Gear and Process Review : Starscapes and Timelapses
Given I mainly enjoy street and aerial photography, I have been really surprised how much I have been enjoying trying to capture starscapes and making time-lapse videos. I really enjoy the process and anticipation, the waking the next day after 7 hours of shooting and inserting the SD card to see what you may have captured. Its sometimes disappointing, often frustrating, but every now and then its quite awesome to see what happens in our clear skies when most of us are asleep.
Following i thought I would share some tips and processes I use. There are of course so many great resources out there from people that are way more capable and competent and only too willing to share their expertise. I will list my favourites at the end of this post.
But for now, read on and I hope you enjoy the process as much as I do - to create what in the end is 15 to 20 seconds of quite cool vision.
Location and Timing
If you are lucky like me to live in the southern hemisphere and in Australia, the ability to get clean sky and space is almost unlimited ! Clearly getting away from the city and urban light pollution is key for maximising your chances of a great clear image, and also timing it for when the moon is either waxing or waning crescent, or even better, new. I use an app called Scope Nights (iOS only) which gives a great week in advance run down of astro conditions for any given GPS or google map co-ordinate. For the night in question it gives a breakdown of conditions for every 2 hours of the night which is great for planning a specific time block for your time-lapse. There are heaps of other great apps too (Photopills is a great all rounder and also helps in spotting the Milky Way and its path if you are unfamiliar with that in the location that you find yourself). Key is to be out there and amongst it and experiment with the different weather patterns at night - sometimes a modest cloud cover adds great drama and movement to the end time-lapse as well. Rain and frost are good things to avoid generally !!
©Scope Nights app screenshot
Gear and Software
Well this is where you can really spend a lot of time - and money - to chase that never reached goal of the perfect starscape. And again, there is a lot more exhaustive information on the internet around what and which gear, but for what it is worth, this is what I use.
Camera (need one!) : Canon 6D - full frame is the way to go so its whatever you can afford and want. An optional two battery hand grip attachment is important also to ensure your camera can take as many frames as you need without running out of juice.
Lens (need one!) : 16 to 35mm L Series f2.8 II, and again, whatever you can afford but the 16mm range is perfect without too much unfixable distortion and abberation
Tripod (need one) : [pro]master xc525 carbon, sturdy, quick to put up and down, and very flexible in its settings
Remote (optional but very handy) : Canon TC-80N3 cable connected for extra reliability
Motion (optional but cool if you could be bothered learning another gadget) : Syrp Genie motion box plus 0.8m dolly ramp (been using the Syrp for panning motion for a bit and have just purchased the ramp so will review that once I have given it a try out or two)
Other bits : Plastic bag lens and camera cover to keep dust and dew and bird poo and stuff off the gear for the long period of time its out in the elements. Either recycle a plastic bag with elastic bands, or a cool fitted and cheap option is here. I have had the same cheap and cheerful plastic fitted one for over three years - bargain ! Some lens cleaner that is also dew preventive is a good idea also. The largest SD card you can afford is handy too !
Software : LR or poison of choice plus LRTimelapse. Not only is this program one of the best I have ever used, the guy who wrote it Gunther is an absolute legend in the way he supports the software and his customers, but also the great knowledge and processes he shares on his site. Just go there and read everything you can and do everything he says !
Books : suggested ebooks are Gunthers and Royce Bair - both great reads and extremely useful and insightful.
So now that all that is under our belts, best we get outside and get amongst it !
©LesWillPhoto Canon 6D, 16mm, ISO5000, f2.8, 24 sec exposure,
On the actual Shoot.
So once you have found your nice isolated, light noise free location with a new or near new moon rising, its time to set up the gear and let it do its magic. The settings I use I try to match what is actually infant of me and able to be seen with the naked eye. If any of you are interested in aurora shooting, please google and go and find those enthusiast sites for all the info - i have captured some southern style aurora light images, but find the fact that it is mostly sensor driven rather than naked eye driven a little disconcerting - I like to see what it is I am capturing to a large degree. But each to their own.
Settings:
White Balance : Use to use Auto as we are shooting in RAW so WB can be dialled in as needed in post, but when creating time lapses in post, its goor to have as close to reality white balance straight out of camera, so I am dialling in between 3800 and 4800 K as the WB setting - not too blue, not too green. Just right ...
ISO : I tend to use an ISO between 4000 and 6400, mainly around 5000 for most darker night conditions. ISO is something that depends on the type of camera and lens you are using and the quality of the sensor and ISO capabilities, so trial and error here. For my Canon 6D 5000 and even lower is a great image with manageable noise.
Aperture and Focal length : As wide as your wallet will let you is the answer. For the lens I use being the Canon 16 to 35 L series I am down at 2.8 for all my shoots. Length is 16mm but vary this depending upon our foreground capture and whether you are using a motion box or not.
Shutter speed : I use around 22 secs to 26secs with a 38 sec to 34 sec pause, giving a very simple to understand one frame per minute shoot. This again will vary on actual night conditions but 24secs is my failure. Be careful as there is a correlation between focal length of lens and time open for stars to ensure you get no or minimal star trailling. A whole course in itself so google away and see you in a few hours ! For a 16mm lens like mine, 24 secs is spot on.
Turn all other noise reduction, stabilisation, High ISO correction , etc etc OFF as they only detract from the image you are saving. Turn off if you can your screen display as well and keep all blinking lights to a minimum as best you can.
Of course, a handgrip battery holder to allow for multiple batteries is key, and with the cannon I can get about 7 hours of shooting easy, at 1 image per minute, gives 420 images to process for a time-lapse of around 14 seconds - nice.
Hope this has helped out a little with your own endeavours, and it has enthused you to get amongst it and enjoy. Its a great feeling to watch the end 15 second or so result, and you also get a lot of single images to enjoy as well if the moon gods are kind to you. Good luck !