I'm working on an editing bundle called Astro Action Pack which will simplify your workflow for Milky Way Editing. Sign up for the waitlist here! mikeab.ck.page/594f535868
Super helpful! I've been shooting Milky Way images for four years now, processing with Sequator and Lightroom and Photoshop. This really inspires me to take the next step. I think I need to watch it four or five more times, taking notes.... 🙂
Thanks so much for watching my video! In some of the more advanced parts I will admit I had to skim over entire processes for the sake of time - if there are any parts you'd be interested in learning more about, please let me know here! I hope you learned something new from this video, whether you're just starting out or have been doing this for a while. Happy (Milky Way) hunting!
This is by far the most simple and easy to follow tutorial with the best results I've seen on UA-cam for astro photography. Thanks! I just did a re-edit of some of my older photos and like them way more than previous edits.
I watched a ton of astrophotography tutorials and this is by far the best one. I had never heard of some of the tools discussed here. It would be awesome if you could make a more detailed video on the full astrophotographer approach.
This was an awesome tutorial, I'm an experienced photographer but I picked up a few interesting tips. Thanks mate! P.s this video deserves a lot more than 9k views!
I must say this is one of the most helpful guides on editing Milky Way with Lightroom and Photoshop on youtube that I have ever seen! Good work and thank you so much!
One of the best tutorials I have watched so far. The use of AstroPixel/PixInsight seems to be the best possible way to produce a masterpiece. Please consider making a detailed advanced Milky Way processing video. Thank you.
amazing how clear and simple you make the editing seem! i often take astro images but get confused, bored and annoyed with the editing. this helped massively! thank you
Thank you so much for sharing your acknowledges! This tutorial video really helps me get to next level of amatuer beginner astrophotographer! Thanks again 😊⭐
Genius understanding of technical workflow from capture to photo editing! I think for some scenes with more interesting foreground less striking astro maybe better storytelling.
I have been doing amateur astrophotography for 2 years. When I started, I would definitely like image number 3 the most. Today, when I understand how the night sky is photographed and what its post-production involves, image number 3 seems terrible to me. I'm in favor of simpler adjustments that come closer to what our eyes see, it's a shame that we can't see colors as well at night as during the day. So for me, picture n.1 and n.2. Otherwise, the video is great, it shows the differences in editing very well and I would like it to be seen by as many beginner astrophotographers as possible.
I came here to say something similar. Been doing astrophotography with 2 telescope setups for 5 years now and the milkyway edited with APP and pixinsight here is way overdone IMO. The background in image 2 is more pleasing when zoomed in than image 3. But this is a great video to show how Astro specific tools allow you to push your data further.
The great thing about the clean separation of elements you can get in PixInsight is that you have control as the artist. I agree that I actually prefer the balance of 2 better than 3, but you can also easily have produced a version with PixInsight that had brighter and fewer stars, less boosted nebulosity, and a clean dark sky that would be very pleasing and natural looking without the haze seen in 2 from prolonged exposure.
Thank you! I just selected the layer in the layers tab in PS and hit control+c to copy it. If you're having trouble with that you can also right click the layer and select "Duplicate". A dialog box will open asking where you'd like the duplicated layer to open and you can select the name of your other tab in PS where you're working on your sky layer.
Hi! I'm getting into astrophotography and I'm gonna do the Lightroom and then photoshop method. Honestly for me the last one feels kind of fake in a way. It looks very nice but doesn't feel natural. I'd like to know your opinions on it.
This is one amazing video! I've always loved astrophotography. I tried a HDR moon stack with my handheld 200mm lens on a cheap DSLR using PIPP, Photoshop, and LRC. But in my area, there's constant 120 AQI air pollution, not to mention the light pollution too, so I’ve never had a chance to capture the Milky Way. If you could make a video like this maybe starting with a phone and a tripod for a basic setup with LRC edits, then moving to a DSLR with Photoshop and LRC, and finally using a tracker, a UV filter-removed telescope, and apps mentioned in this video that pros use and that would be an amazing tutorial with what settings, tips, and tricks, methods we could use and I could finally tick ‘Milky Way photography’ off my bucket list. Maybe even capture a nebula or planet someday… 🫠🤌
I’m just learning Milky Way photography. I have yet to capture an image, but when I do I will definitely becoming back to this tutorial to follow your steps in editing with LR and PS. Thanks so much!
For a long time I've just been using the basic stacking and star reduction techniques. Funnily enough the way I'd worked out was quite similar to what you showed here, using high pass layers on the star reduced layers. Unfortunately when zoomed in, the quality is less than ideal, mainly because the high pass filter exaggerates the artifacts and halos around the stars like you pointed out. Recently I was introduced to StarXterminator, although I'm using it in Photoshop. It's really been a game changer due to being able to process the gradients, dust clouds and nebula independent of the stars. All of a sudden I've started noticing more of the faint dust clouds that cover the "blank sky" around the Milky Way in my photos. Personally I like using the high pass layers for stretching my star-less layers, I usually aim for a bit more of a subtle effect than your last one with the dust cloud texture. I also really like the more subtle star rendering that you get from blending the stars back in last.
