Welcome to Photog Adventures!
Photog Adventures is about chronicling and sharing the stories of my adventures getting out there. Whether you have a full time job or demanding family responsibilities you just need to start now MAKING AN ADVENTURE A PRIORITY in your life!
If you are a beginning landscape or astrophotographer come along with me through my KZread CHANNEL and learn from my mistakes and my successes! If nothing else, seeing me out there will inspire you to find time to get out there too and have a photog adventure of your own!
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Hello Aaron, maybe its because english isn‘t my native tongue but i don‘t get this 3C3O right!? How does it relate to your picture numbering? thnx Yo
Really enjoyed your video! You guys keep mentioning we can download 3d models from "Wyngee?" Can you provide a URl?
TWO QUESTIONS: Brendon, what focal length lens do you think is best for most of these two narrow slots? I have 12mm, 14mm, 24mm, and 50mm primes. Was carrying the tripod worth the trouble as you navigated through the slots? Thank you for producing this video despite Aaron's health... I hope he recovered quickly.
What is that 5 across in the pixels wit the loupe that you mentioned ? I didn't quite get that part
Just finding these 2 min tip videos, very helpful and on point without a lot of blah, blah! Well done, THANK YOU!!
Keep in mind that weather in Lofoten is unpredictable, it is get cloudy a lot, but still one of the most beautiful places in Norway for photography, I would include a visit to Dragon Eye for photography. Amazing scene and quite popular. Good luck and have fun. @ivebeentolapland
Absolutely agree and understand that. It is the true drawback to going North to be UNDER the KP1 skies. They can find themselves fully cloaked in clouds. My first Aurora experience back in 2018 was in the Faroe Islands and Aurora was banging JUST over our heads! But we had a full sky of clouds and couldn't see anything except for the green color coming through the clouds. It was truly disappointing. The great news in Lofoten is that we could have multiple nights with KP1-2 overhead and just need the clouds to permit us a clear view! :D Here's hoping and thanks for the Dragon Eye recommendation. Would definitely love to add that in during our adventure! Thank you very much! :D -Aaron
Sky Guide Pro with augmented reality. Thanks for the tip!
Lol, so funny, hits the point too
My phone died during the live, sorry I missed a large amount of it
Southampton is mid south of England
A tutorial to music .with a beat you can dance to :)
can you please post the link for Aurora links, I cannot find it in my inbox...cheers
Junk . Just a stupid music video
Great video! I’m not a photographer but this was fascinating-thanks so much!
Omg, it's so bad it's good.😂
lol that is true 😆
That was pretty cool. It pretty much sums it all up.
haha yeah, I didn't even keep that part out where I get scared in the dark
So just set it once that night I’m out tape her up and I’m good for the night?
Hey Aaron great stuff dude. I got one question . Your phone or laptop should be pointing north shouldn’t it and if so shouldn’t the app be able automatically point north. I can stand looking south with my phone pointing south and the app says it’s pointing north. It just assumes the top of the phone is pointing north
Great video! What shutter speed are you shooting at?
It is nice to help people everytime to get there first mw image. Greetings form Germany
I just found you, great post!
😃 You can even do it WITH a kit lens! But the experience is even easier with a nice wide open lens. The Rokinon 24mm f1.4 is easily my favorite lens, especially for beginners with how affordable it is. Irix 15mm would be next on the list for quality and affordability and then from there I would go 14mm Sigma or 20mm Sigma. Great glass! As you start your journey into Milky Way Photography, let me know anytime you have some questions!
May the 4th be with you. Great information Aaron. This will help me this year in getting a better panorama. ❤
Man …this is an awesome tutorial. Thank you so much
I wanna be able to photograph the milky way one day. Been stuck with my used kit lens for years. Wanna be able to afford nice photography stuff one day cuz i absolutely love it
Thanks so much. I presume the stars in your video is in the northern hemisphere. I will try a similar excercise for the southern hemisphere.
Groetjes, Johan! Yeah exactly. I really wish I had included a section on that. Like I have said to others in the comments, I normally am better at a nod at least to the Southern Hemisphere but this time I was completely focused only on the specifics from the North. But you nailed it, the principle of 3C3O is the same. Just pick any star you want. Even for those in the Northern Hemisphere, they aren't ALWAYS or even USUALLY going to end up following Antares, Altair, and Deneb across the sky. They will just see what stars they see and move to the next third. My workshop group last night had different experiences with what stars they could see on their cameras. From the Fujifilm that Jeff had to the Nikon Z9 that Nichole was using. They had different stars stand out than what stands out normally on my Canon 5DMiv and it changes nothing. Still 3rd-Center-3rd-Off and soon the sky was fully captured! It works like a charm! :D Thanks for watching and it's cool to meet someone I am assuming is from South Africa! I lived in the Netherlands so I am partial to Dutch/Afrikaans. Hope you keep coming back to the channel! :D -Aaron
@@PhotogAdventures Thanks Aaron. I am Afrikaans speaking but live just above SA in Namibia. We have a lot of open skies and little rain clouds to block the stars. I will definitely try your method.
