hi Hammad. Thanks a ton for this tutorial. This is such a powerful technique that can save countless hours that would take if star trails are done traditionally. I practiced this technique works very good.. Hammad i really like your way of teaching and describing each step. Could you please make a video of composting the star trails sky background with loin foreground? Thats the only thing i cant seem to work out properly. I am sure lot of other Viewers also wish to know how its done, We all are very thankful to you sharing this knowledge and if you could teach us the composting of the same image in a video tutorial that will be very helpful for lot of us... Many thanks,,
Awesome video! Turned my basic star photo into a "WOW" photo that everyone loved. Do you mind doing a tutorial video on how to do this with foreground subject like your horse one? I read your comments to others saying how to do it but Im a beginner in photoshop and dont really know that much. Thanks!
Hey Hammad, I haven't tried this yet, but I just wanted to say that your tutorial seems really detailed and complete and clearly explained. I hope I can do this in CS4, but regardless, cool video.
Great video Hammad. All steps have worked fine however when i go to export via the scripts tab the export layers option is visible but not available?? Have i missed something? Cheers
Hello, I need you help on the video you showed up is amazing I made a vortex image it's amazing. But now I am facing the problem of dimensions when exporting the layers to files from Photoshop, every file increases its dimension by 1 and starstax shows error different dimensions. How should I fix its dimension when exporting from Photoshop. Thank you for the video and you help. I love the simplified way you teach us.👍
good work clearly explained I'm going to try this soon , however how would you go about stacking the star picture and the foreground picture together ? , maybe a quick tutorial on this too ?
Ben, after creating the trails, just bring the merged layer on top of the foreground / apply layer mask and paint with black brush over the areas that you do not want to overlap with the foreground. That's how simple it is. Hope it helps.
Hi Hammad! This method is brilliant! However I do not know how to mix the star pic to the original picture so that to make the same sample picture you showed me in the video. Could you please tell me how to merge them? Thanks!
+Jerry Chen The best strategy to use star trails method is to take a photo of just the sky on location (without any objects in front of the camera or in the middle ground). And take a separate shot with your main subject. Now run the star trail action on the sky shot only. Doing so will give you a neat star trail as shown in the video. Now you can overlay the star trails image on top of your second shot that you took with the subject. Using layer masks in Photoshop, you can then finetune the visibility of the star trail shot.
what if there is an object in the photo such as buildings, trees? I had a picture of the night sky with stars and also with housing, so when I start the action housing come play just like a star. How can I make these homes do not rotate and I want only the star rotate and make vortex?
Hi Hammad, I have those 60 images in PS. Do I put them in a Group and then trim? Or trim individually which is extremely time consuming. Please advise. Thanks
Great video. I have a problem I hope you can solve for me. I get the vortex but there is a pattern of large white spots all ove r the image. I can I get the vortex without those spots?
I had an issue with mine that sounds similar. It was due to light pollution on the horizon. As the action turns the photo it trails the light pollution to and it looks stripey/spotty. I just darkened out the light pollution and got a far better result. 500px.com/photo/193797749/into-the-vortex-by-bonnie-winter
Very nice composition and tutorial. I am new to this method, but overall effect is amazing. Curious, how long did your computer take to convert 90 layers to images? Mine (macbook air, circa 2015) is taking forever, lol. Time for a new (more powerful) laptop.
Awesome tutorial Hammad and it is very generous of you to share knowledge, but how does one create the vortex in the reference image you use with the horse? Like having a foreground with a vortex star trail?
Thanks Ben. The best strategy would be to move around the location/subject and take a shot of the stars without any foreground elements so that you only end up with a clear view of the night sky. Then go back to your subject (the horse in my example) and shoot it. Later you can create the trails on the stars shot and combine it with your other shot.
Great video! But I get this issue in StarStax: /Users/s/Desktop/vortex stars/vortexstars_0079_Layer-1-copy.png has different image dimensions. Expected dimensions : 3262 x 2248 pixels Actual dimensions : 3260 x 2248 pixels Processing stopped! Any idea?
after loading and processing 80 images, i end up losing a lot around the edges as white blocks, but i see your image didnt, how can i avoid this please
Hi Hammad, I've read through the comments searching for others who may have my same issue -seems there were several yet they were able to find a solution. I get an error running start stax - the images are not the same size. I have tried exporting with and without the 'Trim edges' box checked. Any other thoughts?
Try this before you export the layers from Photoshop. Once you have all your star layers, do the following: - Press Ctrl+A (Cmd+A on Mac) to select the image area - Press "C" to select crop tool. Make sure to check the option "Delete Cropped Pixels" on the tool bar - Press Enter twice and that should crop the image Doing so should guarantee that all the layers are of equal size and StarStax should not return the error you mentioned.
I have the same problem. I masked out an object in my foreground, did you do that same? I thought that might have messed something up. Need help though!