That's amazing, glad you discovered StarX - it's a great tool! My processing has certainly changed a lot since I made this video... might be time for an update!
I honestly gave up on astrophotography a year ago but watching this video made me a little bit interested in it again. I might brush the dust off of my astro lenses and head out one of these nights.
Just what I needed, thanks very much. Last year, my Milky Way images took a big step up through the use of stacking (Sequator) and Starnet V2 to separate stars and nebulae for separate editing. But I'd like to take it a step further through the use of Pixinsight. You have demonstrated here what I suspected, but wasn't sure of: that it can make a big difference, and without undue trouble. I much appreciate the quick and digestible demo in this video. Now, would you consider a more detailed workflow, also using a Milky Way core image? But you have given me enough to start with here. I'm going to give it a try!
Thanks for watching and I'm glad it was helpful! Indeed, stacking is a huge upgrade in image quality. Tracking and stacking is the ultimate! Actually... Shooting longer focal lengths like 50-85mm and doing a tracked stacked panorama is the actual ultimate way!😅 My workflow has evolved so much since this video, I definitely could do a deeper dive. I'll keep it in mind!
Picked up some great tips for tweaking files. My Milky Way Night Sky Workshop students in Sedona, AZ are going to benefit greatly from some of your ideas...
How would you go about stacking without a star tracker/ what would you recommend for a starter tracker? I don’t have much of a budget atm but I’ve wanted a reason to save up for one
Just make sure you keep the exposure time short enough to prevent the stars from trailing if you're not using a star tracker. Then the stacking method is exactly the same! Or you can use a free software called sequator if you're on Windows. As for what budget tracker to use, I haven't tried it myself but the MSM Nomad looks promising and comes in at a very low price relative to everything else out there. I've got the trackers I use here on my gear list: learn.abramyanphoto.com/gear
At stage two, could I stack the milky way images using software like Sequator or Starry Landscape Stacker? After that, use that stacked single image with an exposed (or stacked) foreground image and photoshop it together?
I've been taking lots of astrophotos with the optima camera settings on my 24mp camera, to minumize star streaks. I like my JPG pictures as taken. Haven't thought about using star tracker, Lightroom or photo staking yet, just wondering if they will be any sharpers while I zoom way in.
Thanks for the video - it's really helpful. I have been doing astro for some time, but haven't taken the time to dive into other workflows like this one. Ironically, I really prefer the "intermediate" edit, as I think there's a lot of a over processing in widefield astrophotography personally. Definitely a subjective thing though.
Yeah I agree! And honestly it's just great to have all these tools at your disposal to make those decisions and create art that you love. My workflow is always evolving (as are my preferences) and I'm sure I'll have a ton of new techniques to share by the end of milky way core season!
This just helped me a ton! I don't have all the same tools, but these tricks are possible in photoshop as well, even if it's a bit more work, so I'll be using them for sure.
Thanks for that very informative video tutorial. I tried your star minimsation technique and it came out quite well. But I did notice artefacts looking like holes in the image where the stars were. And am wondering if I am doing something wrong!
Fabulous presentation, Mike. Really a huge help to see the difference between the three processes. I do Milky way photography and want to start using Pixinsight to take it to the next level. I wasn't familiar with Astro Pixel Processor. This is the first I've seen Pixinsight used for the MW; most seem to only use it for deep space image processing. So it's obvious this can do much more than PS and LR. I'm not clear on the use of Astro Pixel Processor. Do you just use it to stack the photos? Is it worth the extra cost over Starry Landscape Stacker? Add me to the list of folks who would like to see a video from you on shooting the MW and your day to night time lapses.
Thanks so much! APP is not necessary, you can use starry landscape stacker or learn how to do preprocessing (stacking and calibration) in pixinsight. The only thing APP does better is panoramas/mosaics.
Dude this is really well put together. Nice and straight to the point, no fluff. Love it! Just a question, what's the reasoning behind stacking exposure? Why do you do this? Is it just foreground vs background, or do you also produce multiple layers for the sky itself, and why? Sorry, really curious to know 😁
Thank you very much! I stack multiple exposures of the sky because there is a type of noise in each shot that is random every time so if you stack a bunch of photos of the exact same thing the noise can be averaged out and the result is a cleaner looking image!
Oh my god !!! This is a reallyyyyy high quality content video ! I am an amateur, and your video quality is just so good, i was thinking to may be start a youtube acc on sharing my shallow astrophotography knowledge and i found your video, hahahahah it since like i have no more purpose to do it 😂
Hi, thanks for the video! When I went to layers, smart objects, I don't see the stack mode option available, it's greyed out. Do I need to convert my layers as smart objects first?
@@mike_abramyan thanks! I tried the stacking median and it completely blurred my images (not sure what I did wrong). So I skipped that and continued with the rest of the workflow and it came out great! Thanks a lot!
