Hi Richard I've been wanting to try the things that I have learned from you for years now! Lol something always comes up, like hurricanes, covid-19, and getting sick!!!! Well this year I'm read!!! I'll be visiting the darkess part of my state. Florida, USA. HAHAHAHA this has taken 4 years in the making! Thanks to covid-19!!! Thank you soooooo much for your selfless giving of your amazing knowledge!!!! I wish I could visit your location for a work shop. Thank you for such kind inspiration!!!👍👍👍😎
You make such a good point! In a way I've fallen into this 'trap' myself of wanting to make better and better sky shots that I started to forget about composition and foregrounds to the point that I've made it my number one priority for this year to improve on.
Thanks Richard for showcasing and teaching various lighting for night photography.. this is so informative and useful when the season is starting. Wish you a wonderful 2023 and clear sky ahead
Fantastic video Richard, I always learn something from your videos. As you say we need to get out and practise more to improve our nightscapes. Thank you again 👍
Hallo Richard, thanks for a super roundup of the various methods. I must admit, no.4 is my favourite and I learnt this from you. It strikes me that here in europe we have another method not available to you. Over here, we often have lovely scenes like old churches or buildings, which the local people light up usualy with a number of Megawatts ( including the surroundings ). This enables very short exposures and being able to finish up and go home early. When I see your videos, I yearn for such remote locations! I loved all the photos you showed to illustrate the methods.
Really happy that youtube put your video on my home page! This was very informative. Your pictures are stunning! I registered to your channel and I am looking forward to discover more.
Thanks Richard, You've covered the subject well with great examples of each style. I do like the Low Level Lighting style and the Long Exposure Ambient Foregrounds as I find them really handy to use. 😁👌👍
Thx for sharing Richard! We have a trip to the North of France planned for this weekend with some nightscape friends. Will take my LED cob lights, flash, flashlight and LED sable ;) BTW: all your vids are awesome and give some real inspirations. Clear skies from the Netherlands.
It all takes time Jessica, but the journey is very enjoyable. For a self portrait silhouette . .the main thing is to keep very still while the shutter is open. It helps to lean on something.
@@nightscapeimages.richard thanks... I"ve actually found your workshop videos, so am going to spend some time in them. I really appreciate your thoroughness and easy mannerisms you have in the videos. They're really great.
Well done Richard! You have explained the basic concepts of each lighting type well. Because of you I have become a much better night sky photographer and surprised, even myself, with the results at time. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reminding me of the benefits of moon light as an option. Based on your earlier video's, I picked up a pair of adjustable LED panels and added a thin piece of carboard with punched out holes to further reduce the light. Gives me a little more flexability in placing the lights closer, when distance is not an option. As usual, another great video Richard - thanks!
A great video Richard. I'm so glad that you provided the different methods of lighting to consider in one video. It provides a nice recap or reminder to think creatively and not limit oneself to only one or two main sources of lighting. Your insight and experience is always appreciated.
Thanks for everything Richard. Your lessons are invaluable. Your images are unique and fantastic and I hope one day to get close to your results. Sei il numero 1!!
Great to come back to these lessons Richard after almost another year. I think this is the quality of inspiration with your vids. Depending upon where in the world your viewers live, some of your vids are seasonal but referenced to at varying times, so you likely see an ebb and flow of visitors. Here in the part of the uk where i live (probably most of the uk is the same to be honest), we seem to be getting more grey skies and rain throughout the year than we'd care for, so opportunities are slimmer...but we're forever hopeful. Happy New Year
Thanks for the flash suggestion. I have become quite dependent on my Z6II and just don't really use a flash anymore. I will have to relearn "the taming of the flash"
Very informative and also inspiring Richard! It motivates me to practice lightpainting more often and to work on composition in general. Thanks for sharing!
Excellently described methods, as always. I need to try more of that ambient lighting. I imagine the exposures will be several minutes at the lower ISOs, possibly up to as long as 10 minutes? It's going to be clear tonight, so I'll have a go and see!! Thanks as always for the inspirational and motivational content.
