My name is Richard Tatti and my passion is Landscape Astrophotography, and more specifically creating awe inspiring Nightscape Images. I've spent many years photographing the stars and perfecting the craft of light painting and blending of images. If you're passionate about shooting the milky way and creating unique and inspiring images then I'm here to help you learn how to do that.
I am based in Central Victoria in the amazing country of Australia. I spend a lot of the year conducting night photography workshops and never tire of spending time with like minded people out under the amazing milky way.
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I just bought this camera so your guide will be very helpful then. Thanks!
I appreciate you watching.
Damn, scrolling through the comments I see you answered to every single one 😳! That's nice of you, but you don't have to if it starts eating up too much of your precious time. Anyway, just came here to say: Great video, unbelievable pictures and heartwarming end 😍! I was outside that evening just by chance, and it was beautiful here in Switzerland too. Looking back I should have stayed up all night as well 🙈.
Thanks for your kind words Stefan. I think it's common courtesy to respond to people . .especially when they ask a question. Any youtube channel owes it's success to the people who support the channel . .not the creator of the channel.
@@nightscapeimages.richard Thanks for your humble answer, but no success without good content 😉. It's a very noble attitude with which I generally totally agree. But I have just witnessed too many KZreadrs being worn out over time, that's all. Take care!
New sub from me my friend. Thank you for all of your hard work. My first star tracker arrived today and I was just looking at it thinking I’ll never get this right
Very kind of you David. I appreciate your great support.
We that are watching didn't think it was a bomb! Good to see you getting some exercise Izzy. What strength of grad were you using?
I don't use filters for shooting nightscape images Barry.
Sorry. Posted this remark on the wrong site. Still enjoyed you edit with the masks. Very informative.
@@barryaitken9761 No worries Barry, thanks again.
Richard, I am new to Astro photography. Photopills says for the Z20mm f/1.8, which I own, they recommend no more then 5 seconds for star exposures. On your none -tracked shots, I see you using 15 to 20 seconds. Won't you get motion in the stars? For single photos or panos what is your recommendation for the 20mm f/1.8 Z lens.Thank You. Ed
Thanks for watching Ed. Are you using a crop sensor camera . .?? For the Nikon Z6 series the photopills NPF says 13 seconds with the 20mm lens. But I will often go a bit longer to get a better exposure.
@@nightscapeimages.richard Z8 body
@@nightscapeimages.richard Richard, won't you get moving stars or do you not care if there is a tiny bit of movement?
@@edkelly145 Yes but sometimes you have to compromise that to get a better exposure .. .and in turn less noise. To be honest no-one really notices slightly trailing stars unless you really zoom in.
Merci bonnes photos !
Thanks so much for tuning in.
Nice video. Thank you very much from Spain.
I very much appreciate you watching.
I've had a Manfrotto 055 of one variety or another for 30+ years and had the same frustration with being able to use the low height settings that the legs allow for but the centre column does not. Last week I finally implemented the solution that I came up with years ago but couldn't bring myself to do. I took a hacksaw and cut the centre column to about 6 inches. No problems, no regrets.
Haha, yes I've done that in the past as well . .Great work ..!!!
Im not sure what you are doing wrong with those first lenses you've shown. I've gotten better pictures with a kit camera than you did with those.
Love to see them.
I wish Richard would provide links to all items talked about in this video. Like the "360° Flex Tilt & Pan Head - Z&V Mount Designed with Alyn Wallace", "SkySafari 7 - Astronomy Observing & Telescope Control Software for Android", "Two Way T-Shape Mini Bubble Magnetic Magnet Spirit Level Pictures", "glow-in-the-dark tape", "Skylabs polar alignment phone adapter", and the "MSM wedge base".
Hey Lee, most of those items are listed on the MSM website. See here: www.moveshootmove.com/products/nomad-star-tracker-for-novice-and-experienced-astrophotographers Sky Safari 7 Plus: skysafariastronomy.com/ 2 way bubble level: www.amazon.com.au/Leveler-Caravan-Trailer-Levelling-Indicator/dp/B09TDBLG71/ref=asc_df_B09TDBLG71/?tag=googleshopdsk-22&linkCode=df0&hvadid=606290820670&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10439889321488735118&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9071496&hvtargid=pla-1866186980316&psc=1&mcid=b72a55201eee3dfd97749765080d6907 The round disc this attached to is home made. Skylabs: www.skylabs.co.nz/product-page/skylabs-nz-polar-alignment-adapter Glow in dark tape: www.ebay.com.au/itm/385113620252?itmmeta=01J0D175VVCCD28MVGC2WR1RQY&hash=item59aa8f7f1c:g:pM4AAOSwEfhjIC~5&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAAwMHauuUGTSY4Vw7dU5%2By7Dmk5vl%2FCKZSIWhQIr2A07vyYIBugn0UiXIh88%2Fk%2B0L9wqK%2B6a3dxJ9MntUthTQUFOo0YXDV%2FgYPP51BbuSdeRG4bFU29e%2Flxt1Zzyg3Ll2yCSJYtlNzsqDMqyFXF3scH9enVLaZA10qMnHaD5qVJZIkjeLdt%2FXaFCyuhSIbpGiAf7btkPZe%2BxGQnDwuIsquqMhFnwT1SoIIonO1BsIM6rVLTGweJ3%2Bw640ClzQRsd19Gg%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABlBMUIrenKGDZA
I love your work. I flew down for the night on 11 May 2024 for the Aurora and was at the Great Ocean Road and was commenting to a stranger, who wanted to light paint next to me and I said gee I watch this guy on the internet who is a master at this. I was talking to Levin! So I met him and he me told of his connection to you. Small world! And he also discussed the workshops!
