulosity. It usually works well for me, I then cool the balance a little cause I prefer a cooler image!
Thanks heaps for watching David. I've never used photoshop elements so I don't know for sure. I have a feeling that the masking abilities are somewhat limited in those cut down versions of the software though.
Fascinating process and a great result. However, I do find that the star expansion process, whether in Photoshop or via filter, produces a result that triggers my sense of unreality.
Really interesting Richard ,im just starting to learn image editing in ps which was daunting at first but getting the hang of it now.Keep up the good work.
Once again super informative video Richard. I'm just still learning ps and I really have issue with changing a pic so much from what we first see. Surely we take pics of what we perceive to be what we want a pic to look like not then change so radically it's like cheating anyhow that's my current gripe with ps I'm slowly comming around to understanding editing. Again another top video stay out of the waters remember if it's flooded forget it stay well stay safe and have another great week under the stars 🌟
Thanks as always for watching Tree Man. Not so many floods in my neck of the woods. I think we have to remember that the camera captures raw flat images .. not a lot of life in them until we begin to bring out the details while editing. That's so much more the case with faint nebulas etc. In daylight this isn't a problem but when shooting in really dark locations at night it's all about the trade off between capturing enough light and not being a noisy nasty mess.
Hi Richard, thank you for this very useful tutorial. I like your channel very much and I appreciate your work. I really want to learn nightscape photography and I think your channel is the very best at this topic. My Donation to support your wonderful work will come to you soon. Just one question: Do you recommend using Lightroom over Skylum Luminar? I just purchased Skylum Luminar as my first ever Raw editor. I would be very happy about an answer. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for your very generous support my friend. I have not used Luminar so it's hard to comment. I do like the integration between Lightroom and Photoshop which speeds up my editing workflow a lot. Especially on projects like the one in this video. I wish you all the best with your nightscape photography journey.
As you in min. 11:40 adjust the colors due to your camera astro modification I wonder why you don´t perform a manual white balance with a gray card on your camera BEFORE the nightscape session? KR Btw, there is a new version of Starnet++ just came out. It works very well and is free compared to StarXterminator. The "dots" where ste stars came from are not that present when using Starnet++ V2
All very good comments. I have never used a grey card to do custom white balance. I guess I prefer to manually adjust to taste for each image. I do set the white balance to somewhere near where I think it should be but these custom H-alpha mods are very strong. Yes I did read about the new version of Starnet++. I really like the easy integration of StarXterminator into photoshop.
Hi Richard, thanks for another great vid, it was interesting to see what software you use for such things. I must admit, I have a slightly different view on some of the things you did. Personally I would not do the star reduction, in my view it removes the galactic core and this is an integral part of the milky way. I think that if one wants to concentrate on the nebulae, then that is more the realm of deep space photography. Having said this, it is all subjective and the final picture was very pleasing.
Thanks a lot for watching David. Yes there are lots of options for these types of edits. There isn't any galactic core in this region of the sky but the small nebulas are still very prominent. This method does work well with the full galactic core .. but it isn't something I'd always use that's for sure. This certainly is a technique used by deep space photographers as you say.
Another awesome vid as always Richard….have u ever used a cup in H Alpha filter with an unmodified camera? I’m just weighing up - modding v just using a H Alpha filter….
Thanks a lot for watching Bob. Yes I did shoot 6 separate images for the foreground in this case and stack them in Sequator. I do mention that in the video but to save time I didn't go through it step by step.
Fantastic tutorial! One quick question...I went ahead and purchased the PhotoKemi star tools....but noticed when I run certain actions, I get error messages while it works thru the steps....as it seems to be trying to run other core processes, as a step, that my Photoshop may not have? Almost as if I am missing some of what it needs to run the full action?
@@nightscapeimages.richard I am. Not sure what is causing it. It's not on all the actions, but some for certain cannot complete as they are trying to run a command that is just not there. I will check with PhotoKemi directly and see what's what. That aside....such a great video you worked up here, has been gold for helping me process my own MW shots!!! Is a great workflow.
Why mine will never be as good as yours Richard, no tracker(not fussed if have or not), no PS/LR and I can't get my head around using them lol, & although you class your work flow as minimalistic mine is literally 5 steps after upload 1:batch adj sky images, 2:NR in sequator, 3:adj fg, 4:remove fg stars, 5: combine Sky & fg. A lot of it for me about ps/lr is not tech savvy and tbh scared of stuffing things up lol, but you really are the master
No problem at all Rob. Some of these post processing steps are not required to get a great image. Some types of images are more difficult than others but in the end. . it's all in the eye of the beholder.