@@Logan_deadpoolsounds like you didn't align the layers before stacking. The stars need to be all perfectly aligned for it to work. If you're on Windows, a great tool for stacking is Sequator (free). It will automatically align and stack everything in one click. Pretty nifty!
@@mike_abramyan I think I did the align but not sure. And yes I am on windows, so you’re saying I can use the sequator image as the starting point and then proceed with the steps you mentioned?
I should definitely make a video on it although I feel like a bit of an imposter with this topic despite having sold tons of prints already. I don't print images myself, so the best thing I can do for my clients is just ordering test prints before anything goes for sale and making corrections based on what I see. That, and finding an amazing printer to partner with, is the best advice I can dish out quickly haha!
Did you make sure the layers were all aligned before stacking? Also you can use a program like sequator to do the stacking for you. It's free. Just make sure to export your layers as 16 bit TIFF from Lightroom
Hello! Question, is it still possible to stack milky way photos without using a star tracker? If so, How do you recommend we do it without trackers? Thanks!
Yes, it's possible without a tracker. Just follow the process in the video, it should work the same way! It's even more useful to do when not tracking so definitely give it a try.
@@mike_abramyan Thanks, but I still can't follow you and find those buttons. I can create a sky mask and then check the INVERT box to do this, but I can't create an extra layer
Peter, so sorry your comment reply got buried in my inbox. If you have future questions, feel free to email me michaelabramyan@gmail.com or Instagram DM! Anyway, hopefully you figured it out by now, but if not, I'm sorry to say I'm not sure what's going wrong as it's tough to visualize exactly what you're doing. If we're talking about masking in Photoshop, you can only create one mask per layer. That means to have separate selections for your foreground and sky, you'd need to first duplicate the layer and then do your selection on the sky on one, duplicate that mask onto the other layer (hold alt and drag the mask to the other layer), then invert that (Ctrl+I). Let me know if that helps or not.
why not merge the star and milky way layers in PI using PixelMath rather than Photoshop? Why not use deconvolution in PI to reduce star size? Just curious. Lovely tutorial.
I've done that before too, but if you wanted to do star reduction or anything further on the separate star and sky layers then this is much better! Sometimes I even add extra exposure to my star layer once I see how it looks over the starless and feel like the stars need to be brighter. I've tried deconvolution in PI before but don't really have a reason why I don't use it aside from the fact that I have a PS action that does it in one click for me now and it works well! Maybe the PI tool would yield better results though.
@@mike_abramyan there are methods to star shrink in PI that work very well, imho better than in Photoshop, although I will admit that the Photoshop technique is pretty good, easier to wrap your head around and you don't have to purchase an expensive piece of software that's rather specialist.
hi, when i come to smart objects i need to conert all my layers in smart objects (which i didn't see on the tutorial) and when i do my stacking it's not aligned at all, i loose a lot of stars definition, and if i do that with a 7 or 8 pitures stacking, some of them dissapear because of that ; i tried minimal and median stacking, median is the least worst...
You don't need to convert all your layers to smart objects. You select all your layers as they are, auto align them (if you have a lot of foreground in your shots make sure to add a mask over that so that Photoshop only looks at the sky and aligns that), then once they're perfectly aligned you select all layers and convert to smart object (this stacks all the layers into one smart object). From there you change the stack mode to median or mean.
Mike, When I attempt to do the step: Layers>Smart Object>Stack Mode> Median, The Stack Mode is greyed out. Why is that? I am using the latest version of Photoshop.
Did you select all the layers you'd like to stack and convert them to a smart object first? After you do this step you should have just one layer. Then you select that and do the stacking.
@@mike_abramyan I came here with the same question - you missed out the instruction to convert the layers to Smart Object first - but I still find this video very useful!
Hi mate. Great video. Thanks for posting. QQ. When I am in photoshop and I select my images to stack in both mean and median mode I only get a small portion of the image clear the rest is blurry with no detail at all. Any ideas? The images are already aligned via the previous action. I am trying to stack 6 x 2 minute exposures. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer here.
I'm sorry for the late reply. That is quite odd... Sounds like PS is bugging out or something? Have you tried updating your software to the latest version?
I almost always use a single 5-10 minute exposure & photoshop to selectively add contrast. A few luminosity masks and brushed in contrast goes a long way. The LR & photoshop examples are flat, but the images just look incomplete, they could have both been taken much further.
Thanks for watching - there's always more that can be done but I find that the further you push non-linear images with low integration time, the more artifacts you will see as a result of pushing the data "too far". This is all personal preference.
If there's a lot of foreground in your shots you may want to add a mask over that in each layer before doing the alignment. You can delete the mask afterwards.
Hi Mike, thanks for making this video, really interesting to see how you're making use of the different applications. I was wondering, would you be able to do the same stacking process in Pixinsight as well, instead of using Astro Pixel Processor for that? Is there a benefit of using Astro Pixel Processor for this step? I am using trial versions of both applications at the moment and am wondering if only Pixinsight for my astro-scape edits provides all the functionality already. Thanks for your insight!
