Milky Way NightScapes eBook

The Milky Way over Lower Yellowstone Falls is the cover on Royce Bair's new "Milky Way NightScapes" eBook.

My original ebook, "Milky Way NightScapes" (Version 1.1) is available in PDF format (53MB), 140 pages, over 33,000 words of text, with over 490 illustrative images. $19.99 USD. Please scroll to the bottom of this post to place your order.

Note: My newly updated Version 2.0 is now available. Price is $39.99 .

Because my NightScapes have been widely published for three decades, many have copied my style. Although I'm not the first person to have ever used that label to describe my style of night photography, I was one of the first to use it extensively for starry night skies, with a landscape feature that has been enhanced by extra starlight, moonlight, or artificial light. Unlike other ebooks on night photography, Milky Way NightScapes concentrates almost exclusively on photographing starry night skies as points of light. There is only one page on star trails, and no instruction on how to photograph the moon, meteor showers, or other night sky features. This is book is very narrow-minded, and I think many will appreciate that.

The book is divided into four chapters: 1. Planning and Scouting, 2. Shooting NightScapes, 3. Lighting the Foreground (using starlight, moonlight, and artificial light), and 4. Post Processing. Here are some sample pages (Copyright Royce Bair 2015, All Rights Reserved):

What others are saying: "This is the only book you'll ever need for nightscapes. It is easy to read, easy to use and written by the world's foremost authority on night photography. The recipe on page 50 of how to set up the shot with clear step by step instructions is alone worth the price. Highly recommended for everyone who ever thought of doing this type of photography." — Jeff Clow

"Very helpful! I attended a weekend workshop last winter on night photography and I wish I had your ebook prior to that. I have some other books on the topic, and I find yours to be the most complete and best presentation of information on the topic. Your ebook has also filled in some gaps and is quite helpful with processing the raw files I have." — Donnie Fulks

"The book is well written, chock full of information and an inspiration for all of us doing “nightscape” photography.  Thank you for sharing your years of knowledge and experience."  — Bill Zombeck

Kindle warning: "Your original PDF is too large for folks to upload to their Kindle or Kindle app on iPad (my preferred method for reading ebooks).  The file size limit is 50 meg [the Milky Way NightScapes PDF is 53MB].  I was able to compress it a bit using Acrobat so I'm fine, but not everyone has access to Acrobat. It's a great read so far and your images are breathtakingly beautiful!" — J. Scott Crist

"This book is terrific. Royce, you've taken all the work out of pre-planning. I highly recommend this book it to anyone with only the slightest interest in night sky photography. I've purchased a few ebooks on photography, and this one is by far and away the most informative and best value. The layout is absolutely gorgeous. I appreciated all the information on lenses, and I’m so happy to have all the knowledge in one place." — Barbara am Ende

The Best Testimonials  come from the amazing images of actual eBook users. This is our NightScaper group on Facebook.

ORDER HERE: To place your order for my new ebook, click the ADD TO CART button below. You will be asked to pay $19.99 for each ebook (a 53MB PDF download). Payment is via PayPal. After payment you'll be allowed to download the PDF file to your computer. You'll also receive a email with the same download link, giving you five chances to download the file. Your license allows you to make one backup copy, and to make one printed copy of this copyrighted ebook. Do not share the PDF with others who have not purchased a license. Please email me if you have any questions or concerns.

Using HDR with NightScape Exposures

A "false" HDR exposure of the Milky Way stars reflecting in Oxbox Bend, Grand Teton N.P. ~ © Royce Bair
(Canon 5D Mark III, Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 @ f/2.0, 13 seconds, ISO 6400)

Exposure for sky

When doing my "NightScape" style of starry night landscape photography, I will often do a much longer second exposure (often at 4X longer) and blend the foreground portion with the original "sky" exposure. This enables me to give more detail to mountains, trees, and water features —otherwise, they are are usually just a silhouette against the night sky (like the image to the right).

Second Exposure Problems: Making a longer exposure second exposure is very time consuming because I usually turn on the camera's "Long Exposure Noise Reduction" feature which also takes a "black" exposure for the same amount of time, compares the two images, and cancels out the hot/noisy pixels in your final image. I gladly take this additional time for the increase in quality; however, images with water will also reflect cloud changes (between the exposures) and star movement in the longer, second exposure. Water automatically magnifies the brightest stars and diminishes the lesser stars. It also has a tendency to make each bright star produce a "long" reflection —similar to the way a rising moon reflects on the water. My longer (4X) second exposure greatly exaggerated those lengthy star reflections, causing them to look weird and out of character. To avoid this, and still get better foreground detail I turned to False HDR: False High Dynamic Range Imaging (sometimes called Fake HDR).