Thanks a lot Arjun. I tried the demo version of Pixinsight and found it very counter intuitive. I think it is certainly designed for deep space images and I'll be quite happy to stick with photoshop for my astro landscape editing. I've not tried Astro Pixel Processor.
Hi Richard, sorry mate got lost, when you create the Stars Only Layer . I make sure in Apply Image - blending mode is selected as Substract .. and I end up in getting just a black layer . Appreciate your advise. Thanks
@@nightscapeimages.richard Yes, I did but I am not sure why such a simple step I am not able to do. I am using mask to revel the stars. I need to find.a spot for your next class to fly over from Auckland . :)
@@ShoebSaiyad Have you changed the Blend Mode on the actual layer. Put the stars only layer on top of Starless and then apply Lighten, or Screen or Color Dodge and see what happens.
@@nightscapeimages.richard Your a legend ! Mate All sorted now.. its amazing. I was doing stupid mistake. Thanks for your help. Really appreciate your work Mate ! Keep it going .
As always, really interesting to follow along with your workflow Richard 👍. As a general rule for sky replacement, do you prefer a silhouetted foreground against a relatively bright sky, or will an illuminated foreground against a dark sky work just as well? 🤔
Thanks a lot for watching Paul. I think the more contrast the better so the silhouetted foreground will be easier . .having said that I've had success with both options.
Richard, just started using this type of astro processing...... Very steep learning curve..... Its made me come undone a few times. wanted to ask when you do your stacked skies, do you not include fg? What about panoramas? Is merging down destructive?
When I stack my sky shots, generally the foreground is not lit so well. But the Sequator stacking software does stack the foreground as well. I don't usually stack panoramas. Well merging down in photoshop is destructive in the sense that you can't go back and change any previous edits easily, but I don't think it degradates the image quality.
I use Affinity photo, so I needed some detective work to find how to create the stars only image. Its all there, I just needed to find it... here is how: In the Develop mode (akin to photoshop) Do as Richard has - duplicate your image with nebulosity and stars, Rename it "stars only" or whatever, Click on FILTERS, In the drop down list click on APPLY IMAGE, In the "apply image box" drag your opposing image into the top section, in this case "Starless" (nothing showed on my Mac, just trust that it has happened) Then in the BLEND MODE, select SUBTRACT from the drop down APPLY all done
1. Is the star reduction process action in this video does the same algorithm as the one you typically used before? 2. Do you think this action plug in worth to invest? Looks like it s dedicated to DSO? Cheers
It basically does the same thing as the method I've used before. Yes the action plug in is primarily designed for DSO. I'm trying a few features out for my wide field landscape shots. You certainly don't need to use it . .just a suggestion for those who want another option.
Mostly I see people making more then one foreground pictures. Whats the reson? Are they also stacked? I did not see you stacking your six foreground pictures in this video. And if yes, is this also possible with sequator? Thank you! (I do stack my deep sky images with Astro Pixel Processor but I see for Milkyway this would be by far too much. Sequator is soo much easier and faster for this purpose).
Yes you are correct. I often stack my foregrounds as well using Sequator. In fact when you stack the sky in Sequator you are also stacking the foreground at the same time. That can be useful on occasions.
Does a black frame have to be the same exposure settings with the lens cap on or can you do faster shutter speed to create a black file? Reason I ask is why do a black exposure with a star tracker say 2 minutes instead of 1 second with a faster ss if it doesn’t matter
This is what I found describing that effect. The two extra blend modes in Apply Image add or subtract values for each pixel in the two images. The sum of the values is divided by the Scale amount. Offset shifts the overall brightness of the results of the add or subtract operation. Since adding or subtracting two images can result in values higher than pure white or lower than pure black, offset lets you adjust the results so they don't clip.
Thanks for sharing Richard, it’s a beautiful work and very helpful tutorial specially to the new people like me.
Christopher
You're very welcome Christopher. Thanks for watching.
Haha, man that sky replacement procedure does almost all the heavy lifting which was previously often done by hand. I remember Topaz Remask with the tri-color area painting (in, out, transition) which did a fabulous job also at its time.
Thanks a bunch for providing this highly valuable free of charge. Long time ago I decided to contribute a tiny support by PayPal and every time one of your videos pop up I'm happy I did.