Hey there, yes absolutely you can use Pixinsight instead! I wouldn't say there's really any benefit to using APP for that step - it has always just felt more intuitive to me. I really should get better at Pixinsight though!
If there's a lot of foreground in your shots you may want to add a mask over that in each layer before doing the alignment. You can delete the mask afterwards.
When you have multiple layers selected and convert them to a smart object they get stacked into one layer. Sort of like if you dragged a bunch of layers into a folder - it contains all the layers but cleans up your layer panel.
I’ve been diving passionately into amateur photography for two years and although i’ve probably spent hundreds of hours editing my photos (mostly with DxO Photolab) I still feel like a complete newbie when I watch this kind of video... No matter how good your process is, I feel this kind of tutorial is kind of lost on me since I don’t think it’s really usefull to just apply a "recipe" without understanding in depth what every modification you apply to your image does exactly...
Sure, this video is meant to show some of the tools available and give a layout of my workflow on different levels. A 1-on-1 conversation and workshop would be the only way to truly explain everything in detail as it applies to your own images in particular. In fact, I'm doing a workshop just like this with an astrophotographer I look up to tomorrow! I can't wait to learn from him.
I'm working on an editing bundle called Astro Action Pack which will simplify your workflow for Milky Way Editing. Sign up for the waitlist here! mikeab.ck.page/594f535868
Amongst the best video that i have watched on Milky Way processing work flow! Thanks for sharing.
@@SAKinDXB Thank you so much!!
Super helpful! I've been shooting Milky Way images for four years now, processing with Sequator and Lightroom and Photoshop. This really inspires me to take the next step. I think I need to watch it four or five more times, taking notes.... 🙂
Thanks so much :) Feel free to shoot me a message on IG if you ever want clarification!
Thanks so much for watching my video! In some of the more advanced parts I will admit I had to skim over entire processes for the sake of time - if there are any parts you'd be interested in learning more about, please let me know here! I hope you learned something new from this video, whether you're just starting out or have been doing this for a while. Happy (Milky Way) hunting!
This is by far the most simple and easy to follow tutorial with the best results I've seen on UA-cam for astro photography. Thanks! I just did a re-edit of some of my older photos and like them way more than previous edits.
That's amazing!! I'm so glad it helped.
I watched a ton of astrophotography tutorials and this is by far the best one. I had never heard of some of the tools discussed here. It would be awesome if you could make a more detailed video on the full astrophotographer approach.
Thank you so much! I will definitely add that to my list.
Amazing content and clarity, you do great in making this look easy for anyone! Keep it up!!
This was an awesome tutorial, I'm an experienced photographer but I picked up a few interesting tips. Thanks mate!
P.s this video deserves a lot more than 9k views!
Thanks a ton!🙌🙌
A find a balance between image 1 and 2 is a much more tasteful edit than the crunchy over sat edit of image 2 by itself.
Great video! Very informative. Would love a shooting tutorial of the Milkway and of your day to night time-lapses!
Thanks Urmil, I'm working on the day to night timelapse tutorial as I type this!
I must say this is one of the most helpful guides on editing Milky Way with Lightroom and Photoshop on youtube that I have ever seen! Good work and thank you so much!
Glad it was helpful!
Yes my dude, glad to see you making these videos. Keep it up!
Thanks a ton!!
I've never seen a video as good as this one! I love it! Thanks so much for sharing, it's well worth a subscription.
Thank you so much!
One of the best tutorials I have watched so far. The use of AstroPixel/PixInsight seems to be the best possible way to produce a masterpiece. Please consider making a detailed advanced Milky Way processing video. Thank you.
Will do! Thanks so much.
I would have been finished at 1:38. Excellent tutorial. Definitely saving this to my library of knowledge.
Glad it helped!!
Excellent video mate. Clear, concise and short but packed with very helpful information. Thanks 👍
Thanks a ton, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I am just completely blown away about how good you are at this. 😮
Thanks, Peter!
amazing how clear and simple you make the editing seem! i often take astro images but get confused, bored and annoyed with the editing. this helped massively! thank you
I'm so glad!
Thank you so much for sharing your acknowledges! This tutorial video really helps me get to next level of amatuer beginner astrophotographer! Thanks again 😊⭐
So glad you enjoyed it!
Genius understanding of technical workflow from capture to photo editing! I think for some scenes with more interesting foreground less striking astro maybe better storytelling.
This is a pleasure to watch. Easy to learn from, well done man!
Thanks man!!
Advanced Picture is the best for me. More work involved, but higher emotions when seen it. Congrats for the innovative process!
Thanks a lot!
I have been doing amateur astrophotography for 2 years. When I started, I would definitely like image number 3 the most. Today, when I understand how the night sky is photographed and what its post-production involves, image number 3 seems terrible to me. I'm in favor of simpler adjustments that come closer to what our eyes see, it's a shame that we can't see colors as well at night as during the day. So for me, picture n.1 and n.2. Otherwise, the video is great, it shows the differences in editing very well and I would like it to be seen by as many beginner astrophotographers as possible.