Standard HDR vs. False HDR: In regular HDR imaging, one takes at least three exposures: one at the normal exposure value, one at a +1.0 EV (or higher), and one at a -1.0 EV (or lower). These three images are blended, "fused", or tone-mapped together using HDR software, i.e. Photomatix —with the final image extending the dynamic range of the scene.

In False HDR, one manipulates the original exposure to obtain the other two exposure values. This is best accomplished using the Adobe Camera Raw Converter.

In the Adobe Camera Raw Converter, use the "Exposure" slider to obtain your 3 Exposure Values

Save one image at the neutral or "0.00" EV. Save the second image at the "+1.00" EV, and the
third image at the "-1.00" EV (16-bit RAW images can be converted to EV's up to +/- 2.00 stops).

Here are my three converted images: Normal exposure, +1.00 EV, and -1.00 EV.
These are saved as 16-bit TIF files.

HDR Processing: The above three exposure values were save as 16-bit TIF files and imported into Photomatix for HDR processing. I typically output a "Natural Fusion" image that just blends the three images and extends the dynamic range of the scene. I then output a tone-mapped version that gives additional local contrast, texture, and shadow detail. The Natural Fusion and tone-mapped versions are then blended using Photoshop's Adjustment Layers, varying the opacity of each layer to taste. Additional contrast is then applied to the final image via an S-curve to bring out the latent colors in the sky.

Correcting NightScape Lens Vignetting

Unless you correct lens vignetting, your NightScape images will look like the left image.
Although the left image has more "drama", it is technically incorrect, & lacking in detail.
Milky Way over "Three Sisters" formation in Monument Valley ~ © Royce Bair

Lens Vignetting: All camera lenses suffer from some light fall-off near the edges and corners of the images they project. This is known as lens vignetting. Vignetting is usually more pronounced when the lens is used "wide-open" or at it's widest aperture. Most of the vignetting goes away when the lens is stopped down by two or three aperture stops.

NightScape photography brings out the worst in lens vignetting because one is often forced to shoot wide open. This maximum light is needed to reduce shutter times (keeping star trailing to a minimum), and to lower ISO settings (keep down digital noise), which are already unusually high.

Adobe Camera Raw to the rescue. ACR's "Lens Corrections" feature can virtually eliminate lens vignetting problems. If you are using a major brand lens with electronic coupling to your camera body ACR will automatically pull up your lens' profile (using the image file's EXIF info) and make the needed vignetting corrections (and distortion corrections) when you check the "Enable Lens Profile Corrections" box! You can control the amount of these corrections using sliders. I typically allow the profile to make a full, 100% correction.

Using ACR is one of many reasons to shoot in camera RAW. ARC is available with both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom.

Editor's Note: So many photographers ignore lens vignetting in astro-landscape photography, that the "darkened corner look" in starry night sky photos has become the norm. Besides, many would argue, "it adds a certain amount of drama and mystique" to the image (similar the the artificial vignetting photographers often add to a portrait, in order to draw more viewer attention to the person, and less to the background). Unfortunately, lens vignetting gives the viewer an unnatural look of the night sky, and eliminates a lot of valuable detail (stars and shadow detail in the landscape foreground). With proper lens vignetting correction, these details can be restored —then, if the photographer chooses, he/she can darken ("burn down") the areas he/she wants to add drama (or use to guide our attention), and still retain detail.

No lens vignetting correction on left image - ACR's "Lens Corrections" to right image
"Milky Way Paint Brush" - Kodachrome Basin State Park ~ © Royce Bair

By checking the "Enable Lens Profile Corrections", ARC's "Lens Corrections"
feature automatically applies vignetting and distortion corrections to your
Canon, Nikon and other major brand lenses. Note the change to the histogram.

