Have to say Will, these tutes are THE best, THE simplest, and THE easiest to understand. Thanks so much for taking the time to 'dumb' it down so to speak - awesome!
Thanks for the tutorial Will. It is excellent and your voice is crystal clear in the video! I have captured about 100 light frames of star trails yesterday. I wanted to use Sequator for stacking but it didn't accept FITS files. It needed TIFF files instead. Then I figured out how to use DSS (Deep Sky Stacker) for stacking and it worked well. Stacking mode for light frames has to be set to "Maximum" , alignment to "No Alignment" and "Result" to "Mosaic Mode". The last one setting may not be necessary.
thank you for your useful tutorial show. I tried to put 230, 130, 90 and 70 photos to stack the stars trails and found out there were no huge difference in results between 230 photos stacking and 130 photos stacking but there is visible difference between 130 photos stacking and 70 photos stacking, which indicates that 130 photos stacking seems better in result than that of 70 photos.
Thanks Peter, and thanks for the feedback on the number of shots. Can you explain what the visible difference is? Is it related to noise or better trails? Also what was the shutter speed on the shots? I am interested to learn from your findings!
A very clear and useful video. Thanks for creating and sharing. I use Sequator for stacking individual sky images and it is very easy and works well. I will try this method for star trails ASAP. So, it appears that each exposure should be long enough to generate very short trails?
Thanks Michael. Yes, a short trail, that's the way I like to do it. It helps them blend in but then the shot is no good for points of light. So if you want to shoot both, then stick to your normal routine.. I generally use between 1 and 4 minute exposures but I am pretty safe from planes and cars over here. PS. I also tried it for stacking clouds, it works :) It works with any bright moving subjects.
It's been a long while, but I think it would be something like ISO800 F4 (I only had an F4 available) for 4 minutes. You can set your exposure using the histogram for a standard stars as points of light (+/-15 to 30 seconds depending on lens and scene and darkness). Then just keep doubling the exposure time and halving the ISO to get the correct exposure for your trail. For example, 30 seconds at ISO6400 and F4 becomes - 1 min at ISO3200 - 2min at ISO1600 - 4min at ISO 800 - 8min at ISO400 -16min at ISO 200 and 32min at ISO 100 I've done 4 hour exposures, so they need smaller aperture - 4hours ISO 100 at F11
@@WillGoodlet Thanks so much for responding, that is extremely helpful. Is the 4 min multiple exposure with a remote switch attachment? My Canon 5d Mk iv only seems to allow max 30 second exposure, I can't use bulb mode and interval timer at the same time. Thanks
Thank you Will for the video...very helpful. Earlier this week I did star trails...shooting 550 images, 30 second exposure, 15mm wide angle lens, f/4.5, ISO 320 and quite frankly I was very disappointed with the result I ended up with...my camera was a Canon 1Dx The trails were very thin/light and not as pronounced as I was hoping/expecting. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'd be happy to send the completed image but I'm sure you are inundated with images and don't want to be an imposition
Hi Dan, sorry not to get to your comment sooner! Wow that's some number of shots and investment in time.. You are very welcome to send me the image and I am happy to try to help - please will you use the contact form on my website? (if I publish my email here it will get scraped and I'll get spam). I can then reply to your mail. willgoodlet.com/contact Just quickly, ISO320 (or a mistype for ISO3200)? If not a mistype, I'm guessing they were underexposed 3-4 stops? If stacking for stars as points of light you can often recover exposures by stacking and its a good low noise technique, but for trails, I'd guess we need to shoot around ISO 6400 for F4.5, maybe a stop lower at ISO3200. Your histogram should hold info in the left quarter and not be completely bunched up against the left edge. If it is a mistype - maybe something else is happening?
I think it's a mistake we're prone to do, not enough brightness for the stars with these settings. I believe one should take one or 2 nice foreground images at low iso setting first and then bump up the exposure (smaller aperture / higher iso) to have the stars really showing bright when captured, otherwise the trail will be dim/thin at the end. The few images with data I saw were often at quite high Iso, little less in light polluted area. Look into Alynn Wallace for a good vid on that with few examples.
Hi Niranjan, sorry for the late reply - these were 4minute exposures - I find that works for me over here where there is almost no air traffic or anyone nearby. If it's busier you normally need to expose for around 25-30 seconds instead to remove the aircraft. It's also possible to do a shot like this in a single exposure, but that means a higher potential for noise.