Press and hold ALT key and bring the mouse pointer on the line between the adjustment layer and the layer below. When you do so, the pointer will change (indicating you are doing alright), now just click on the line and the layers will be linked.
I have exactly the same settings in Photoshop CS6 for "Scripts > Export layers as images" however Photoshop bombs and says "Script alert - Error: General Photoshop error occurred. This functionality may not be available in this version of Photoshop. The Object 'current document' is not currently available". Any ideas?
It's the same as right-clicking. But you can always press the Alt key and then click on the line between the layers to link the top layer to the bottom as I did in this video.
Hi Hammad. I tried to create a Star Trail Vortex from one starry night shot. I transformed (with a little tilt) in Photoshop and have created 60 images. Exported into a folder and then opened in StarStax. But when I tried to process those in StarStax, it bring an error message "Processing stopped as images has different dimensions. Expected dimensions 1362X1080 pixels Actual dimensions . 1368X1080 pixels " How do I fix the dimensions of 60 images to process in StarStax? Please help. I subscribed your channel when I first viewed your Vortex Star Trails in UTube.
Hi Harun. The simplest way to make all images the same size would be to crop them in Photoshop before exporting. Just use the Crop tool in PS, change the crop mode to "Front Image" and then input the dimensions in width and height fields. To be on the safe side, let the cropped image dimensions be a bit smaller in width and height, maybe by 10 pixels. Lastly, make sure to check the box "delete cropped pixels" and then apply the crop. This would ensure that once you export the layers, they are all the same size.
Dont know if it is my version of starstax i downloaded, however, when i import the files into starstax and attempt to run them, i get a message stating @error expected dimensions 1293 x 768 actual dimensions 1294 x768 and therefore it stops the script?
Ian, make sure to check the heck the "Trim Layers" option while exporting the layers from Photoshop. Otherwise, the exported images might have different dimensions and starstax would return the error you mentioned.
Vincent, you CAN merge the layers in Photoshop also with all the layers set to "Lighten" mode. But in that case, you will not be able to create the smooth trail effect or the comet effect. Secondly, StarStax has the option to fill in the gaps in the subsequent star shots so that the trails look continuous rather than broken, that's another reason why you would export the layers from Photoshop.
You can but StarStax gives you more controls and options, that include automatically filling gaps that might be there between the trails as well as creating a gradual trail which looks like a meteor.
Hey Hammad I tried the same instructions as you described, I got the vortex.. But there was a cross pattern developed on the photo. Could you tell me what's the reason ?? Photo link: goo.gl/947Qc3
This is a fantastic tutorial. Very easy to follow and detailed enough to learn from easily. Thanks for doing this, i'll definitely give it a try.
that is mind blowingly awesome...thank you so much for sharing....
Amazingly easy way to create a vortex image!! It's so simplified that even a non photographer will make it!!
Great video !!
Fantastic tutorial! Thank you much for sharing.
Your videos are amazing in general but this is one of the best photography videos on youtube. Thank you so much!
Happy to hear that. Thank you for watching my tutorial.
Very cool technique...thanks so much.
Good job Hammad, really helpful.
Your tutorials are amazing!! love it!!
Great tutorial. Thank you very much!
hi Hammad. Thanks a ton for this tutorial. This is such a powerful technique that can save countless hours that would take if star trails are done traditionally. I practiced this technique works very good..
Hammad i really like your way of teaching and describing each step. Could you please make a video of composting the star trails sky background with loin foreground? Thats the only thing i cant seem to work out properly. I am sure lot of other Viewers also wish to know how its done, We all are very thankful to you sharing this knowledge and if you could teach us the composting of the same image in a video tutorial that will be very helpful for lot of us... Many thanks,,
Hi Hammad, very informative and interesting video. Thank you very much.
Just found your channel. This is a kick ass tutorial. Thanks so much!
Glad you found it helpful :)
Another Great tutorial Hammad , Thanks !!.....
Awesome video! Turned my basic star photo into a "WOW" photo that everyone loved. Do you mind doing a tutorial video on how to do this with foreground subject like your horse one? I read your comments to others saying how to do it but Im a beginner in photoshop and dont really know that much. Thanks!
Holy shit, this is awesome! Will try this for sure.
Really amazing !! Thanks a lot
Great tutorial. Thanks!
Hey Hammad, I haven't tried this yet, but I just wanted to say that your tutorial seems really detailed and complete and clearly explained. I hope I can do this in CS4, but regardless, cool video.
Yes you can do it in CS4 or even older versions of Photoshop which have the action feature and "export layers to files" script.
Want the full version of Cs6 for free ?
Emial me
dj_muti@yahoo.com
Want the full version of Cs6 for free ?
Emial me
dj_muti@yahoo.com
Fantastic Hammad. thanks heaps. I'm onmy way out the door to photograph some stars even as I type!