Stay save🍻☕🙂
I very much appreciate your support of my work my friend. Yes there are lots of new ways to improve our workflow and I guess we just have to keep moving with the technology. Thanks for watching.
Fantastic Richard and appreciate creating the requested video so quickly
You're very welcome Virat. I hope it's helpful.
I'm learning a lot every time I watch your videos.
Thank you 🙂
Thanks a lot for tuning in Rino, means a lot.
Love the editing & the explainations & visuals. Thanks Richard ❤
You're very welcome Vivian
Thanks for sharing Richard. Much appreciated
You're very welcome Rory, appreciate you watching.
I'm going to be watching this video several times.....and with a notebook! It's packed with real gems of advice and guidance.....perfectly explained and illustrated, as usual. Thanks so much for this, Richard.
Thanks so much Simon. Always appreciate your support.
Very helpful tutorial, will be coming back to it a lot, cheers
Thanks so much for watching Mariusz.
Good morning Richard, hopefully I'll be able to get out under the stars again shortly.
Yes once we get rid of all this horrible humid weather I'm sure the stars will still be shining Allan.
Excellent video Richard. And beautiful results!
I really appreciate you watching Stephen
Spectacular vudeo... always is so great to learn from the best youtube channel of night images. Thank you so.much
You're very kind indeed Luis, thanks for watching.
Absolutely DEADLY video, Thanks Richard. I was just excited about the sky replacement feature as well. I think the reason it fails blend some item in a photo depends on how sharp or in focus they are...i.e. if there's a house as the main subject and is 100% focus but there's a tree or tree's also in the frame. It can nail the trunk but fail in the smaller branches. The sky replacement works so well that when I'm taking the foreground images I take a extra few, moving focus to different part of the scene and then focus stack. Lastly I was delighted to see you are also a StarXTerminator user. It's a great plugin for Photoshop. Thanks again for the great workflow tutorial
Thanks a lot for watching Trevor. I like how we all find different features and work arounds when editing these type of images. I reckon the sky replacement is fantastic and a great starting place for tracked images.
Another great video Richard, I'll be able to discuss my editing with you in March, looking forward to the workshop.
Thanks a lot John. I'm very much looking forward to meeting you.
Great video Richard, will have to watch it a few times to take it all in. Thanks again for the inspiration.
You're welcome Steve. Yes I admit there is a lot of information in this one. Hope it's helpful.
Great in-depth tutorial Richard & awesome end result! Cheers😊
Thanks so much Peter. I'm glad you got to the end mate.
Hi Richard,
Finally you have done this useful tutorial I have been looking for. Thanks so much.
Those editing tutorials you made couple years ago, I always use them as a guide every time when I start editing MW.
You are so generous for the unpaid useful tutorials so far Thanks
I am not too sure if you are going to do tracked pano one day in the future. it is quite tricky in the field as I have watched a few on youtube and they did not really show the detail of how we do tracked pano in the field. So I hope you will do this tutorial (Pre and Post process) in the future. This will be also game changer for all of us too.
Thanks
Thanks so much my friend. I always appreciate your insightful comments. I will be doing more tutorials like this moving forward.
@@nightscapeimages.richard it is my plesure. and I have saved this tutorial for my watching list already!
Awesome video Richard as always. Will try these techniques this year when I get my new star tracker. 👍
Thanks a lot for watching Dennis. Always happy to help my friend.
Just come back to say thanks for this video again. It is very useful
Thanks so much for your comments my friend
Nice work, Richard! Thanks for sharing.
You're very welcome Tony, thanks for watching.
Thanks Richard, Nice run through
No worries at all Wayne, thanks so much for watching.
Great tutorial Richard. You've certainly mastered the art of tracking and post on these fantastic images you create. Top work mate. Cheers for sharing the info 👍🙏
Thanks a lot for having a look Adrian. There is a lot of technique required with some of these images ... especially in post production. Always appreciate your comments mate.
Hi Richard , awesome instructional video again , haven't had the opportunity to do any astro since last year , due to work and the weather in Sydney it's been crap. I have never used Sky Replacement but if the gods decide that we can , i will have to give it a go for sure. thanks for all your work and dedication to this channel.
Many thanks indeed Erny. Yes it's been a difficult time for shooting due to weather . . particularly in your part of the world. I'm sure it will change for the better soon.