I guess we better start boning up on this stuff for the August workshop in Oregon!
You know it! Well kinda….sadly in August we won’t have the opportunity to do Milky Way Panoramas unless you like the idea of a vertical pano or extreme high Milky Way with 3-4 rows to get it all in. So yes technically possible but not easy or ideal. What you should bone up on for August is your blue hour blending, long-exposure foreground blending and your compositional prowess when dealing with a vertical nearly vertical Milky Way core. THAT is the stuff we will be doing a lot more of! -Aaron
What about having the nodal point of the lens in the correct position over the axis of your tripod?
Actually answered the same question with MStraiteFamily earlier, allow me to just copy and paste my answer from that: “Nodal rail/slide is very useful to prevent issues with the parallax effect. You do need subjects closer to the camera to have a visible parallax effect. So depending on your foreground scenery, it could be overkill since you likely don't have any parallax issues. While the use of a Nodal slide is great, I have never found it necessary in my Milky Way Photography Panoramas. But to answer your question more directly: Yes you would get better results so long as you have a parallax effect you need to mitigate. For the scene I showed here in my video, it was not necessary.“ I hope you don’t mind the copying of my answer! 😇-Aaron
I use an index rotator and a two way head for my panos and pre-calculate everything, so I don't have to worry about alignment in the dark. For calculation I use a self-programmed pano calculator. Only the initial alignment has to be done in the field, Plan It Pro is very handy for that to see how an individual frame has to look like.
Yes! This is definitely the gear-powered solution. That’s awesome you have that setup and have become proficient in it. Most don’t have that setup for sure. Also, GREAT ADDITION by bringing up PlanIt Pro for pano planning. I LOVE that feature in the app. I really need to do a video on that next! 😃 -Aaron
Aaron, I do appreciate these tips and I do think they can help me in the field thank you. One question however, the method can be dependent on field of view of the lens. What focal length do you use or would recommend. Was it around 20mm? 24mm? Also, side bar, you seem to have to broken links in your description text. Tried to go to your gear page to help me figure out my question and got a 503 error.
Heya Mark Smith! Thank you for trying to see my gear list...I recently updated the wordpress on my PhotogAdventures.com site and it broke the page! I have to wipe it completely and go through the laborious re-upload or start fresh to fix it but I haven't taken the time to do that enough yet. My cursory attempts have failed with backups etc and so I have a bigger project to fix it. Your looking for those links to work emphasize that I need to hurry more there. To answer your question: This is not focal length dependent. Now, the amount of images you take and which stars you jump from WILL change with the wider or narrower focal length you choose. You will notice in my example of me at the camera I had extra images because of the scene and you can pretend it was a different focal length which caused me to require more images as I move across the far right to the far left. But the principle of choosing a visible star and moving it from 3rd-Center-3rd-Off is still the same. So whether you use a 15mm or a 35mm, you can use this method. You will just have fewer images and use different stars on the 15mm than what you would end up with on the 35mm. That make sense? As for recommendations, it is always easier to avoid edge distortions using a focal length 20mm-35mm and still remain pretty wide for a focal length. Lenses like the 14mm options have more edge shape warping. THAT SAID I have been 100% successful with both options and only make my lens choice preference based on the foreground. If I have a wide vista for a foreground AND I want to keep it all in just one row, then I must use a wide angle lens like my 15mm Tamron. If I have an intimate foreground like this Sunset Arch in Escalante, and I don't need to include a huge expanse of land in my foreground, then just using my 24mm Rokinon (like I used in this image) is sufficient. But BOTH LENSES create great panos and I am successful at stitching using either. Hope that helps! -Aaron
Being in India isn't Vega too high in the sky for sufficient foreground? I suppose i should be taking 2 rows of panorama. Then should I start shooting from the bottom row, right? & from which direction? Left to right or right to left? Thanks.