Thanks again Simon. I'm shooting between 1 and 2 minute exposures for my ambient shots. I know other photographers who shoot much longer times . .but it's working for me. I also sometimes open the aperture right up to gather more light. This obviously blows out the sky more, so it's a balancing act.
Amazing breakdown of options. The moon? Up until now I have always avoided it. Next goals are around blue hour light, and then stack. I’ll be hunting through your videos here soon. Love your channel 🙌🏼
Top tier video Richard, answered a lot of questions for me. That shot at 15:26...wow, so good. Where was that taken if you don't mind me asking ? Great work from you again, thanks.
Amazing stuff Richard! I hope I’ll have some options to test some of the techniques you’ve mentioned. You’ve added tons of interesting ideas to my next nighttime photo session, whenever it might happen 😅. Keep on with your amazing content, incredible shots and helpful tutorials!
Thanks for your hard work Richard, I used to light paint, but mine never looks good, so I use lll now. I'm usually too cold and tired to do long ambient exposures by the time it comes to fg, so I just use other stuff. As learnt from you I use my flash for night selfies. Canon doesnt do rear curtain flash like nikon though
Good question. I can't think of a video where I go through the editing os such a technique . .but I have used that method a lot in my more recent videos. I'll add that to the list for a future video.
Hi richards,nice and informative video and love your teaching methods. First time i tried to take startrail images and went to remote place which belongs to my friend and LMP was showing level 3 and found north direction in compass to get round Star trails but unfortunately that place had a resort infront of it and was well lit so I gave up idea and came back. Is there any way I can take Star trails at such place??? Is there any way i can
It's hard to know without seeing it, but if the lights are not directly in your view it may work. Also you might want to lower the iso and see what you get . .Be careful not to over expose the scene. Do some test shots.
Do you ever shoot foregrounds just prior to the moon setting and then the sky after it has set... or shoot the sky before the moon rises and get the foreground after the moon rises? I would guess that this is good when using the tracker because you must shoot the foreground separately anyway.
Yes they are all good methods of shooting foregrounds. I guess it comes down to how long you may have to wait for the moon to rise or set. It's a bit the same with blue hour or twilight blends.
Hello richard. Can you please assist me on how to take exposures so that i dont over or under expose my histogram so i can take exposures that the histogram is correct for astro or deep sky photography. Would love to hear back from you. I keep checking your videos and its great thanks for your efforts. Kind regard Martin
Hello Martin. To be honest I don't take much notice of the histogram when shooting nightscapes. There are many factors in play here. Firstly, any image taken at night (I'm mainly talking about nightscapes here) will have lots of dark areas which will not show up on the histogram. Secondly, a lot of people shoot with iso invariant cameras and therefore under-expose their images in camera . .thus resulting in a histogram to the left. They do that to preserve the highlight detail. If I'm employing my fine art light painting method then the histogram is certainly of little value to me as the exposures for the foreground nearly always show very dark in camera. But of course all of this does depend on which camera and lens combination you are using and if you are shooting single exposures or blending multiple images.
Thanks for sharing these methods. I'd like to know will you ask models keep still until the long exposure end when you capture them with flash light? Cause from my experience, although a flash can freeze people's face nice and clear, we still need to tell them not to move after the flash. If they leave the place, the light from sky behind them will be received constanly by the camera till the shutter turns off. And then the model in the final image will get fuzzy even left only their contour. I don't know if you do the same when photo some people at night?
Thanks so much for watching. Yes I always ask people to remain still for the full duration of the exposure. I also use rear curtain flash to freeze the last second of the exposure.
Very informative and well-presented! I would like to create the same look as the images in your video but am unable to gain nighttime access to subject. Therefore, is it possible to "duplicate" a lit night scene during daylight by using an ND filter or another means? Thank you.
Thanks for watching. Yes it is possible to shoot a foreground subject in daytime and make it look like night in post editing. However you'll need to replace the sky with a night shot to finish the job.
Hi. I am new to this. Was wondering what your settings were for shutter speed, aperture and what you set your ISO at? In particular for long exposure or no light.