That was a fabulous video, clear precise insructions and brilliantly delivered, Many thanks Richard.
You're very welcome Phil, appreciate your support.
Great video Richard, alot of great information in there that will definitely help alot of people 👍
Good on you John. There are so many ways to shoot and edit these images .. it's always interesting to try some new ideas. Appreciate your comments mate.
Superb Tutorial Richard.
Thanks so much for taking the time to check it out Les. Really appreciate your comments.
Well presented Richard - Thankyou
As always I appreciate you watching Tony.
Thank you so much for this video, Richard. I am slowly watching every free lesson you offer and I am learning so much. You've inspired me, as well as many others to pursue a passion! You are very kind to offer all of this knowlege to the public. When I can start turning photography into a side job, I will be sure to give you a fair donation for all of your generous help. Already looking forward to your next video! Keep it up!
Thanks so much for watching Josh, I really appreciate your support.
Fantastic video Richard. You are improving the process all the time and the results are very impressive. Thanks again for you work.
I really appreciate you watching Geoff, thanks for your comments.
Richard, this is great. I did experiment before with nebulosity and star separation without too much of a success, perhaps because I was using a different technique to separate them. That was really useful, thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much Thanos. It's by no means needed in every image but the technique has some solid advantages.
Thanks for this tutorial Richard
Thanks so much for watching Jorge
Thank you Richard, yet another top notch production. Your work is very inspiring!
Many thanks indeed Frank. Appreciate you watching.
Fabulous video Richard. Great enjoyment watching this edit, loved the whole workflow and learnt a lot. Thanks for sharing such detailed content.
I'm pleased you enjoyed it Sharjeel, thanks so much for watching.
Another great video Richard
Many thanks indeed Eric, thanks so much for watching.
Thankyou your top shelf is getting full,excellent video
When you brushed the nebula it was on black, I though it was ment to be white or do have the black and white thing wrong,
Great photo, these videos start my sat off on a good step
Thanks for watching Phillip. You can either brush away detail (Black brush) or brush detail back in (White Brush). It works both ways. Also if you want to you can invert the mask so then you only reveal the changes when you brush away some of the item. Lots of options.
@@nightscapeimages.richard 5hank you
Great job, great tutorial. Thanks Richard
Thanks so much for watching Steve, really appreciate you watching.
Excellent video Richard
I'm really pleased you liked it AstroLapse.
I first heard about star reduction from one of your videos. it now looks like I have a few things to add to PS lol
@@astrolapse1668 Always something to add. Take care ...!!!!
I've watched this video three times already, what fantastic tips (especially the star glow!). I recently started using PS sky replacement to blend my own skies and foregrounds and sort of felt I was cheating compared to the hard work it used to be, so I was glad to see you use this too. Whatever tools work best, use them I say. Thank you Richard for putting this together.
Thanks so much for watching Stillfilm. I think the tools are there for us to use and anything that makes it easier is good. This genre of photography is tough as it is.
Thanks for the edit video Richard, very detailed, awesome shots. You're a very inspiring kind of guy. I find sequator can't deal with more than 15, I have to do them from my camera card, tried doing from lr but it didn't work. Doing the copy and paste thing is a different way of getting files from different folders into same canvas from what I learnt from Kristine, but useful nonetheless. Thanks again Richard for your generosity in sharing your knowledge.
Thanks as always Suzanne. The copy and paste method is quite simple but there are always many ways to achieve the same thing in photoshop. I don't have any issues with 20 or more images into sequator, although I only ever load tiff files into it.
@@nightscapeimages.richard oh, I use raw, maybe that makes a difference, I tried going from lr, but it didn't work for me, when I'd go into sequator, I then couldn't find what I'd highlighted in lr
@@andysuzierawlins5462 What I do is export the images from Lightroom as tiff files into a specific folder.. Then import those into Sequator. You can put raw files into Sequator .. if you do that then you don't need the Lightroom step at all .. just get them from where they are located on your computer.
Nice one! Loads of great tips!
Thanks heaps for watching mate.
Hi Richard Glad I found your video and it seems I've have been using some of these editing ideas already and have the starless plugin for photoshop already
Thanks for watching John. I don't always use these steps for many of my images but it's good to try new features. The editing of these images is getting a little easier with new innovations with software. Hope you're well.
@@nightscapeimages.richard I'm well thanks mate and yes so many different ways of editing an image! Some workflows are time consuming others not ! But always Interesting to find out something New to try?