You can photograph them in one shot, even with film (taking into account reciprocity failure). The longer the better, the difficulty is often moonrise, setting of the milky way and also practical issues like moisture build up in and on the lens. I like 3-4 hours for really nice trails (this one was 3 hours). One difficulty in the northern hemisphere is air traffic, so one shot is not used so much. Out here it's not a problem and there are some good advantages as well as risks. Of course, one wouldn't need to stack a 'one shot' trail either.
Will Goodlet Tnx Will: film maybe be better for one shot as sensors eventually overheat and you get red pixels that you have to remove in post. So if you have 3-4 hrs and 45 shots with smt like 15sec exposure each or longer?
Thanks for the question - they vary depending on what part of the world you are in and what equipment you use. Probably best answered in another video. In this case I am in the southern hemisphere and therefore have very few aircraft (no aircraft). So I can use much longer exposures. In this case I used 4min exposures. Mostly up north, this would be too risky and you'd go for 30 seconds, f2.8, ISO 3200 (because you are stacking you can use lower ISO). Hope this helps.
Kiran Rawal I believe it uses a lighten blend so anything with moving bright objects will blend (probably) like waterfalls. You can try it and let me know?
Hi, I'll certainly think about it - thanks for the suggestion - but if you need specific help or advice, you can always drop me an email via the contact form on my website and I'll try and help.
Hi Vasilis, yep 3 hrs. Seemed to work out OK for me. Why do you feel it is too long? Or do you mean the 4min exposure is too long? If you do, it's my feeling that in the remote parts of the Southern hemisphere we can shoot longer exposures because there are so few disturbances or aircraft. The longer duration gives a nice trailing effect and allows shooting at lower ISO. This was a winter night too, so nice and cold with less tendency for the sensor to heat up and also very dry conditions, so no issues with dew or moisture. In Europe, the conditions would likely be very different and you probably would have to use much shorter exposures.
@@vasiliszappas369 Some people have 6+ hours of star trails produce amazing results that you can't get with a 1.5 hour session. There are no set rules in photography, so if Will found that 3 hours work well for him then that's all there is to it
Will Interesting for me as I have never attempted night astrophotography. Just one question re DN AI, I have noticed in a few vlogs I have watched on this that it always comes up as TIFF ext files. Can this be set to JPG as the favoured file or is there a reason DN AI has gone with the other? Unfortunately, I cannot contribute in any way re your requests apart from enjoying watching something different and amazing. As always look forward to the next!
Hey Euge, speaking to DeNoise Ai You can import the file in many formats, and export to many formats (provided the input was of the right type) - The list includes JPG, TIF, PNG and DNG. My source for this test was DNG. So I am not sure if PEF NEF AND CR2/3 can also be exported. With regard to Sequator, the export is a Tif and there are reports of some artifacts where the input files are messed with - camera profiles for example, so it seemed safer to use uncompressed TIF formats to me for the purposes of the tutorial - just in case other people ran into trouble. You can however, use any import format, but export seems to be Tif. Thanks for watching Euge, I know this video is not for everyone - I am hoping it behaves as a companion to my stacking video in Google search (which took off due to Neowise). Appreciate your support!!
Hey Will Thanks for the feedback. Whether I do this type of photography or not, I will watch your vlogs mate as I find the topics interesting and well presented. Always willing to learn and may even try the stars one day. If I do I will send them to you to critique. Then you can really give me some exceptional advice. See you out there!
Have to say Will, these tutes are THE best, THE simplest, and THE easiest to understand. Thanks so much for taking the time to 'dumb' it down so to speak - awesome!
Great video, clear, precise and short.
Glad it was useful
Thanks for posting this video and explaining how to use Sequator for star trails. I appreciated the simplicity of your presentation.
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks for the tutorial Will. It is excellent and your voice is crystal clear in the video! I have captured about 100 light frames of star trails yesterday. I wanted to use Sequator for stacking but it didn't accept FITS files. It needed TIFF files instead. Then I figured out how to use DSS (Deep Sky Stacker) for stacking and it worked well. Stacking mode for light frames has to be set to "Maximum" , alignment to "No Alignment" and "Result" to "Mosaic Mode". The last one setting may not be necessary.
Muchas gracias por la explicación!!!. Saludos desde Argentina.