Thanks so much for watching. Have a look at the majority of my videos .. I show the settings used on all the images. This video was more about the lighting techniques than anything else. See here for example: ua-cam.com/video/qeYrxtaKd3Q/v-deo.html or here: ua-cam.com/video/WlVAhqzQYv0/v-deo.html
hi richard. I wanted to ask you a couple of things. I own the z6, the only mirrorless I've worked with. In your experience, how do you rate the live view in total darkness of the z6/z6ii compared to other mirrorless cameras you know? also, does astromodification affect what we see of the night sky in live view? do you see better? thank you
Well I think the Z6 is as good as any other mirrorless camera regarding the clarity of live view. The lens you are using is the biggest limiting factor as far as a nice bright view is concerned. I typically use the f1.8 Z prime lenses and they make it really easy to see the detail on the screen. Regarding astro modding the camera .. from what I understand the camera does become a little bit more sensitive with less filter obstruction so yes it is a bit brighter .. but I don't think you'll notice it really.
Is it possible to use a LumeCube Panel Pro for night painting? It has multi colors and my budget doesn't allow for the purchase of a dedicated torch. Thank you!
You lost me at 11.50 minutes when discussing flash. How is it possible to freeze people motion when using a long exposure? And are you supplementing the flash scenes with other light sources? Thx!
Well I use flash to light people and they do have to remain as still as possible. The long exposure is only to capture ambient light in the background. I use rear curtain sync on flash to better freeze the motion of the people in the shot. No other light source is used in these.
This season I am gonna try my shots with the moon. 🙏
Give it a go. Try it with a thin crescent.
Hi Richard I've been wanting to try the things that I have learned from you for years now! Lol something always comes up, like hurricanes, covid-19, and getting sick!!!! Well this year I'm read!!! I'll be visiting the darkess part of my state. Florida, USA. HAHAHAHA this has taken 4 years in the making! Thanks to covid-19!!! Thank you soooooo much for your selfless giving of your amazing knowledge!!!! I wish I could visit your location for a work shop. Thank you for such kind inspiration!!!👍👍👍😎
Ready*
Thanks so much for your ongoing support Marvin, I really appreciate it. I hope you can get out there soon my friend.
Great tips & ideas, brilliant 👏👏👍🇮🇪
Thanks as always for tuning in Vivian
Fabulous overview Richard, thank you, it's an extremely handy video... bookmarked 😂. Have a great weekend 🙏🙏🙏
Thanks for your kind words of encouragement Izzy. Really appreciate it.
As always educational and informative from the Mr. down under .
You're very welcome my friend.
great summary Richard,
it was a joy to watch
and u r right
the moon needs more credit.
I often use it as an excuse not to go out
We all do that from time to time. Thanks again for watching.
It's ok to get excited Richard, you're getting me excited about night photography as well
Haha, yes I can't help it sometimes. .I'm glad you're looking forward to getting out there . .!!!
Thank you Richard. Another great video. I can't wait for the warmer weather to get out and paint.
Thanks a lot for watching Adi, really appreciate it.
You make such a good point! In a way I've fallen into this 'trap' myself of wanting to make better and better sky shots that I started to forget about composition and foregrounds to the point that I've made it my number one priority for this year to improve on.
Thanks so much as always for watching my friend. I appreciate your comments.
Thanks Richard
I very much appreciate you watching Chris.
Thanks Richard for showcasing and teaching various lighting for night photography.. this is so informative and useful when the season is starting. Wish you a wonderful 2023 and clear sky ahead
Thank you so much for watching Virat, really appreciate it.
Thank you Richard for yet another video full of fantastic ideas on how to use various types of lighting.
Until your next video Richard Tks.🙏
Thanks again for watching Mario. Always appreciated my friend.
Great video …. obviously and as usual! ❤❤❤
You're very kind as always Carole
Enjoyable video
Thanks as always for watching Phillip
Fab video Richard, very inspirational as well as educational, now I just need to brave the cold nights and get out there and practice 😁👍
Yes that's what it's all about Duncan. Thanks heaps for watching.
The next project to tackle! Thanks for sharing Richard! 🙏🏻
Thanks heaps for watching John.