Haha, yes it sure is a small world Jason . .!!!
Does a black frame have to be the same exposure settings with the lens cap on or can you do faster shutter speed to create a black file? Reason I ask is why do a black exposure with a star tracker say 2 minutes instead of 1 second with a faster ss if it doesn’t matter
Yes it has to be exactly the same length and settings as the light frame. PS: I rarely do dark frames these days.
@@nightscapeimages.richard cheers mate thanks , that’s why it came up error when I tried to stack them
Hey mate , haven’t checked if dust and scratches is even in photoshop anymore as this is an old video and you might have a different way of removing noise , im wondering if dust and scratches would work on the sky\stars as well
Yes it's still there. No I wouldn't use it on stars. They look too much like dust.
@@nightscapeimages.richard yes that’s what I thought thanks mate
Thank you for this detailed description of the Nomad and your explanation how every thing fits and works. This vide has finally convinced me to upgrade from my MSM.
Thanks so much for watching.
Another excellent tutorial Richard, I am a Mac user so I guess will have to look at different software in the future, my change from F mount to Z mount has reduced my bank balance to will have to wait a while :) But, a great tutorial in any case Regards, ................ Gary .......................... AU
Always appreciate your comments Gary, thanks mate.
Hi Richard, great tutorial about alternative stitching software. Concerning the vignette issue: On Nikon Z cameras you should put 'Vignette Control' to 'High' in the shooting menu when using native Z-lenses. On older bodies with F-mount lenses these settings would only affect JPEG images. But now they get baked into the integrated lens correction profile which is then applied in Lightroom
Yes that's a very good tip, thanks for watching.
Thanks You Richard, very easy understanding and steps for me to understand. Fantasitc as what you said.
I'm really pleased you enjoyed it Graeme.
in time line at 15.21 , the photo description of 10x skyf1.8 and 3 x foregournd at f5.6. For the foreground it is mean 3 different touch light shinning of the foreground and the 10 shot of sky meaning panning paronoma? I dont get it, Richard?
No this is not a panorama. What I did was shoot 10 of exactly the same image of the sky . .I do this to help reduce noise in the image and increase dynamic range. Then without moving the camera or tripod I change the aperture and iso and proceed to shoot 3 images of the close foreground and add some light painting. Then in editing I blend all of those images together. See this video which explains the whole process. kzread.info/dash/bejne/ZamMqramp8bHdrA.html
thanks ! normally I do 3 to 4 shots for noises but yours 10 shots interesting to learn from you Richarad.
I didn't realize that it doesn't even have the dc2 remote port. It seems like its been designed to be a secondary camera for someone whos already using a z8 or the upcoming z6iii
You'll see that Nikon and probably other manufacturers always leave out things like remote ports on their entry level cameras . .so this Zf is obviously rated that way by Nikon. Obviously it's designed as a walk around, street camera and not so suited to long exposure photography.. especially with the light painting methods I use.
Thank you so much. I literally just discovered you this past week, in preparation for a new moon milky way session in Bryce Canyon. I've learned so much, yet i know I'm just starting. One thing i haven't seen answered in any video i have watched is the right order to take a pano you plan to stack to reduce noise. Are we supposed to take all the frames we plan to stack one after the other before we pan to the next conposition, or should we take the entire pano first and then go back and redo it for the total number of images per stack? What is the best practice here and can you point me to a video where you explain this? Thanks
Thanks so much for tuning in to my channel Carlos, I really appreciate it. If you plan on stacking your panels for a panorama.(Which I rarely do by the way) then you would always stack them on that single frame before you move to the next one. If you don't do that you'll never be able to align the exact shot later. I don't have a video specifically discussing this unfortunately, but just keep in mind that if you're ever stacking any image sequence then each of the images you intend to stack have to be exactly the same. Any variation will render them useless.
