My first astro time lapse

[gregbradley]

The Milky Way at my home.
3 hours, 30 second exposures, 10 second gap between exposures.
Nikon D800E in camera time lapse feature.

Processed in Photoshop CS6 (what an amazing program). I only had to process one image and it applied the processing to all the images
without requiring any extra steps. Fantastic.
Its not very long but I was happy to work out how to put one together so it can only get better. No soundtrack. I have music I wrote and performed myself so later on I'll add my own music I have either already written before or will write and record for it.

I also now have a grip for my camera with a 2nd battery so I'll be able to shoot longer. Plus I am making a dewshield out of insulation to prevent/delay dewing of the lens. The next morning the lens was very dewy so pehaps some dew formed during this sequence and that may account for some mottling effects in the background.

https://vimeo.com/46088282

Greg.

[CapturingTheNight]

Looks fantastic Greg :thumbsup: Can't wait to see more like this from you (and longer). I don't know much about producing timelapse movies but maybe there is some sort of compression going on that has caused that mottling effect? If the lens started to fog over I would have thought that the brighter stars would start to show halos around them.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Greg. That's encouraging!

CS6 lets you make the lapse longer by spreading out the frame rate. I did that but when it saved it must not save that aspect. So I had a version in CS6 that was about 3X longer (same number of frames).

Yes you would think dew would bloat the stars. Perhaps it is curvature from the lens. It does have a bit of curvature. I did use lens correction in CS6 to adjust but it didn't have D800 as a choice, only D4. Perhaps I need to work out my own lens correction settings.

The dreaded Ken Rockwell often posts suggested corrections for various lenses.

I'll also try doing one with my 24-70 lens which has less distortion or perhaps the 14-24 at 24mm.

I am also scouting out good locations to do these from. But my own backyard is actually very scenic so that is a very easy place to start before I trek somewhere and don't get a good result.

Greg.

[Analog6]

Nice work - what program did you use to put it together?

[Octane]

That's a great start, Greg!

I just looked on my mobile, but, it appeared very smooth. Nice!

H

[CapturingTheNight]

My pleasure. I am lucky enough to be in the same situation. All I need to do to find dark skies and a descent view is open the backdoor. Always best to start local and perfect your technique before going to the expense of chasing those million dollar landscapes.

[gregbradley]

The movie itself is done by the camera itself. Time Lapse is one of the features of the camera. Most time lapse guys shot in RAW and then convert later on. I may end up doing that but wanted to get a start in the area and then find out how much better is the RAW approach or is it only slightly better.

I then used Photoshop CS6 to process it and I processed the image it displayed and it applied that to all the images without asking which is pretty handy. I then exported it as a video file.



Thanks Humi. It seemed to work out fine. A bit of mottling shifting around on a bigger screen at the back. Perhaps that's from the processing. I don't recall seeing that in the original.



Yes good point. My home area is fairly dark. My dark site is darker but its only about 20% darker.

Greg.

[Lester]

Very nice view Greg. I am thinking along these lines also, but could be some time before it all comes together. The foreground scenary is what makes these so special. All the best.

[jjjnettie]

I'm looking forward to seeing more of these from you now. Nicely done.

[gregbradley]

Yes I agree Lester. A nice foreground makes the shot. Once I get the routine of doing these I'll be doing a few in exotic locations.



Thanks JJJ. Its a new field for me and one I have been wanting to do for a while.

Greg.

[iceman]

Nice start Greg!

The mottling is due to compression. Try a codec with less compression and make sure you export as HD quality.

Also I know it's difficult sometimes, but vertical videos rarely work well. Try to recompose into a landscape format.

[Bassnut]

Nice one Greg, but why the squashed format, wouldnt landscape be better?.

OOPs, what Mike said.

........................Ahh, Nikon, understand, NP. :thumbsup:

[iceman]

Rofl Fred!

[gregbradley]

Thanks for the tips Mike. I think you are right as the original does not show any mottling.

I shot it in portrait because the Milky Way was nearly overhead and I am not sure it would pick it up fully in landscape orientation. But yes I agree Landscape orientation is the way to go. Next clear night I'll do it again.

The codec was H.264. So I'll check that out and make sure HD is selected if it gives an option.



Yes portrait orientaiton wasn't my first choice.

What does NP stand for?

Greg.

[Bassnut]

NP= no problem :)

[gregbradley]

Oh. Thanks.

Greg.