What a great roundup Richard. Lighting is just so critical to the intent of the image, don't think I always pay it enough attention.
Than ks Dominic, always appreciate your comments.
Excellent video Richard
Thanks so much for your comments my friend. Appreciate you watching.
Fantastic video Richard, I always learn something from your videos. As you say we need to get out and practise more to improve our nightscapes. Thank you again 👍
Thanks as always for watching Dennis.
Thanks Richard.
Thanks so much for watching.
Thank you Richard for these great explanations of lightning. A very helpful summery of the different methods!
You're very welcome Gunter. Thanks for watching.
A very useful summary Richard, with some of your super example images along the way 👍.
Thanks as always for watching Paul.
Another great video Richard
Many thanks indeed Eric
Another winner Richard, thank you!
I appreciate you watching Frank.
Thanks again mate. I really appreciate your take on creativity associated with photography. Keep on pushing the content please
You're very welcome Bob. Thanks a lot for watching.
Hallo Richard, thanks for a super roundup of the various methods. I must admit, no.4 is my favourite and I learnt this from you. It strikes me that here in europe we have another method not available to you. Over here, we often have lovely scenes like old churches or buildings, which the local people light up usualy with a number of Megawatts ( including the surroundings ). This enables very short exposures and being able to finish up and go home early. When I see your videos, I yearn for such remote locations! I loved all the photos you showed to illustrate the methods.
Thanks so much for your great support my friend. Appreciate your comments.
Another great video Richard very informative
As always I appreciate you watching.
Really happy that youtube put your video on my home page! This was very informative. Your pictures are stunning! I registered to your channel and I am looking forward to discover more.
I'm always happy to help when I can, thanks again for watching.
Thanks Richard, You've covered the subject well with great examples of each style. I do like the Low Level Lighting style and the Long Exposure Ambient Foregrounds as I find them really handy to use. 😁👌👍
Thanks a lot as always Geoff. Yes no doubt some of these methods are fairly straight forward yet powerful.
Thx for sharing Richard! We have a trip to the North of France planned for this weekend with some nightscape friends. Will take my LED cob lights, flash, flashlight and LED sable ;) BTW: all your vids are awesome and give some real inspirations. Clear skies from the Netherlands.
Thanks so much for watching Bas, I very much appreciate your comments.
I'm looking to get into landscape astrophotography, and your channel has been so helpful lately. Thank you so much!
Thanks so much for watching.
Excellent summary, Richard. Really enjoyed it..
Thanks so much for watching Bruce
I really enjoyed this.. so many options. I'd like to learn more about how to do the self portrait silhouettes
It all takes time Jessica, but the journey is very enjoyable. For a self portrait silhouette . .the main thing is to keep very still while the shutter is open. It helps to lean on something.
@@nightscapeimages.richard thanks... I"ve actually found your workshop videos, so am going to spend some time in them. I really appreciate your thoroughness and easy mannerisms you have in the videos. They're really great.
Well done Richard! You have explained the basic concepts of each lighting type well. Because of you I have become a much better night sky photographer and surprised, even myself, with the results at time. Thanks for sharing!
Good on you Todd. I'm pleased you've been able to get something out of the videos.
Hey Richard, loved watching this video, a sum of all your lighting techniques is really informative and useful.
Thank you so much for watching, I appreciate your comments.
Thanks for reminding me of the benefits of moon light as an option. Based on your earlier video's, I picked up a pair of adjustable LED panels and added a thin piece of carboard with punched out holes to further reduce the light. Gives me a little more flexability in placing the lights closer, when distance is not an option. As usual, another great video Richard - thanks!
Thanks as always for watching Rob. It's always good to be innovative with our lights .. well done.
A great video Richard. I'm so glad that you provided the different methods of lighting to consider in one video. It provides a nice recap or reminder to think creatively and not limit oneself to only one or two main sources of lighting. Your insight and experience is always appreciated.
Thanks so much Bob. I really appreciate your comments.
Thanks for everything Richard. Your lessons are invaluable. Your images are unique and fantastic and I hope one day to get close to your results. Sei il numero 1!!
You are very kind my friend. Thanks so much for your comments.