Thanks
thank you for your useful tutorial show. I tried to put 230, 130, 90 and 70 photos to stack the stars trails and found out there were no huge difference in results between 230 photos stacking and 130 photos stacking but there is visible difference between 130 photos stacking and 70 photos stacking, which indicates that 130 photos stacking seems better in result than that of 70 photos.
Thanks Peter, and thanks for the feedback on the number of shots. Can you explain what the visible difference is? Is it related to noise or better trails? Also what was the shutter speed on the shots? I am interested to learn from your findings!
Thanks for the information.
Always fascinating. Thanks
Cheers Ken :)
Quality content as usual. First class
Much appreciated :)
A very clear and useful video. Thanks for creating and sharing. I use Sequator for stacking individual sky images and it is very easy and works well. I will try this method for star trails ASAP. So, it appears that each exposure should be long enough to generate very short trails?
Thanks Michael. Yes, a short trail, that's the way I like to do it. It helps them blend in but then the shot is no good for points of light. So if you want to shoot both, then stick to your normal routine.. I generally use between 1 and 4 minute exposures but I am pretty safe from planes and cars over here. PS. I also tried it for stacking clouds, it works :) It works with any bright moving subjects.
Thank you Will, this is really helpful. What ISO and F stop did you use for the 4 min exposure?
It's been a long while, but I think it would be something like ISO800 F4 (I only had an F4 available) for 4 minutes.
You can set your exposure using the histogram for a standard stars as points of light (+/-15 to 30 seconds depending on lens and scene and darkness). Then just keep doubling the exposure time and halving the ISO to get the correct exposure for your trail.
For example, 30 seconds at ISO6400 and F4 becomes - 1 min at ISO3200 - 2min at ISO1600 - 4min at ISO 800 - 8min at ISO400 -16min at ISO 200 and 32min at ISO 100
I've done 4 hour exposures, so they need smaller aperture - 4hours ISO 100 at F11
@@WillGoodlet Thanks so much for responding, that is extremely helpful. Is the 4 min multiple exposure with a remote switch attachment? My Canon 5d Mk iv only seems to allow max 30 second exposure, I can't use bulb mode and interval timer at the same time. Thanks
@@eagleowl7472 yes I used a cheap Hahnel trigger to do ir
Thank you Will for the video...very helpful. Earlier this week I did star trails...shooting 550 images, 30 second exposure, 15mm wide angle lens, f/4.5, ISO 320 and quite frankly I was very disappointed with the result I ended up with...my camera was a Canon 1Dx The trails were very thin/light and not as pronounced as I was hoping/expecting. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'd be happy to send the completed image but I'm sure you are inundated with images and don't want to be an imposition
Hi Dan, sorry not to get to your comment sooner! Wow that's some number of shots and investment in time.. You are very welcome to send me the image and I am happy to try to help - please will you use the contact form on my website? (if I publish my email here it will get scraped and I'll get spam). I can then reply to your mail. willgoodlet.com/contact
Just quickly, ISO320 (or a mistype for ISO3200)? If not a mistype, I'm guessing they were underexposed 3-4 stops? If stacking for stars as points of light you can often recover exposures by stacking and its a good low noise technique, but for trails, I'd guess we need to shoot around ISO 6400 for F4.5, maybe a stop lower at ISO3200. Your histogram should hold info in the left quarter and not be completely bunched up against the left edge.
If it is a mistype - maybe something else is happening?
I think it's a mistake we're prone to do, not enough brightness for the stars with these settings. I believe one should take one or 2 nice foreground images at low iso setting first and then bump up the exposure (smaller aperture / higher iso) to have the stars really showing bright when captured, otherwise the trail will be dim/thin at the end. The few images with data I saw were often at quite high Iso, little less in light polluted area. Look into Alynn Wallace for a good vid on that with few examples.
The video was very helpful. What shutter speed did you use? I would like to know if the shots were taken with a certain constant time gap
Hi Niranjan, sorry for the late reply - these were 4minute exposures - I find that works for me over here where there is almost no air traffic or anyone nearby.
If it's busier you normally need to expose for around 25-30 seconds instead to remove the aircraft.
It's also possible to do a shot like this in a single exposure, but that means a higher potential for noise.
@@WillGoodlet thank you for the info
I use star stax software for star tails !
Haven't heard of it, will check it out cheers Ross.
@@WillGoodlet it’s one of the free softwares and works well .
Pc and Mac?
@@WillGoodlet I use a Mac .. not sure now by memory if it does windows 🤔but definitely works on a Mac .