@@nightscapeimages.richard thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my comment/question.
So, how do you map the Starlight Mode on the Zf? Alan
You just go into the menu where it gives you the options to assign functions to certain buttons. I don't have the camera any more so I can't tell you exactly where that is . .but I found it no trouble when I had the camera.
Thank you for the informative video! I'm very interested in buying this tracker, but my tripod doesn't have a leveling base. So I won't know for sure if it's level or not. Do you think this will be a problem? My tripod is the Manfrotto Compact Advanced
Thanks so much for watching my friend. It's ok, you don't always need a perfectly level tripod to use a star tracker. I mention it in this video because I believe it to be a good practice to get things right in the field if possible. As long as you line up the pole star you'll have no issues.
@@nightscapeimages.richard Thank you for the answer! I hope you have a great day and i'm looking forward for new video's
Great explanation as always Richard and just love those stunning results.
Thanks for your kind words as always Levin.
Another great post, thank you. I have both, Sony and Nikon cameras and lenses, but as much as I love the Sony GM series lenses, I prefer to shoot with the Nikon system because, you may not know, the native Nikon lens will automatically be set to infinity upon power up (set to AF-S, turn camera on, then switch to MF), stars are needle sharp and it gets rid of the arduous "fly-by-wire" difficulties when focusing on stars.
Yes I sure do know about that feature .. and I do use it all the time.
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.
Thanks Richard, some really useful tips here 👍. I have used ICE in the past and liked the wide choice of projections, but for some reason hadn't twigged that you can then drag the perspective to your liking 15:17 - a real takeaway for me! Super images as per 👏.
I'm very pleased you found it helpful Paul. Thanks again for watching.
"Z96 Continuous Light" dead link to Amazon.
Yes it looks like it's been discontinued.
@@nightscapeimages.richard can you recommend a replacement? Thx.
Thanks Richard. Always pick up fantastic tips & tricks: particularly the Vignetting correction was very productive. Much appreciated
Thanks for tuning in again Manjul.
Damn! Richard - absolutely awsome panoramas 😍 Beautiful 😍👌 top notch!!!…
You're very welcome Michael.
Thanks again Richard for your efforts. I did some pano shots recently but found it difficult to see the amount and position of the overlap of the frames. Would you happen to have a solution? Many thanks, Francis.
As I mentioned Francis. It can be tricky when you can't see much in the viewfinder of the camera. In that case I estimate based on the lens focal length and err on the side of more overlap.
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.
You dropped some good tips here, so in turn, I’ll drop one for you: it’s pronounced “Vin-yet”!
Great tip ... I'll keep that in mind.
@@nightscapeimages.richard lol.. i’m just messing with you, but… It really is pronounced that way.
Thank You Richard for another education.Keep going,please. I am looking forward to next portion. P.S. My daughter is in Sydney for one year and i told her about rum balls on your recommendation. After few weeks she told me-i got it,from Hungarian pastry shop. They were tasty 🙂
A good rum ball is very hard to find . .!!!! Thanks so much for your great support my friend.
Very helpful! I’m going to get Image Composite Editor and try it out on some images that I’ve given up on in the past. Thanks!
Thanks for watching. I hope you get good results.
Hi Richard, just downloaded the ICE program to test it out. What a ripper of a little program, easy to use and great results. Can’t believe Microsoft no longer support it. Really looking forward to the episode on how to merge and process tracked panorama. Keep up the good work.
Glad it was helpful to you Trevor. I've loved using it.
Thanks Richard for this very informative video. Great explanation of the difference between the original MSM and the Nomad.
I'm pleased you found it useful Lauren.
Absolutely love it 🥰
Thanks again for watching Bernie.
Had to drag out one of your older videos! Im always trying new ways to stack and edit. Decided to go back to how you make it happen.
I hope you find it helpful.
Is it better to start from the left or the right when doing the sequence shots. or can Lightroom figure it out no matter which side you start?
Well the software does figure it out, and for smaller panoramas it doesn't matter at all. If you decide to do a very wide and high panorama it's often better to work it so that the portion of the sky you're shooting first is setting lower in the sky. By doing that you'll capture it before it gets too low in the sky. This depends which hemisphere you're in and what time of year it is. For example here in the southern hemisphere the milky way galactic core sets in the west later in the year. So it's best to shoot the lower portion of the sky first as that's going to eventually disappear under the horizon. This is particularly more important when doing long tracked panoramas.
Richard do you think the z6iii that's coming will have the same exposure smoothing and time-lapse capabilities as the z6ii? Do they ever lose stuff like that in a new model?
I'd expect the same options in the Z6iii .. All of the other Nikon Z models have this.