Great to come back to these lessons Richard after almost another year. I think this is the quality of inspiration with your vids. Depending upon where in the world your viewers live, some of your vids are seasonal but referenced to at varying times, so you likely see an ebb and flow of visitors. Here in the part of the uk where i live (probably most of the uk is the same to be honest), we seem to be getting more grey skies and rain throughout the year than we'd care for, so opportunities are slimmer...but we're forever hopeful. Happy New Year
Thanks again for watching my friend. Always appreciate your great comments.
Thanks for the flash suggestion. I have become quite dependent on my Z6II and just don't really use a flash anymore. I will have to relearn "the taming of the flash"
I really appreciate you watching, thank you.
Very informative and also inspiring Richard! It motivates me to practice lightpainting more often and to work on composition in general. Thanks for sharing!
You're very welcome my friend. I'm loving your work.
Excellently described methods, as always. I need to try more of that ambient lighting. I imagine the exposures will be several minutes at the lower ISOs, possibly up to as long as 10 minutes? It's going to be clear tonight, so I'll have a go and see!! Thanks as always for the inspirational and motivational content.
Thanks again Simon. I'm shooting between 1 and 2 minute exposures for my ambient shots. I know other photographers who shoot much longer times . .but it's working for me. I also sometimes open the aperture right up to gather more light. This obviously blows out the sky more, so it's a balancing act.
Amazing breakdown of options. The moon? Up until now I have always avoided it. Next goals are around blue hour light, and then stack. I’ll be hunting through your videos here soon.
Love your channel 🙌🏼
Thanks heaps for watching, really appreciated.
Top tier video Richard, answered a lot of questions for me. That shot at 15:26...wow, so good. Where was that taken if you don't mind me asking ? Great work from you again, thanks.
Thanks as always for watching my friend. That shot is in the middle of nowhere in Tasmania. Very dark location.
Amazing stuff Richard! I hope I’ll have some options to test some of the techniques you’ve mentioned. You’ve added tons of interesting ideas to my next nighttime photo session, whenever it might happen 😅. Keep on with your amazing content, incredible shots and helpful tutorials!
Thanks a lot for watching Alex. I'm pleased you enjoyed it.
Thanks for your hard work Richard, I used to light paint, but mine never looks good, so I use lll now. I'm usually too cold and tired to do long ambient exposures by the time it comes to fg, so I just use other stuff. As learnt from you I use my flash for night selfies. Canon doesnt do rear curtain flash like nikon though
Thanks Suzie. Yes it's good to have options I reckon. I did learn the hard way about the lack of rear curtain sync on the Canon's ..!!!
@@nightscapeimages.richard 😂
Thanks for the video Richard. Lots of great ideas and tips. Especially wondering about the moonlit shots. Were those single exposures?
Thanks for watching Brendan. There's a bit of a mixture in there. Some stacked, some panos, some tracked. I don't shoot a lot of singles these days.
Great video thanks Richard. Have you got a video on long exposure ambient foreground lighting? And then how to blend with the astro sky photo? Thanks
Good question. I can't think of a video where I go through the editing os such a technique . .but I have used that method a lot in my more recent videos. I'll add that to the list for a future video.
Hi richards,nice and informative video and love your teaching methods.
First time i tried to take startrail images and went to remote place which belongs to my friend and LMP was showing level 3 and found north direction in compass to get round Star trails but unfortunately that place had a resort infront of it and was well lit so I gave up idea and came back.
Is there any way I can take Star trails at such place???
Is there any way i can
It's hard to know without seeing it, but if the lights are not directly in your view it may work. Also you might want to lower the iso and see what you get . .Be careful not to over expose the scene. Do some test shots.
Do you ever shoot foregrounds just prior to the moon setting and then the sky after it has set... or shoot the sky before the moon rises and get the foreground after the moon rises? I would guess that this is good when using the tracker because you must shoot the foreground separately anyway.
Yes they are all good methods of shooting foregrounds. I guess it comes down to how long you may have to wait for the moon to rise or set. It's a bit the same with blue hour or twilight blends.
@@nightscapeimages.richard Thank you, Richard!