To each their own! Glad you enjoyed it :)
I came here to say something similar. Been doing astrophotography with 2 telescope setups for 5 years now and the milkyway edited with APP and pixinsight here is way overdone IMO. The background in image 2 is more pleasing when zoomed in than image 3. But this is a great video to show how Astro specific tools allow you to push your data further.
The great thing about the clean separation of elements you can get in PixInsight is that you have control as the artist. I agree that I actually prefer the balance of 2 better than 3, but you can also easily have produced a version with PixInsight that had brighter and fewer stars, less boosted nebulosity, and a clean dark sky that would be very pleasing and natural looking without the haze seen in 2 from prolonged exposure.
Great video Mike was able to follow all but one thing, when you moved the foreground Layer from lightroom how do you copy it to your main composition?
Thank you! I just selected the layer in the layers tab in PS and hit control+c to copy it. If you're having trouble with that you can also right click the layer and select "Duplicate". A dialog box will open asking where you'd like the duplicated layer to open and you can select the name of your other tab in PS where you're working on your sky layer.
Hi! I'm getting into astrophotography and I'm gonna do the Lightroom and then photoshop method. Honestly for me the last one feels kind of fake in a way. It looks very nice but doesn't feel natural. I'd like to know your opinions on it.
do whatever feels best to you!
This is one amazing video! I've always loved astrophotography. I tried a HDR moon stack with my handheld 200mm lens on a cheap DSLR using PIPP, Photoshop, and LRC. But in my area, there's constant 120 AQI air pollution, not to mention the light pollution too, so I’ve never had a chance to capture the Milky Way.
If you could make a video like this maybe starting with a phone and a tripod for a basic setup with LRC edits, then moving to a DSLR with Photoshop and LRC, and finally using a tracker, a UV filter-removed telescope, and apps mentioned in this video that pros use and that would be an amazing tutorial with what settings, tips, and tricks, methods we could use and I could finally tick ‘Milky Way photography’ off my bucket list. Maybe even capture a nebula or planet someday… 🫠🤌
Thanks for your comment, I'll keep that idea in mind!
@@mike_abramyan looking forward for that video!
Nicely laid out my friend super useful!
Appreciate it bro bro :)
That is a very instructive video, from basic to (very) advanced. Many thanks, so cool!
Glad you enjoyed it!
the PixInsight workflow creates extra black noise, which is why I gave up on this processing method.
Nice video! Quick and well explained. Tried your workflow with shots of the milky way that I took in Sahara desert. Got a lot more details out of them
Awesome, I'm so glad it was helpful!
Great video for an useful tutorial! Would love to get more details on your pixinsight workflow for astro landscape.
This is one of the best/easiest tutorials to follow.
I'm subscribed
Best compliment, thank you!
I’m just learning Milky Way photography. I have yet to capture an image, but when I do I will definitely becoming back to this tutorial to follow your steps in editing with LR and PS. Thanks so much!
I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
For a long time I've just been using the basic stacking and star reduction techniques. Funnily enough the way I'd worked out was quite similar to what you showed here, using high pass layers on the star reduced layers. Unfortunately when zoomed in, the quality is less than ideal, mainly because the high pass filter exaggerates the artifacts and halos around the stars like you pointed out. Recently I was introduced to StarXterminator, although I'm using it in Photoshop. It's really been a game changer due to being able to process the gradients, dust clouds and nebula independent of the stars. All of a sudden I've started noticing more of the faint dust clouds that cover the "blank sky" around the Milky Way in my photos. Personally I like using the high pass layers for stretching my star-less layers, I usually aim for a bit more of a subtle effect than your last one with the dust cloud texture. I also really like the more subtle star rendering that you get from blending the stars back in last.
That's amazing, glad you discovered StarX - it's a great tool! My processing has certainly changed a lot since I made this video... might be time for an update!
I don't comment any videos at all but this stuff is great. I've seen multiple tutorials but nothing was close to this, thank you, great work.
Glad it helped! Thanks :)
I honestly gave up on astrophotography a year ago but watching this video made me a little bit interested in it again. I might brush the dust off of my astro lenses and head out one of these nights.
Do it!!
Maybe the best video I've ever seen on astro editing! Many thanks!
Cheers!
Nicely done!!
Thanks pal!!
Just what I needed, thanks very much. Last year, my Milky Way images took a big step up through the use of stacking (Sequator) and Starnet V2 to separate stars and nebulae for separate editing. But I'd like to take it a step further through the use of Pixinsight. You have demonstrated here what I suspected, but wasn't sure of: that it can make a big difference, and without undue trouble. I much appreciate the quick and digestible demo in this video. Now, would you consider a more detailed workflow, also using a Milky Way core image? But you have given me enough to start with here. I'm going to give it a try!