Love your videos. It realy helps med evolve as a astrophotography 🙏 thank you😉
Thanks so much for watching Andreas, always appreciate your comments.
38 minutes of great instruction Richard. I like the StarXterminator software and the Photo Kemi Star tools action set. They will both make for better outcomes for sure. The colour correction section was also pretty helpful as it seems that a lot of modified astro camera users don't seem to get this balance right in post processing. Great video Richard. 👌👍😁
Thanks heaps for watching Geoff. I'm not professing to get the colours right either for the modded camera. But in the end it really comes down to what we like the look of. I think there are so many new products out there that make the post processing easier . .albeit harder to get our heads around sometimes.
Excellent stuff mate I so want a modified camera 📷
Thanks for watching Rob. There seem to be lots of them out there these days.
fantastic Richard, I've actually gone back and watched a few videos of yours,so im ready for the milky way out here. I'd love some one on one mate so if you want free accommodation for some lessons and want to drive 20 hours hit me up haha. Tennant creek at night is like nothing I've ever seen. Great tutorial once again mate.
Haha, maybe a little bit too far for a drive Jeremy, but I'm sure you'll have heaps of opportunities to spend some quality time under the outback stars mate. Take care.
@@nightscapeimages.richard I known your busy ,but nikon have a new 28mm 2.8 lens @400 dollars I can't afford the 20mm is 28 wider enough?. Thanks Richard.
Amazing video
I really appreciate you watching.
Excellent! My top tip is to use a flash on the foreground, especially for moving trees if it's windy. Ideally, it will be horrible flat lighting, originating from the camera point. This is not to be used in the final image, but purely so Photoshop has more defined lines to work with for the sky replacement. You can then transfer the resulting mask to the nicer-looking foreground image.
Very good tip Phil. You are right about trees and wind . .not a great combination at all. Thanks for watching.
Great tutorial thank you.
Thank you so much for watching Francesca . .and also for your generous support. . it's really appreciated.
Nice one as usual.
Appreciate you watching Gavin, thanks.
You deserve much more subscribers man
Thanks Alpha Astro. I'm trying to work out how to make that happen.
@@nightscapeimages.richard you need to join different social media platform. I can and promote your RUclips channel on them to. U can join Twitter iam too on Twitter Eeven though iam not a good photographer I was able to have over 1.3 k followers there I try to promote other photographer also. Why not to help each other out..plz make Twitter accout promote ur channel on that too post vids stories and pics there..I'll also pitch in. Regards
@@alphaastro3068 Thanks again for your support
thank you Richard for this amazing tutorial.. I have a little tip to balance the color tone of the sky (it can only works in camera raw on photoshop and maybe you already know it). Anyway.. if you apply a camera raw filter on a layer you can use the white balance color picker to draw a square in a part of the sky where there is no nebulosity. It usually works well for me, I then cool the balance a little cause I prefer a cooler image!
Thanks a lot for that Rick. Just goes to show that there are so many ways to work on an image in these softwares.
Fantastic presentation my question is can this be done in Photoshop Elements as well. Thank you Dave
Thanks heaps for watching David. I've never used photoshop elements so I don't know for sure. I have a feeling that the masking abilities are somewhat limited in those cut down versions of the software though.
Fascinating process and a great result. However, I do find that the star expansion process, whether in Photoshop or via filter, produces a result that triggers my sense of unreality.
Yes I can totally understand that as well. Same perhaps with filters that make that happen.
Really interesting Richard ,im just starting to learn image editing in ps which was daunting at first but getting the hang of it now.Keep up the good work.
You're very welcome Phill. Appreciate you watching my friend.
Once again super informative video Richard. I'm just still learning ps and I really have issue with changing a pic so much from what we first see. Surely we take pics of what we perceive to be what we want a pic to look like not then change so radically it's like cheating anyhow that's my current gripe with ps I'm slowly comming around to understanding editing. Again another top video stay out of the waters remember if it's flooded forget it stay well stay safe and have another great week under the stars 🌟
Thanks as always for watching Tree Man. Not so many floods in my neck of the woods. I think we have to remember that the camera captures raw flat images .. not a lot of life in them until we begin to bring out the details while editing. That's so much more the case with faint nebulas etc. In daylight this isn't a problem but when shooting in really dark locations at night it's all about the trade off between capturing enough light and not being a noisy nasty mess.