@@WillGoodlet just looked on google and yes it’s windows and Mac compatible
Very nice. What is the old fashioned way of shooting star trails? In general how many hours of shooting are required to get star trails?
You can photograph them in one shot, even with film (taking into account reciprocity failure). The longer the better, the difficulty is often moonrise, setting of the milky way and also practical issues like moisture build up in and on the lens. I like 3-4 hours for really nice trails (this one was 3 hours). One difficulty in the northern hemisphere is air traffic, so one shot is not used so much. Out here it's not a problem and there are some good advantages as well as risks. Of course, one wouldn't need to stack a 'one shot' trail either.
Will Goodlet Tnx Will: film maybe be better for one shot as sensors eventually overheat and you get red pixels that you have to remove in post. So if you have 3-4 hrs and 45 shots with smt like 15sec exposure each or longer?
These are 4 min exposures I like these best for trailing. I’ve shot a 3 hour in one shot without issues but generally in cool conditions.
What are the settings you use to take the images in the first place?
(I’m new at this..)
Thanks for the question - they vary depending on what part of the world you are in and what equipment you use. Probably best answered in another video. In this case I am in the southern hemisphere and therefore have very few aircraft (no aircraft). So I can use much longer exposures. In this case I used 4min exposures. Mostly up north, this would be too risky and you'd go for 30 seconds, f2.8, ISO 3200 (because you are stacking you can use lower ISO). Hope this helps.
Can we use this for averaging day time landscapes or sunset photos... Or averaging water fall photos... ???
Kiran Rawal I believe it uses a lighten blend so anything with moving bright objects will blend (probably) like waterfalls. You can try it and let me know?
hi would you please make a processing tutorial for startrails？
Hi, I'll certainly think about it - thanks for the suggestion - but if you need specific help or advice, you can always drop me an email via the contact form on my website and I'll try and help.
@@WillGoodlet OK thx!will do.
Hi I got your email. Will respond there.
Nice video Will. So you took 45 photos of 4min that means 180min (3hours) total shooting time, isn't that too long in total? Thank you
Hi Vasilis, yep 3 hrs. Seemed to work out OK for me. Why do you feel it is too long? Or do you mean the 4min exposure is too long? If you do, it's my feeling that in the remote parts of the Southern hemisphere we can shoot longer exposures because there are so few disturbances or aircraft. The longer duration gives a nice trailing effect and allows shooting at lower ISO. This was a winter night too, so nice and cold with less tendency for the sensor to heat up and also very dry conditions, so no issues with dew or moisture. In Europe, the conditions would likely be very different and you probably would have to use much shorter exposures.
@@WillGoodlet I mean that 3 hours isn't too much? You can have nice star trails for half of the time I think....
@@vasiliszappas369 Some people have 6+ hours of star trails produce amazing results that you can't get with a 1.5 hour session. There are no set rules in photography, so if Will found that 3 hours work well for him then that's all there is to it
Will
Interesting for me as I have never attempted night astrophotography. Just one question re DN AI, I have noticed in a few vlogs I have watched on this that it always comes up as TIFF ext files. Can this be set to JPG as the favoured file or is there a reason DN AI has gone with the other? Unfortunately, I cannot contribute in any way re your requests apart from enjoying watching something different and amazing. As always look forward to the next!
Hey Euge, speaking to DeNoise Ai You can import the file in many formats, and export to many formats (provided the input was of the right type) - The list includes JPG, TIF, PNG and DNG. My source for this test was DNG. So I am not sure if PEF NEF AND CR2/3 can also be exported. With regard to Sequator, the export is a Tif and there are reports of some artifacts where the input files are messed with - camera profiles for example, so it seemed safer to use uncompressed TIF formats to me for the purposes of the tutorial - just in case other people ran into trouble. You can however, use any import format, but export seems to be Tif. Thanks for watching Euge, I know this video is not for everyone - I am hoping it behaves as a companion to my stacking video in Google search (which took off due to Neowise). Appreciate your support!!
Hey Will
Thanks for the feedback. Whether I do this type of photography or not, I will watch your vlogs mate as I find the topics interesting and well presented. Always willing to learn and may even try the stars one day. If I do I will send them to you to critique. Then you can really give me some exceptional advice.
See you out there!
Why did you use tiff format instead of *.cr2(raw)format? thanks
Just that the output is TIFF and usually ends up in Photoshop for me. You can use CR2 and DNG as well.