Thanks for watching and I'm glad it was helpful! Indeed, stacking is a huge upgrade in image quality. Tracking and stacking is the ultimate! Actually... Shooting longer focal lengths like 50-85mm and doing a tracked stacked panorama is the actual ultimate way!😅
My workflow has evolved so much since this video, I definitely could do a deeper dive. I'll keep it in mind!
Nice video. I'm curious why you don't do the calibration in PixInsight? Does APP do a better job?
I'm too dumb to figure out the calibration tools in Pix 😂😂😂
Picked up some great tips for tweaking files. My Milky Way Night Sky Workshop students in Sedona, AZ are going to benefit greatly from some of your ideas...
I'm glad to hear it!! 🙏🙏
How would you go about stacking without a star tracker/ what would you recommend for a starter tracker? I don’t have much of a budget atm but I’ve wanted a reason to save up for one
Just make sure you keep the exposure time short enough to prevent the stars from trailing if you're not using a star tracker. Then the stacking method is exactly the same! Or you can use a free software called sequator if you're on Windows.
As for what budget tracker to use, I haven't tried it myself but the MSM Nomad looks promising and comes in at a very low price relative to everything else out there. I've got the trackers I use here on my gear list: learn.abramyanphoto.com/gear
thanks, I learned some more good tips and one I had forgot about!
So glad to hear it!
At stage two, could I stack the milky way images using software like Sequator or Starry Landscape Stacker? After that, use that stacked single image with an exposed (or stacked) foreground image and photoshop it together?
Yes, absolutely!
I've been taking lots of astrophotos with the optima camera settings on my 24mp camera, to minumize star streaks. I like my JPG pictures as taken. Haven't thought about using star tracker, Lightroom or photo staking yet, just wondering if they will be any sharpers while I zoom way in.
I'm sure it'll help a lot once you start editing!
Great video thank you for taking the time to make it.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for the discussion. I came over from reddit where you had that amazing picture!
Glad you liked it! 🙌🙌
Amazing tutorial! Keep up the good work
Thanks a ton Kyiat!!
Damn! I am new to astro photography. This is a great video with a lot of steps. I hope I can use this video soon and try your method.
Awesome, yeah try it out and let me know how it works for you!
Do you have a video on how to edit the last shot specifically going more in depth of the extra program? That would be amazing
I'll definitely consider making a more in-depth guide soon!
Nice explaining and easy to follow! Thanks
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks for the video - it's really helpful. I have been doing astro for some time, but haven't taken the time to dive into other workflows like this one. Ironically, I really prefer the "intermediate" edit, as I think there's a lot of a over processing in widefield astrophotography personally. Definitely a subjective thing though.
Yeah I agree! And honestly it's just great to have all these tools at your disposal to make those decisions and create art that you love. My workflow is always evolving (as are my preferences) and I'm sure I'll have a ton of new techniques to share by the end of milky way core season!
This just helped me a ton! I don't have all the same tools, but these tricks are possible in photoshop as well, even if it's a bit more work, so I'll be using them for sure.
Glad it helped!!
Thanks for that very informative video tutorial. I tried your star minimsation technique and it came out quite well. But I did notice artefacts looking like holes in the image where the stars were. And am wondering if I am doing something wrong!
Try using a less aggressive setting in the size slider.
@@mike_abramyan Thank you!
kis camera py video bn rhi hy
Fabulous presentation, Mike. Really a huge help to see the difference between the three processes. I do Milky way photography and want to start using Pixinsight to take it to the next level. I wasn't familiar with Astro Pixel Processor. This is the first I've seen Pixinsight used for the MW; most seem to only use it for deep space image processing. So it's obvious this can do much more than PS and LR. I'm not clear on the use of Astro Pixel Processor. Do you just use it to stack the photos? Is it worth the extra cost over Starry Landscape Stacker? Add me to the list of folks who would like to see a video from you on shooting the MW and your day to night time lapses.
Thanks so much! APP is not necessary, you can use starry landscape stacker or learn how to do preprocessing (stacking and calibration) in pixinsight. The only thing APP does better is panoramas/mosaics.
Dude this is really well put together. Nice and straight to the point, no fluff. Love it!
Just a question, what's the reasoning behind stacking exposure? Why do you do this? Is it just foreground vs background, or do you also produce multiple layers for the sky itself, and why? Sorry, really curious to know 😁
Thank you very much! I stack multiple exposures of the sky because there is a type of noise in each shot that is random every time so if you stack a bunch of photos of the exact same thing the noise can be averaged out and the result is a cleaner looking image!
Oh my god !!! This is a reallyyyyy high quality content video ! I am an amateur, and your video quality is just so good, i was thinking to may be start a youtube acc on sharing my shallow astrophotography knowledge and i found your video, hahahahah it since like i have no more purpose to do it 😂
You're too kind, you should start one too! There's no downside to having more information out there :)
Hi, thanks for the video! When I went to layers, smart objects, I don't see the stack mode option available, it's greyed out. Do I need to convert my layers as smart objects first?