Hi Richard, thank you for this very useful tutorial. I like your channel very much and I appreciate your work. I really want to learn nightscape photography and I think your channel is the very best at this topic. My Donation to support your wonderful work will come to you soon. Just one question: Do you recommend using Lightroom over Skylum Luminar? I just purchased Skylum Luminar as my first ever Raw editor. I would be very happy about an answer. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for your very generous support my friend. I have not used Luminar so it's hard to comment. I do like the integration between Lightroom and Photoshop which speeds up my editing workflow a lot. Especially on projects like the one in this video. I wish you all the best with your nightscape photography journey.
As you in min. 11:40 adjust the colors due to your camera astro modification I wonder why you don´t perform a manual white balance with a gray card on your camera BEFORE the nightscape session? KR
Btw, there is a new version of Starnet++ just came out. It works very well and is free compared to StarXterminator.
The "dots" where ste stars came from are not that present when using Starnet++ V2
All very good comments. I have never used a grey card to do custom white balance. I guess I prefer to manually adjust to taste for each image. I do set the white balance to somewhere near where I think it should be but these custom H-alpha mods are very strong. Yes I did read about the new version of Starnet++. I really like the easy integration of StarXterminator into photoshop.
thank you for the video !
Thank you so much for watching Hussein.
Hi Richard, thanks for another great vid, it was interesting to see what software you use for such things. I must admit, I have a slightly different view on some of the things you did. Personally I would not do the star reduction, in my view it removes the galactic core and this is an integral part of the milky way. I think that if one wants to concentrate on the nebulae, then that is more the realm of deep space photography. Having said this, it is all subjective and the final picture was very pleasing.
Thanks a lot for watching David. Yes there are lots of options for these types of edits. There isn't any galactic core in this region of the sky but the small nebulas are still very prominent. This method does work well with the full galactic core .. but it isn't something I'd always use that's for sure. This certainly is a technique used by deep space photographers as you say.
Another awesome vid as always Richard….have u ever used a cup in H Alpha filter with an unmodified camera? I’m just weighing up - modding v just using a H Alpha filter….
I don't think the clip in filter will be very effective whilst the stock filter is still inside the camera. Thanks for watching.
Thanks again for an excellent video Richard. One question regarding the foreground images...did you stack them in Sequator first to remove some noise?
Thanks a lot for watching Bob. Yes I did shoot 6 separate images for the foreground in this case and stack them in Sequator. I do mention that in the video but to save time I didn't go through it step by step.
Fantastic tutorial! One quick question...I went ahead and purchased the PhotoKemi star tools....but noticed when I run certain actions, I get error messages while it works thru the steps....as it seems to be trying to run other core processes, as a step, that my Photoshop may not have? Almost as if I am missing some of what it needs to run the full action?
Thanks for watching Tom. That's not a problem I've encountered. Are you using the latest version of Photoshop CC ..??
@@nightscapeimages.richard I am. Not sure what is causing it. It's not on all the actions, but some for certain cannot complete as they are trying to run a command that is just not there. I will check with PhotoKemi directly and see what's what. That aside....such a great video you worked up here, has been gold for helping me process my own MW shots!!! Is a great workflow.
Вау 🤩!!!!!! Потрясающе 😻!!!!!
Thanks as always for watching my friend.
Why mine will never be as good as yours Richard, no tracker(not fussed if have or not), no PS/LR and I can't get my head around using them lol, & although you class your work flow as minimalistic mine is literally 5 steps after upload 1:batch adj sky images, 2:NR in sequator, 3:adj fg, 4:remove fg stars, 5: combine Sky & fg. A lot of it for me about ps/lr is not tech savvy and tbh scared of stuffing things up lol, but you really are the master
No problem at all Rob. Some of these post processing steps are not required to get a great image. Some types of images are more difficult than others but in the end. . it's all in the eye of the beholder.
Very inspiring. I want to try some actions :-)
Thanks so much for your generous support Niels. I have tried a number of actions sets but these are the best so far.
BRILLIANT VIDEO!! What's your take on Pixinsight or Astro pixel processor for milkyway work?
Thanks a lot Arjun. I tried the demo version of Pixinsight and found it very counter intuitive. I think it is certainly designed for deep space images and I'll be quite happy to stick with photoshop for my astro landscape editing. I've not tried Astro Pixel Processor.