Correction with Non-Standard Lenses: When using a Nikkor lens (via an adapter) on a Canon body (or vice-versa), you will not have electronic coupling to feed EXIF info to your image file. If you are using a manual lens, i.e. a Rokinon lens, you will also not have this information. In these cases, you'll have to manually look up your lens information. In the case of the Rokinon, there is no profile currently listed (as of ACR 7.0). In this situation, you will need to click on the Manual tab, and make your own vignetting adjustments (see below).

1. The Camera Raw file, using a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens (wide open), shows some vignetting.
2. Vignetting becomes more pronounced when post processing contrast is added to image.
3. Most of the vignetting disappears when manual "Vignetting Correction" is applied (below).

ACR's "Lens Corrections" in manual mode when using a manual lens, i.e. the Rokinon 24mm f/1.4
In most cases, I use a vignetting amount of about +50, then move the Midpoint to about "20". Each
lens is a little different —just move the sliders until your image corners match the density of the
rest of your image. The histogram (not shown) will also provide feedback. Note that the lens
info (focal length and f/stop) is not shown at the top because there is no electronic coupling.
       

Royce's 2014 Workshop, Lecture & Video Conference Schedule: NightScapeEvents.com
  -  25% OFF savings on select "IMAGE10" workshops booked before April 1, 2014  -

What Do The Northern Lights Actually Look Like?

Northern Lights: What your eyes see versus what the camera captures ~ © Mike Taylor

What do the Northern Lights Actually Look Like? Mike Taylor, of Taylor Photography, recently shared the following information with me. It might help you better understand how our eyes and our cameras see the night sky differently, particularly the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights. (Note: Mike reminds me that the information included below applies to areas in the Northern Hemisphere around the 50 degree latitude mark or lower. As you go above that parallel, the differences between what your eyes see and what the camera records become less noticeable.)

While observing the aurora is a truly awe-inspiring and often breathtaking experience, the images that come out of modern day DSLR cameras do not match what you witness in real life. I've photographed many colors in the fantastic Northern Lights displays I've been lucky enough to observe including green, purple, yellow, orange, red, magenta and blue. But I never REALLY know what color they are unless I'm looking at my camera's LCD screen or more importantly viewing these images on my computer. Why?

The simplistic answer is because human eyes can't see the relatively “faint” colors of the aurora at night. Our eyes have cones and rods – the cones work during the day and the rods work at night.

“Humans use two different kinds of cells in their eyes to sense light. Cone cells, concentrated in the fovea in the central area of vision, are high resolution and detect color in bright light. These are the main cells we use for vision in the daytime. Rod cells, concentrated in the periphery around the outside of the fovea, can detect much fainter light at night, but only see in black and white and shades of gray. [Aurora] only appear to us in shades of gray because the light is too faint to be sensed by our color-detecting cone cells.” – Jerry Lodriguss

Thus the human eye views the Northern Lights generally in “black & white.” DSLR camera sensors don't have this limitation. Couple that fact in with long exposure times and high ISO settings of modern cameras = the camera sensor has a much higher dynamic range of vision in the dark than we do. The same thing is true regarding the Milky Way and night photography in general. Some folks claim that they can see many colors during an aurora display and that very well may be. I have definitely seen light shades of green, red, and violet/purple but I can only speak for myself and my empirical knowledge - your mileage may vary. The farther North your viewing location, the more colors you can actually see because the aurora is stronger.

I made the [above] graphic to show what I mean. These three photographs exemplify the most impressive aurora displays I've seen. The top row of images have had the skies desaturated by color (green, yellow, red, magenta, purple, blue) to show what I saw with my eyes. A bit of green has been retained on the horizons and just a bit of the color that I remember seeing above that – red, violet, and red respectively.

FYI - I generally set the white balance on my camera to Kelvin 3450 - 3570 when shooting the features of the night sky but I will also take a few frames with it set on Auto to see what colors the camera thinks it should be capturing. Most times I end up going with the Kelvin setting, which is a little bit on the cool/blue side of the spectrum. The EXIF data for these shots are K-3450, K-3570, K-3570 respectively. I process all my photos through Lightroom 4 & Photoshop CS5 and I certainly have an “artist's view” when bringing an image to life but when it comes to these strong aurora scenes, the colors have not been saturated very much because Mother Nature did that work beautifully.