Yep, needs to be a smart object to change the stack mode.
@@mike_abramyan thanks! I tried the stacking median and it completely blurred my images (not sure what I did wrong). So I skipped that and continued with the rest of the workflow and it came out great! Thanks a lot!
@@Logan_deadpoolsounds like you didn't align the layers before stacking. The stars need to be all perfectly aligned for it to work. If you're on Windows, a great tool for stacking is Sequator (free). It will automatically align and stack everything in one click. Pretty nifty!
@@mike_abramyan I think I did the align but not sure. And yes I am on windows, so you’re saying I can use the sequator image as the starting point and then proceed with the steps you mentioned?
You mentioned printing photos, do you have any tips for printing? Brightness? DPI? Would love a video on it
I should definitely make a video on it although I feel like a bit of an imposter with this topic despite having sold tons of prints already. I don't print images myself, so the best thing I can do for my clients is just ordering test prints before anything goes for sale and making corrections based on what I see. That, and finding an amazing printer to partner with, is the best advice I can dish out quickly haha!
Hey nice edit !
I tried to stack in median mode, but most of the stars were erased following the stacking, what should I do?
Did you make sure the layers were all aligned before stacking? Also you can use a program like sequator to do the stacking for you. It's free. Just make sure to export your layers as 16 bit TIFF from Lightroom
Hello!
Question, is it still possible to stack milky way photos without using a star tracker? If so, How do you recommend we do it without trackers?
Thanks!
Yes, it's possible without a tracker. Just follow the process in the video, it should work the same way! It's even more useful to do when not tracking so definitely give it a try.
Excellent tutorial. Thank you
I'm glad you enjoyed it and appreciate you watching!
Hi I followed you ok until you created separate masks for sky & foreground. Can you explain how you did that please?
Just use the quick selection tool to select the sky, then hit the layer mask button and you've got a masked out sky!
@@mike_abramyan Thanks, but I still can't follow you and find those buttons. I can create a sky mask and then check the INVERT box to do this, but I can't create an extra layer
Peter, so sorry your comment reply got buried in my inbox. If you have future questions, feel free to email me michaelabramyan@gmail.com or Instagram DM! Anyway, hopefully you figured it out by now, but if not, I'm sorry to say I'm not sure what's going wrong as it's tough to visualize exactly what you're doing. If we're talking about masking in Photoshop, you can only create one mask per layer. That means to have separate selections for your foreground and sky, you'd need to first duplicate the layer and then do your selection on the sky on one, duplicate that mask onto the other layer (hold alt and drag the mask to the other layer), then invert that (Ctrl+I). Let me know if that helps or not.
Thank you for this video! Totally worth it! ☄️
So glad you enjoyed it 😁
@@mike_abramyan yeah, you are giving some great advice especially in photoshop😨
How did you mask the foreground before your PI stretch?
I use a separate shot for the foreground so I don't bother masking it in PI.
why not merge the star and milky way layers in PI using PixelMath rather than Photoshop? Why not use deconvolution in PI to reduce star size? Just curious. Lovely tutorial.
I've done that before too, but if you wanted to do star reduction or anything further on the separate star and sky layers then this is much better! Sometimes I even add extra exposure to my star layer once I see how it looks over the starless and feel like the stars need to be brighter. I've tried deconvolution in PI before but don't really have a reason why I don't use it aside from the fact that I have a PS action that does it in one click for me now and it works well! Maybe the PI tool would yield better results though.
@@mike_abramyan there are methods to star shrink in PI that work very well, imho better than in Photoshop, although I will admit that the Photoshop technique is pretty good, easier to wrap your head around and you don't have to purchase an expensive piece of software that's rather specialist.
Thankyou MikeGreat advice and guidance
The advanced is crazy with all the fog visible, for me I prefer the easy method as I it is only a hobby
Brilliant video thanks for sharing!
I would like to see how far we can push the Photoshop method while obtaining the Astro software result ?
Hey, great video! Why don't you stack in PixInsight?
Honestly just found APP so easy to use I never tried it. I really should though!
Never thougth about using Pixinsight for my widefield astro images. Thanks alot.
It's well worth the money and you only pay for it once subscription software sucks
It would be great if we could see the details of your workflow in pixinsight, even if only the processes you used and in the order you used them.
Thanks, I'll definitely keep that in mind for a future video!
hi, when i come to smart objects i need to conert all my layers in smart objects (which i didn't see on the tutorial) and when i do my stacking it's not aligned at all, i loose a lot of stars definition, and if i do that with a 7 or 8 pitures stacking, some of them dissapear because of that ; i tried minimal and median stacking, median is the least worst...
You don't need to convert all your layers to smart objects. You select all your layers as they are, auto align them (if you have a lot of foreground in your shots make sure to add a mask over that so that Photoshop only looks at the sky and aligns that), then once they're perfectly aligned you select all layers and convert to smart object (this stacks all the layers into one smart object). From there you change the stack mode to median or mean.