Hi Richard, sorry mate got lost, when you create the Stars Only Layer . I make sure in Apply Image - blending mode is selected as Substract .. and I end up in getting just a black layer . Appreciate your advise. Thanks
Make sure you're using the "Starless" layer as the reference in the Layer box.
@@nightscapeimages.richard Yes, I did but I am not sure why such a simple step I am not able to do. I am using mask to revel the stars. I need to find.a spot for your next class to fly over from Auckland . :)
@@ShoebSaiyad Have you changed the Blend Mode on the actual layer. Put the stars only layer on top of Starless and then apply Lighten, or Screen or Color Dodge and see what happens.
@@nightscapeimages.richard Your a legend ! Mate All sorted now.. its amazing. I was doing stupid mistake. Thanks for your help. Really appreciate your work Mate ! Keep it going .
@@ShoebSaiyad Happy to help.
As always, really interesting to follow along with your workflow Richard 👍. As a general rule for sky replacement, do you prefer a silhouetted foreground against a relatively bright sky, or will an illuminated foreground against a dark sky work just as well? 🤔
Thanks a lot for watching Paul. I think the more contrast the better so the silhouetted foreground will be easier . .having said that I've had success with both options.
Great!!!
Thanks so much for watching.
Richard, just started using this type of astro processing...... Very steep learning curve..... Its made me come undone a few times. wanted to ask when you do your stacked skies, do you not include fg? What about panoramas? Is merging down destructive?
When I stack my sky shots, generally the foreground is not lit so well. But the Sequator stacking software does stack the foreground as well. I don't usually stack panoramas. Well merging down in photoshop is destructive in the sense that you can't go back and change any previous edits easily, but I don't think it degradates the image quality.
@@nightscapeimages.richard cheers Richard, it's only that you were selecting best pixels, wouldn't that make fg blurry
What makes you say that . .It's always been fine for me.@@andysuzierawlins5462
THANKYOU...
You're welcome
I use Affinity photo, so I needed some detective work to find how to create the stars only image.
Its all there, I just needed to find it... here is how:
In the Develop mode (akin to photoshop)
Do as Richard has - duplicate your image with nebulosity and stars,
Rename it "stars only" or whatever,
Click on FILTERS,
In the drop down list click on APPLY IMAGE,
In the "apply image box" drag your opposing image into the top section, in this case "Starless" (nothing showed on my Mac, just trust that it has happened)
Then in the BLEND MODE, select SUBTRACT from the drop down
APPLY
all done
That's really valuable information Jim. Thanks for watching my friend.
1. Is the star reduction process action in this video does the same algorithm as the one you typically used before?
2. Do you think this action plug in worth to invest? Looks like it s dedicated to DSO?
Cheers
It basically does the same thing as the method I've used before. Yes the action plug in is primarily designed for DSO. I'm trying a few features out for my wide field landscape shots. You certainly don't need to use it . .just a suggestion for those who want another option.
Mostly I see people making more then one foreground pictures. Whats the reson? Are they also stacked? I did not see you stacking your six foreground pictures in this video.
And if yes, is this also possible with sequator? Thank you! (I do stack my deep sky images with Astro Pixel Processor but I see for Milkyway this would be by far too much. Sequator is soo much easier and faster for this purpose).
Yes you are correct. I often stack my foregrounds as well using Sequator. In fact when you stack the sky in Sequator you are also stacking the foreground at the same time. That can be useful on occasions.
Does a black frame have to be the same exposure settings with the lens cap on or can you do faster shutter speed to create a black file? Reason I ask is why do a black exposure with a star tracker say 2 minutes instead of 1 second with a faster ss if it doesn’t matter
Yes it has to be exactly the same length and settings as the light frame. PS: I rarely do dark frames these days.
@@nightscapeimages.richard cheers mate thanks , that’s why it came up error when I tried to stack them
Which effect has the offset parameter? (min. 15:48)
This is what I found describing that effect. The two extra blend modes in Apply Image add or subtract values for each pixel in the two images. The sum of the values is divided by the Scale amount. Offset shifts the overall brightness of the results of the add or subtract operation. Since adding or subtracting two images can result in values higher than pure white or lower than pure black, offset lets you adjust the results so they don't clip.
Hi,
Which one did you buy?
- Photokemi Star Tools v3.1.3
- Photokemi Star Tools Extras v3.2
- Photokemi's Star Tools for Mono Images v3.12
I bought the first 2 that you listed.