Hello richard. Can you please assist me on how to take exposures so that i dont over or under expose my histogram so i can take exposures that the histogram is correct for astro or deep sky photography. Would love to hear back from you. I keep checking your videos and its great thanks for your efforts.
Kind regard
Martin
Hello Martin. To be honest I don't take much notice of the histogram when shooting nightscapes. There are many factors in play here. Firstly, any image taken at night (I'm mainly talking about nightscapes here) will have lots of dark areas which will not show up on the histogram. Secondly, a lot of people shoot with iso invariant cameras and therefore under-expose their images in camera . .thus resulting in a histogram to the left. They do that to preserve the highlight detail.
If I'm employing my fine art light painting method then the histogram is certainly of little value to me as the exposures for the foreground nearly always show very dark in camera. But of course all of this does depend on which camera and lens combination you are using and if you are shooting single exposures or blending multiple images.
Thanks for sharing these methods. I'd like to know will you ask models keep still until the long exposure end when you capture them with flash light? Cause from my experience, although a flash can freeze people's face nice and clear, we still need to tell them not to move after the flash. If they leave the place, the light from sky behind them will be received constanly by the camera till the shutter turns off. And then the model in the final image will get fuzzy even left only their contour. I don't know if you do the same when photo some people at night?
Thanks so much for watching. Yes I always ask people to remain still for the full duration of the exposure. I also use rear curtain flash to freeze the last second of the exposure.
Very informative and well-presented! I would like to create the same look as the images in your video but am unable to gain nighttime access to subject. Therefore, is it possible to "duplicate" a lit night scene during daylight by using an ND filter or another means? Thank you.
Thanks for watching. Yes it is possible to shoot a foreground subject in daytime and make it look like night in post editing. However you'll need to replace the sky with a night shot to finish the job.
@@nightscapeimages.richard thx. Sounds about right. Any suggested settings and grade of ND filter?
@@1duesy I wouldn't use an ND filter at all.
Hi. I am new to this. Was wondering what your settings were for shutter speed, aperture and what you set your ISO at? In particular for long exposure or no light.
Thanks so much for watching. Have a look at the majority of my videos .. I show the settings used on all the images. This video was more about the lighting techniques than anything else. See here for example: ua-cam.com/video/qeYrxtaKd3Q/v-deo.html or here: ua-cam.com/video/WlVAhqzQYv0/v-deo.html
@@nightscapeimages.richard thank you so much. I just found you today so I wasn’t aware.
@@phillipzayas6991 Always happy to help when I can.
hi richard.
I wanted to ask you a couple of things. I own the z6, the only mirrorless I've worked with. In your experience, how do you rate the live view in total darkness of the z6/z6ii compared to other mirrorless cameras you know? also, does astromodification affect what we see of the night sky in live view? do you see better?
thank you
Well I think the Z6 is as good as any other mirrorless camera regarding the clarity of live view. The lens you are using is the biggest limiting factor as far as a nice bright view is concerned. I typically use the f1.8 Z prime lenses and they make it really easy to see the detail on the screen. Regarding astro modding the camera .. from what I understand the camera does become a little bit more sensitive with less filter obstruction so yes it is a bit brighter .. but I don't think you'll notice it really.
Is it possible to use a LumeCube Panel Pro for night painting? It has multi colors and my budget doesn't allow for the purchase of a dedicated torch. Thank you!
Yes you can use any light panel, but one of the problems is that many of them are too bright even on the lowest setting.
You lost me at 11.50 minutes when discussing flash. How is it possible to freeze people motion when using a long exposure? And are you supplementing the flash scenes with other light sources? Thx!
Well I use flash to light people and they do have to remain as still as possible. The long exposure is only to capture ambient light in the background. I use rear curtain sync on flash to better freeze the motion of the people in the shot. No other light source is used in these.
@@nightscapeimages.richard okay thx. So the final image becomes a composite of background and subject?
@@1duesy No the shots I showed using flash are single images.
"Z96 Continuous Light" dead link to Amazon.
Yes it looks like it's been discontinued.
@@nightscapeimages.richard can you recommend a replacement? Thx.