I just found your channel, great post!
Thanks so much!
It was very easy to understand and helpful!
Glad it was helpful!
Mike, When I attempt to do the step: Layers>Smart Object>Stack Mode> Median, The Stack Mode is greyed out. Why is that? I am using the latest version of Photoshop.
Did you select all the layers you'd like to stack and convert them to a smart object first? After you do this step you should have just one layer. Then you select that and do the stacking.
@@mike_abramyan I came here with the same question - you missed out the instruction to convert the layers to Smart Object first - but I still find this video very useful!
This is so cool!
Thanks Tavifa :)
Hi mate. Great video. Thanks for posting. QQ. When I am in photoshop and I select my images to stack in both mean and median mode I only get a small portion of the image clear the rest is blurry with no detail at all. Any ideas? The images are already aligned via the previous action. I am trying to stack 6 x 2 minute exposures. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer here.
I'm sorry for the late reply. That is quite odd... Sounds like PS is bugging out or something? Have you tried updating your software to the latest version?
@@mike_abramyan thanks mate. Big release since I posted my reply so will try again.
Super cool !! time to level up.
I almost always use a single 5-10 minute exposure & photoshop to selectively add contrast. A few luminosity masks and brushed in contrast goes a long way. The LR & photoshop examples are flat, but the images just look incomplete, they could have both been taken much further.
Thanks for watching - there's always more that can be done but I find that the further you push non-linear images with low integration time, the more artifacts you will see as a result of pushing the data "too far". This is all personal preference.
Personally I don’t like the overdone one. Looks impressive for a second but then it wears off. The first one is more “accurate”
To each their own. Even now, in hindsight, I feel that the last one is overcooked as well and don't really go as far with my edits anymore.
i have the problem with auto align. it align the foreground but not the stars. how do i fix that?
If there's a lot of foreground in your shots you may want to add a mask over that in each layer before doing the alignment. You can delete the mask afterwards.
Hi Mike, thanks for making this video, really interesting to see how you're making use of the different applications. I was wondering, would you be able to do the same stacking process in Pixinsight as well, instead of using Astro Pixel Processor for that? Is there a benefit of using Astro Pixel Processor for this step? I am using trial versions of both applications at the moment and am wondering if only Pixinsight for my astro-scape edits provides all the functionality already. Thanks for your insight!
Hey there, yes absolutely you can use Pixinsight instead! I wouldn't say there's really any benefit to using APP for that step - it has always just felt more intuitive to me. I really should get better at Pixinsight though!
@@mike_abramyan Thanks a ton for the feedback! I feel you on APP being more intuitive haha. Really wish PI was a bit more accessible
Where would a program like stary landscape stacker fit in to all of this ?
It would take the place of Astro Pixel Processor.
Dude that’s a great video
Thank you for it
Glad you liked it!
Thank for super helpful tutorial.
Glad it was helpful!
whenever i select median or mean on the stack mode it makes my image blurry, why does this happen am i missing a step
You're probably not aligning the stars. You can also try a free program called Sequator, it does all the steps for you.
@@mike_abramyan im pretty sure i did select them to auto align but ill try that, thanks
My photoshop somewhy doesn't auto align them properly, any suggesstions? :(
If there's a lot of foreground in your shots you may want to add a mask over that in each layer before doing the alignment. You can delete the mask afterwards.
Thank you for sharing with us ☁️
Just tryna keep up with you!!
Excellent explanation.
3:55 what happened there? How did the layers become one?
When you have multiple layers selected and convert them to a smart object they get stacked into one layer. Sort of like if you dragged a bunch of layers into a folder - it contains all the layers but cleans up your layer panel.
nice.i did the first part wiht LR and my pics are something else. thx
Glad it helped!!
Well done Mike
Thank you!
Are you stacking 15,20,25 second exposures together?
Yep.
Can you do all of this in SiriL?
I've not used that program, unfortunately!
I’ve been diving passionately into amateur photography for two years and although i’ve probably spent hundreds of hours editing my photos (mostly with DxO Photolab) I still feel like a complete newbie when I watch this kind of video... No matter how good your process is, I feel this kind of tutorial is kind of lost on me since I don’t think it’s really usefull to just apply a "recipe" without understanding in depth what every modification you apply to your image does exactly...
Sure, this video is meant to show some of the tools available and give a layout of my workflow on different levels. A 1-on-1 conversation and workshop would be the only way to truly explain everything in detail as it applies to your own images in particular. In fact, I'm doing a workshop just like this with an astrophotographer I look up to tomorrow! I can't wait to learn from him.
Pls make a pdf with steps and pfotos how to do. I think me and most other will buy it
I will definitely keep that in mind as I work on my next digital products! Thank you for that feedback 🙏
15:00 that's not chromatic aberrations, that's the firmware of the Sony cameras forcing noise reduction algorithms that ruin the colors of the stars
damn... that composite was awesome.