Richard, another helpful video for us learning how to do astrophotography. Thank you for all you do for us learners! When I take non-panorama pictures (fixed camera position), I have been taking 5-10 pictures and stacking with Sequator to get enough starlight in the edited product. I'm on the east coast US so Class 3 & 4 Bortle is the best dark sky I have. In this video you are only using a single picture for each movement of the camera. I had been thinking I needed multiple pictures at each camera movement.
Thanks for tuning in Bradley. I rarely stack panoramas but you can do that . .however the key to shooting panoramas is to take the images as close as possible to each other to help the stitching software perform better. Obviously if you're shooting multiple frames for each panel of the panorama .. that will take some time.
Thank you for making this video with all the examples, it really put things into perspective. I learned quite a lot. Obviously I trust your judgement so I would like your recommendation. I have a Canon R and am trying to decide what would be best for astro? The 24mm f1.8 prime stm or the 24-105 f4 USM. I realize there is a big difference in price but I really just want the best one for the job. Would highly appreciate your perspective. Thank you
Thanks for your kind support of my work Mory. As a general rule a wide aperture prime lens will always be more suitable for nightscape photography .. .so the f1.8 would be my choice. However the 24-105 is an all rounder lens and much more suitable for general photography. The biggest issue is that f4 is really quite "Slow" when it comes to low light photography. Other alternatives. Sigma 20mm f1.4 EF to RF adaptor required. Laowa 15mm f2, Samyang 14mm f2.4, there may be others I can't recall.
thanks for the timely reply and advise. Love your channel.@@nightscapeimages.richard
Thanks so much for this video Richard. I watched it yesterday and went out shooting the milky way last night. I downloaded ICE this morning and was able to stitch a 45 pic panorama together effortlessly. Thank you 😊
That's fantastic Anthony. Did you have any trouble finding an ICE download site ..??
@@nightscapeimages.richard yes a little bit I did find it and worked great.
Excellent tutorial Richard! Also ICE seems to be a fantastic alternative to PTGui. Good tip on the vignette midpoint slider there. Haven't come up with that one myself yet. Cheers from the hospital in La Palma, where I fortunately also shot some potentially spectacular pano's before breaking my leg 🤭. This tutorial will help get a better result 👍
Oh no Jeroen . .I hope you are recovering well my friend. I suppose at least that will give you some editing time to work on images hopefully.
@@nightscapeimages.richard thanks so much Richard! I hope I can edit some soon after surgery and being a bit more mobile. Your tutorial will definately help!
Richard, you show a Bubble Spirit Level that you use to level your tripod. I'm seeing you screw it on. Did you attach it to something or does it come with a 3/8 hole already in it? Do you have a link to where you got it? Thank you.
That's a home made device Bruce. I used a 2 way caravan level attached to a nylon block with a 3/8 inch threaded hole in it. www.amazon.com.au/Leveler-Caravan-Trailer-Levelling-Indicator/dp/B09TDBLG71/ref=asc_df_B09TDBLG71/?tag=googleshopdsk-22&linkCode=df0&hvadid=606290820670&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13687419747469086535&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9071496&hvtargid=pla-1866186980316&psc=1&mcid=b72a55201eee3dfd97749765080d6907
Hi Richard, could you please post a link to the ice download ? It would be most welcome. Thanks 🙏👍
I haven't found a current download link Mark as I've had it for a while. I'll keep looking.
Great tutorial as usual, Richard! I'm surprised you didn't mention having a set white Balance on your tips rather than the AWB setting. (That will surely get you into stitching problems!) I just wish I could find a source for Microsoft ICE. Wonder why they discontinued it?
Yes I probably should have mentioned white balance for sure Andrea. I never shoot in Auto.
A quick question about multi row panos. Do you merge all images in one row first, then merge all images for the second row, and finally merge both rows? Or do you import all images from all rows and then let the software merge it all together? Thanks.
If all the images have the same settings then I'll merge them all together in one hit. If I do a tracked panorama of the sky then I'll do that one separately to the foreground one.
Thank you for sharing these wonderful techniques. Can you please explain or make a video on how to shoot the two row panorama especially for the milkyway... what are the sequence to follow as the milkyway is constantly moving and the ground is stationary... Thanks in advance....
Thanks for watching. Yes the sky is moving and that's why you need to shoot each frame quickly. The stitching software takes care of the alignment of both the sky and the foreground so it all comes out looking correct.
Great video as always fella, some excellent tips. I had heard about Microsoft ICE before but wasn't sure if it was worth hunting it down but I am going to have a wee hunt for it. Now I just need to wait till mid August for darkness to return so I can out these methods into practice.
Thanks William. It can be hard to find but well worth it.