Oh yes, it really comes down to your location and what time you are capturing to dictate how many rows you will need to include the foreground. IF you CAN get all of the foreground in and the stars by just barely cutting off Vega, then a single row will do. But when it doesn't work, you will have to add a second row. You may even cut off Vega even more if you have to, but you just have to be careful to still give your Milky Way arch the headroom it needs to not be weirdly warped at the top when panorama merged. The safest way to describe that to people learning is to say: "Get up to Vega and either include right at the top or cut it off and you will be sure that you have enough headroom to avoid issues." But you can cut off anywhere that works best for you and your inclusion of the foreground. That makes sense? As for where to start: ALWAYS START WITH SKY! The risk of clouds forming or moving in is too great. I always remind people that the foreground isn't going anywhere, so prioritize the sky that COULD get ruined with new clouds. As far as starting LEFT or from the RIGHT that depends on what you are doing. IF you are using a Star Tracker, then you could benefit starting from the LEFT SIDE in the Northern Hemisphere because that side moves the least and by the time you get to the galactic core it will merge pretty decently still. BUT if you are just doing a single image panorama like in my example, then starting from the RIGHT is easy and not a problem. You capture image to image quick enough that there is zero issue connecting the frames in the merge. For single image panoramas you can start on either side and have the same success. I always start at the galactic core because of the risk of new clouds. I would rather capture the core without clouds and if clouds should form during those two mins, the clouds will block the lesser side of the milky way arch. Then after I nailed my sky images I would capture another row in order to include my foreground. Thanks for watching my video, Avanindrabhatia! -Aaron
@@PhotogAdventures Thanks for the detailed information.
Except if you are in the Southern Hemisphere.
Not really. Yes I mention specific stars that are bookends for our Milky Way up here in the Northern Hemisphere. But while your bookends are entirely different stars, using the 3rd-Center-3rd-Off method still works exactly as expected. Like I said above to another comment, I am disappointed that I forgot to mention the Southern Hemisphere and how it would work differently there. I am normally better at including the Southern Hemisphere but since I had these image examples from the Northern Hemisphere I totally forgot to mention the South. Sorry about that! But the method is still useful, just need to pick any stars you would like and go from there. Thanks for watching my video! Hope you keep coming back to the channel! -Aaron
@@PhotogAdventures I agree that the 3rd Center 3rd Off is a great technique and it’s one I’ll try.
Right on! Thanks! It’s only truly useful if you love the idea of not checking markers on your ballhead as you go or just can’t turn on lights to see them. But I personally love not having to turn on any lights and I get to just go and build that pano with very little thought. Like I said, under 2mins and I got two rows of a pano complete at my 8second shutter. It’s nice keeping things quick and simple. 😃 Thanks for the reply! -Aaron
I'm all for techniques that make life easier or in the field but this method seems very location specific (or at northern hemisphere 😂).
Well yes and no. My specific mention of the stars Antares to Vega to the constellation Cassiopeia IS Northern Hemisphere centric. BUT the 3C3O method can work with absolutely any star in the sky. From one side of your pano to your other, just move along from image to image while moving a star of choice 3rd-center-3rd-off. They just won't be the same stars or at least in the same order as my image example coming from the Northern Hemisphere. I am really glad you brought this up and wish I had made a mention of that in my video. I am normally better at including the Southern Hemisphere but in this video I totally forgot! Appreciate you making note of it! -Aaron
@@PhotogAdventures Thanks Aaron appreciate your channel and the work you put into it 👍. Prior to using a geared 3 way head (eg Benro) I did use the method similar to what you describe and it definitely works. Now with the geared head I have memorised how many turns of the knob give me the required overlap for each of my focal lengths (20mm =10, 35mm = 6, 85mm = 4). Coming up repeatable techniques like these certainly makes life under the stars a more enjoyable and predictable experience 😊
@@GrowPhotography Thank you for saying that about my channel and my work on it. To be honest, I have been too pulled away from the KZread channel and my podcast the last few years and working to remedy that. Good start this year so far but need to get at least one new video out a week! :D Wow yeah, when you have the specifics of your gear down like that, then it makes execution very easy! I love that. Amen to that about more enjoyable and predictable. Milky Way Photography is one of the most accommodating as you don't to rush to get your image really ever as long as there are no clouds. The Milky Way meanders through our night sky at a pace that allows for plenty of time to create that dream shot. I love it :D -Aaron
@@PhotogAdventures I don't know how you manage one video a week - I consider myself doing well if I manage one a month 🤣
love it
Thank you for saying so, Brandi! Love that you have come to my channel to learn about Milky Way Photography. Hope you will keep coming back for more! :D -Aaron
Great video! Quick question, do you get better results if you use a nodal rail to get the middle of the lens over the fulcrum? Just not sure if its overkill.