Excellent!
Nice tutorial man. Any chance you can share the original star photo in RAW format so I can use it to try it myself?
Great video Hammad. All steps have worked fine however when i go to export via the scripts tab the export layers option is visible but not available?? Have i missed something? Cheers
Hello, I need you help on the video you showed up is amazing I made a vortex image it's amazing. But now I am facing the problem of dimensions when exporting the layers to files from Photoshop, every file increases its dimension by 1 and starstax shows error different dimensions.
How should I fix its dimension when exporting from Photoshop.
Thank you for the video and you help.
I love the simplified way you teach us.👍
good work clearly explained I'm going to try this soon , however how would you go about stacking the star picture and the foreground picture together ? , maybe a quick tutorial on this too ?
Ben, after creating the trails, just bring the merged layer on top of the foreground / apply layer mask and paint with black brush over the areas that you do not want to overlap with the foreground. That's how simple it is. Hope it helps.
Hi Hammad! This method is brilliant! However I do not know how to mix the star pic to the original picture so that to make the same sample picture you showed me in the video. Could you please tell me how to merge them? Thanks!
+Jerry Chen The best strategy to use star trails method is to take a photo of just the sky on location (without any objects in front of the camera or in the middle ground). And take a separate shot with your main subject. Now run the star trail action on the sky shot only. Doing so will give you a neat star trail as shown in the video. Now you can overlay the star trails image on top of your second shot that you took with the subject. Using layer masks in Photoshop, you can then finetune the visibility of the star trail shot.
Yep that worked. How do you get the final processed trails onto the image? Do you just do a normal sky replacement in PS?
thank you iqbal for this tuto ...wait for others ( shooting milky way if it's possible )
Loved the video Hammad Iqbal. Thanks a ton :D
Love this tutorial, the results are so coo
Good Video Hammad...What is the music you are using for the intro?
what if there is an object in the photo such as buildings, trees? I had a picture of the night sky with stars and also with housing, so when I start the action housing come play just like a star. How can I make these homes do not rotate and I want only the star rotate and make vortex?
Awesome! Thanks
Hi Hammad, I have those 60 images in PS. Do I put them in a Group and then trim? Or trim individually which is extremely time consuming. Please advise. Thanks
Ad ơi you ask the Ctrl + T how much input parameter value to turn can thank sincerely thank AD?
Can you do this with Photoshop Elements 11 too? I've been trying to figure out how to create a new action, but not having much success.
Great video. I have a problem I hope you can solve for me. I get the vortex but there is a pattern of large white spots all ove r the image. I can I get the vortex without those spots?
I had an issue with mine that sounds similar. It was due to light pollution on the horizon. As the action turns the photo it trails the light pollution to and it looks stripey/spotty. I just darkened out the light pollution and got a far better result. 500px.com/photo/193797749/into-the-vortex-by-bonnie-winter
Very nice composition and tutorial. I am new to this method, but overall effect is amazing. Curious, how long did your computer take to convert 90 layers to images? Mine (macbook air, circa 2015) is taking forever, lol. Time for a new (more powerful) laptop.
Good one. Thanks,
It's Very Usefull For Me, Thx My Friend
Awesome tutorial Hammad and it is very generous of you to share knowledge, but how does one create the vortex in the reference image you use with the horse? Like having a foreground with a vortex star trail?
Thanks Ben. The best strategy would be to move around the location/subject and take a shot of the stars without any foreground elements so that you only end up with a clear view of the night sky. Then go back to your subject (the horse in my example) and shoot it. Later you can create the trails on the stars shot and combine it with your other shot.
Hammad Iqbal Photography Sweet as Hammad, thanks so much. Keep up the good work and I look forward to more of your tutorials.
hey, I followed all the instructions but there are white patches all over the photo
The picture with the horse is it only exposure or two? did you still follow the northern star when you were taking it and apply the same techniques ?
The horse shot is just a single exposure and I did not follow the exact location of the North star to create the vortex effect on this one.
Great tutorial ! Please can you share the stars.psd file ,, it's a hard to do all this processing without this file . Thanks in advance
Download any star image from google for experimentation.
Thanks So much its very helpful I love this Tutorial !!! (y)
Nice Video
thank you very much!
Thank you Hammad.
Great video! But I get this issue in StarStax:
/Users/s/Desktop/vortex stars/vortexstars_0079_Layer-1-copy.png has different image dimensions.
Expected dimensions : 3262 x 2248 pixels
Actual dimensions : 3260 x 2248 pixels
Processing stopped!
Any idea?
after loading and processing 80 images, i end up losing a lot around the edges as white blocks, but i see your image didnt, how can i avoid this please
How does one do this edit with a foreground image? The foreground becomes all smudged.
It's better that you isolate the foreground by duplicating it on a new layer before processing the stars.