Here's Mike's description of the above three images, with links to larger views of each:

Left Side Image - Pemaquid Point Lighthouse (crazy magenta curtains):
I saw “dancing lights” in the sky, spiking straight up starting around a few hundred feet off the ground. They waved a bit like curtains but stayed in basically the same area. They seemed to be kind of a blur though, the “spikes” were not very defined. There was definitely a green hue on the horizon and a bit of red color above that but I didn't see the crazy red & magenta colors that my camera recorded. I saw what appeared to be white/grey “curtains” dancing along the black sky.

Center Image - Unity Train Tracks (blue colored spikes):
I didn't see much of anything but I set up, started shooting and immediately saw green on the horizon on my camera screen. I set the camera to shoot 30 second exposures for an hour with just a few seconds in between so that I could quickly review the scenes on the LCD screen as my camera snapped away. Within 10 minutes or so, I saw sharp spikes or columns shooting up and slowly moving across the sky. To my eye they appeared to be a light violet/purple color enough that I actually posted a status update to Facebook at 2:24 AM that said “You know the aurora is cranked up when you can see the purple spikes with your naked eye.” When the display died down, I quickly looked through my images but I didn't really know the spikes were blue until I viewed them on my computer.

Right Side Image - Small Pond Outside of Unity (incredible oval & screaming spikes):
The most impressive oval I've ever seen, a perfect arc which covered the Northern sky's horizon. The tallest and most crisp “spikes” I've witnessed, reaching all the way to the stars. Again I saw definite green around the oval at the horizon but the spikes themselves were white/grey, not the intense red that my camera captured.

The intensity of the aurora always ebbs and flows, sometimes it is quite strong and other times it is mild. If you can see a simple glow or swirling lights on the horizon and/or “spikes” shooting into the sky that look like spotlights and/or “curtains” of light – pay attention and/or be patient. The display can last just a few minutes, a half hour, or longer. Most of the intense shows I have witnessed in Maine, USA have lasted right around a half hour.

Mike Taylor operates Taylor Photography and an imaging studio out of a 19th Century farmhouse in central Maine. He's been a scenic and nature photographer for over 10 years, and a studio photographer for seven years. Beside being an artist, he's also a philosopher, musician, movie buff, and a self-proclaimed connoisseur of beverages made from malted barley and hops ("We all have our bag of rocks to carry," whips Mike.) You can fine more of Mike's images on his website, Facebook, Google+, and Pinterest. His night photography workshop schedule is on his blog.

 ~ Take our NightScape Poll ~           

Royce's 2014 Workshop, Lecture & Video Conference Schedule: NightScapeEvents.com

Featured Post: Shooting Stars eBook Review — How to Photograph the Stars and the Moon

Recognizing the Milky Way in a Light-Polluted Sky

Milky Way rising over Silver Lake near Brighton, Utah ~ © Royce Bair (click to enlarge).
Reddish glow on the left is light pollution from Park City, and on the right is from Heber City.

Last Friday, I participated in an evening photowalk with about 100 local photographers. With the help of a lecture I gave a few days before, I guided many on their first ever photographs of a starry night sky. For several, it was a dream-fulfilled to see and photograph their first Milky Way.

People from big cities throughout the world often write and tell me that they'd love to see and photograph the Milky Way, but it is too light-polluted in their region. For the most part, that's true. However, in almost any area of the world, you can still see the Milky Way if you're willing to drive a few miles and train your eyes to see the shape and features of our galaxy—viewed from the perspective of our planet.

The above photo was taken only 11 miles from the edge of Salt Lake City, and we are still in a 'orange' zone according to Dark Sky Finder's map of the area. Even after the Milky Way appeared at 11:00 PM, in the region that I had predicted, many still could not see it until I photographed it and showed it to them on my camera's LCD monitor:

Even this raw, unprocessed view is 4X brighter than the naked eye view, because of the
light-gathering power of a 20-seconds time exposure, a fast lens, and a high ISO.

It's not hard to recognize the Milky Way in the top, post-processed photo, but it takes some education, experience, and practice to recognize the features of our galaxy, especially in a light-polluted sky, where the contrast and colors of the stars are muted by stray, artificial light.

More light-gathering: The top photo is a double-exposure of the middle image and this 3X exposure to increase the detail in the landscape and the reflection in the lake water:

A 60-seconds exposure washes out the sky and blurs the stars, but adds detail to the landscape. Adding the post-processed sky (mainly contrast adjustments in Photoshop's 'Curves') from the middle image produces the final photo (top).