Nodal rail/slide is very useful to prevent issues with the parallax effect. You do need subjects closer to the camera to have a visible parallax effect. So depending on your foreground scenery, it could be overkill since you likely don't have any parallax issues. While the use of a Nodal slide is great, I have never found it necessary in my Milky Way Photography Panoramas. But to answer your question more directly: Yes you would get better results so long as you have a parallax effect you need to mitigate. For the scene I showed here in my video, it was not necessary. Thanks for the compliment and really appreciate you coming to my channel to watch this video! Hope you keep coming back for more! -Aaron
Those are some great tips Aaron! Will definately use rge guide stars on the next pano👌
Hey thanks, Jeroen! Hartelijk bedankt! :D -Aaron
Great info
More overlap provides a stacking effect too even when tracking
You know I wonder how much it actually does. I mean, on the merging sections there is shared data but I am not sure if a mean/average filter is applied in the blending of the two but wouldn't be surprised if that did happen. I will admit to being a member of the "it works so I didn't look under the hood to see how it worked" generation. So I haven't looked up what steps Adobe Lightroom for example goes through to apply the blend of images together. If it does add a stacking effect, then even a little extra WIN for the overkill 70% overlap :D Thanks for the great comment and positive attitude as always, John! :D Great to hear from you! Looks like you might be watching today's Facebook live too from what I saw. That would be great if you could join in from Australia! -Aaron
@@PhotogAdventures Thanks for your comment as I do tend to overlap a Lot when I'm tracking to make sure it does stitch when I'm spending hours on end tracking these tracked panorama's ( as you mentioned with that Panorama you showcase a few months back) I had over 90 images in it and you did say you could do it with less panels? Not sure where I saw / heard about the stacking effect but it was someone who knows what they are doing who mentioned it so who know?
What is your name
My name is Aaron King. Thanks Omer Ali for coming to my channel and watching! Hope I will become a home for you when learning Milky Way Photography! -Aaron
@@PhotogAdventuresi Subscribe to you
@@PhotogAdventures I Subscribed To you
@@OmerAli-qp7jx Woohoo! Right on and thank you! :D -Aaron
@@PhotogAdventures You are welcome
Thanks so much Aaron, your timelapse pdf was super helpful, I'm hoping the weather will be stable enough to get a pano this coming moon cycle
I know that frustration of hoping the weather complies…Oh the agony when nature decides otherwise! I appreciate the extra kind words about my Timelapse tip sheet too! Thank you for adding that! Hope you keep coming back for more and make my KZread channel a home for your Milky Way Photography. 😃 -Aaron
Thanks. Great demonstration.
Thanks for saying that! Glad you watched the video and hope you keep coming back to the channel for more tips! 😃 -Aaron
Lost me at guide stars.
How do you mean? That it was too quick of a term and vague for what I meant? The “guide stars” term was just a quick way to say “these stars are your markers for your edges of the panorama. Right book end is Antares. Left book end is the constellation Cassiopeia and the marker for what the highest point of your panorama is Vega.” Did I make that too short of a description? Sorry if I did. I just felt it made the video too long to say more about it when I reference them the rest of the video over and over. -Aaron
@@PhotogAdventures some of us have no desire to be astronomers. I really don't want to learn the guide stars and I believe there are many like me. Not to worry, I've taken quite a few without learning the guide stars. No problem, keep 'em coming.
@@lefturn99 Oh okay sure thing. Sounds like the way I spoke about them that quickly was something you actually appreciated then. I was afraid "lost me" meant that you wanted to learn but I made it confusing. You certainly don't have to learn astronomy to tackle this, but I think knowing three things like Antares, Vega and the constellation Cassiopeia is not too much. Certainly you know the words for Cactus and Mountain and where to look for them in other photography, so I imagine that it would still fit in your threshold of what you want to learn and what you don't. Thanks for clarifying, lefturn99! Appreciate you coming back and replying! Thanks for the encouragement to keep the videos coming and hope you will return as well! -Aaron
North Dakota loud n clear
Is anyone photographing Manly lake reflection of Milky Way? Before it dries up?
North Dakota
Aaron, awesome video. I was waiting for something like this so if I understood you correctly, to see the Winter Milky Way in the VR, I have to drag the camera so it faces East, right. In my PlanIt app, the summer Milky Way is designated as green circles. But when you were demo-in that the Wintee Milky Way looks how it should look in camera. Is that changed in settings? Thanks.
Thanks for the video. I’ll be staying at the Lodge for the June ‘24 new moon and solo shooting the MW in the wee hours. Sounds like Cape Royal is better than the Point. Right?
Heyyy, a good ol' astro vlog style video from Aaron. Like it!
My born is 16 June 2015
Nice presentation Aaron - well done. I'm going through and organizing MW images to stack right now... it would be really helpful if there was a mode that displayed time difference from the previous image. Maybe tack it next to the exposure information. Bonus points if it would consider the exposure time so it was actually displaying the time between "shutter presses".