Hi Hammad, I've read through the comments searching for others who may have my same issue -seems there were several yet they were able to find a solution. I get an error running start stax - the images are not the same size. I have tried exporting with and without the 'Trim edges' box checked. Any other thoughts?
Try this before you export the layers from Photoshop. Once you have all your star layers, do the following:
- Press Ctrl+A (Cmd+A on Mac) to select the image area
- Press "C" to select crop tool. Make sure to check the option "Delete Cropped Pixels" on the tool bar
- Press Enter twice and that should crop the image
Doing so should guarantee that all the layers are of equal size and StarStax should not return the error you mentioned.
Amazing hamad :))
When I try to start processing the images it says the images have different dimensions, and stops processing. Help?
I have the same problem. I masked out an object in my foreground, did you do that same? I thought that might have messed something up. Need help though!
I had the same problem, I think I figured it out though, don't check the trim layers option when exporting the files
how do you link the adjustment layer to the trail end? when i click link and then pin light it doesnt change
Press and hold ALT key and bring the mouse pointer on the line between the adjustment layer and the layer below. When you do so, the pointer will change (indicating you are doing alright), now just click on the line and the layers will be linked.
I have exactly the same settings in Photoshop CS6 for "Scripts > Export layers as images" however Photoshop bombs and says "Script alert - Error: General Photoshop error occurred. This functionality may not be available in this version of Photoshop. The Object 'current document' is not currently available".
Any ideas?
I would reinstall photoshop again. I was having problems with errors too.
bro.. nice tutorial.. need duel exposed landscape startrail tutorial'
Thanks Asfi. Sorry but I didnt get what you mean by Duel exposed landscape startrail tutorial?
I am getting an error with expected Dimensions error in StarStax. Any suggestion?
can't be sure unless you share the screenshot of the error.
I dont understand the link layer part at about 9-10 minutes. I'ts not the same as right click and then link.
It's the same as right-clicking. But you can always press the Alt key and then click on the line between the layers to link the top layer to the bottom as I did in this video.
Hi Hammad. I tried to create a Star Trail Vortex from one starry night shot. I transformed (with a little tilt) in Photoshop and have created 60 images. Exported into a folder and then opened in StarStax. But when I tried to process those in StarStax, it bring an error message
"Processing stopped as images has different dimensions. Expected dimensions 1362X1080 pixels
Actual dimensions . 1368X1080 pixels "
How do I fix the dimensions of 60 images to process in StarStax?
Please help.
I subscribed your channel when I first viewed your Vortex Star Trails in UTube.
Hi Harun. The simplest way to make all images the same size would be to crop them in Photoshop before exporting. Just use the Crop tool in PS, change the crop mode to "Front Image" and then input the dimensions in width and height fields. To be on the safe side, let the cropped image dimensions be a bit smaller in width and height, maybe by 10 pixels. Lastly, make sure to check the box "delete cropped pixels" and then apply the crop. This would ensure that once you export the layers, they are all the same size.
@@HammadIqbalPhoto Thank you. I will try
I have tried about 6 times but it will not rotate in Starstax, because every picture is a different size ??
+Billy D What version of Photoshop are you using?
CS5, I think I have it, the resize box was ticked
Dont know if it is my version of starstax i downloaded, however, when i import the files into starstax and attempt to run them, i get a message stating @error expected dimensions 1293 x 768 actual dimensions 1294 x768 and therefore it stops the script?
Ian, make sure to check the heck the "Trim Layers" option while exporting the layers from Photoshop. Otherwise, the exported images might have different dimensions and starstax would return the error you mentioned.
Hammad Iqbal Photography thank you Hammad, i eventually found it lol.
Awesome tutes, keep up the good work.
Ian, was your issue solved by checking 'Trim Layers'? I'm getting the same error, both with that box checked and unchecked. :(
great tips Boss
thanks :D
Hi why can't we just merge layers in cs6?
Vincent, you CAN merge the layers in Photoshop also with all the layers set to "Lighten" mode. But in that case, you will not be able to create the smooth trail effect or the comet effect. Secondly, StarStax has the option to fill in the gaps in the subsequent star shots so that the trails look continuous rather than broken, that's another reason why you would export the layers from Photoshop.
can we combine all layers in photoshop itself?
You can but StarStax gives you more controls and options, that include automatically filling gaps that might be there between the trails as well as creating a gradual trail which looks like a meteor.
Thank you, it is the best videos out here
这个要学
Hammad Iqbal a STAR doing stars WOW-----WOW
waw
Hey Hammad I tried the same instructions as you described, I got the vortex.. But there was a cross pattern developed on the photo. Could you tell me what's the reason ??
Photo link: goo.gl/947Qc3
+kaustubh kukade use Bicubic smoother in the transformation menu (Bicubic automatic or sharpen creates that pattern!!).