Hi Peter, Sequator is a great stacking tool, even tough I would recommend to shoot the foreground separate from the sky and merge both parts, you´ll get a way better and sharper foreground.

One major step to clarify: disable all noise reduction before outputting your original images and bringing them into your stacking software. Otherwise you're throwing away a ton of information hidden in that noise.

Peter Zelinka is the man! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience!!

I'm Japanese. Milky way in Japanese is "Ama no gawa(天の川)" . This means "River of the sky" (天＝sky, 川＝river)

One of the best and informative videos about a specific Topic of photography i ever witnessed - awesome!

Incredible video, very glad KZfaq recommended this! I'm somewhat new to the astrophotography scene and have been thinking of investing in a startracker for the past few months, I think I might have to now, wow!!! And those images at the end, OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!

I really like your videos! Amazing quality and extremely educational! Keep it up Peter.

thank you youtube for recommending this channel to me

Thank you, Peter. Very informative - I also appreciate your speaking voice. It allows me to focus, absorb, and process everything better. 🙏🏻

One of the best tutorials on amateur astrophotography!

That mass effect background music 👌

gotta love that implementation of the mass effect OST

Gracias Peter, muy pero muy útil tu vídeo, te lo agradezco muchísimo, eres de lo poco y nada que realmente muestra intenciones de enseñar sobre el tema, que hay en la red. Saludos de Chile

A big thank you from Seattle. Another fantastic video😎🌌!

Oh my gosh! the thumbnail is what made me click - I'm literally 25 mins away from the Toadstool Hoodoos!! This is so inspiring, though. I've been looking at different lenses and stuff, would love to improve my photography and videography and since I'm out in the desert, I'd love to capture the stars...

Great job and good learning from you Peter!

Thanks for the great lesson and tips on stacking. The star tracker looks like it provides the best foreground detail with longer exposures and amazing results. Thanks and take care. Mahalo and Aloha.

Well done Peter, as a newbie to night photograph this has been very helpful.

Thanks, Peter, that was fantastic, very helpful

Just watched your Neowise editing photo and now watching this. Trying to get into Milky Way photography this year, and this is quite helpful.

For me.personally this kinda video helped me more than any of ur video coz I am beginner...and this is best video for beginner

I would not recommend exporting your single exposures as JPG before stacking, since JPG will loose data and reduce quality of the input to sequator

Thanks Peter. Astro beginner here. Hoping to get something this summer that improves upon last summer's average results. These tips will help.

Thank you!!! what a great way to easy understand this video. you did explained that well.

I really appreciate your amazing videos

Brilliant Video Pete I have lots to think about

Looking forward to your 'I've Brought A Goto' video.

Love your tutorials

Thank you for sharing your expertise.

Fantastic info here, thank you!

Excellent. Looking forward to more astrophotography tips.

Thank you for this video! I have recently started astrophotography and have been having lackluster stacking results. Your suggested settings in Sequator are helping!

Great tutorial, good job! Amazing pics aswell. This will definitely be handy for elevating my astrophotography to the next level next season! Oh and if you happen to see this Peter, would you mind sharing the playlist for this video maybe?, It's amazing!

Great video! Thanks for sharing all these tips

Thanx for a great video and very pedagogical!

Nice video Peter, I dont have a star tracker yet but this this is compelling for these type of shots.

Very helpful! Thanks for posting.

Thanks for the right click shortcut in sequator. I’ve just been resetting when I mess up

Great vid man

thankyou for making this

This is a superb tutorial, with clear concise dialogue at an even pace, and a good soundtrack too! Glad you avoided the hype I see in too many YT videos. What was the music Peter? Cheers and thanks from Montréal!

Not a lot of videos like this explaining the difference between star tracking, stacking, or just single shot without tracker. Pretty well explained too.

Your advice has really helped my astrophotography a ton. Also, loving the UNATCO (Deus Ex) music towards the end - great stuff.

Listening to Mirror's Edge Catalyst soundtrack in background is refreshing :-) Thank you for your nice tutorial!

Thanks you very much for this video) Hello from Russia)

How much patience you have, well done thanks.

THx for sharing !!!

I like that you showed people how grainy photos are caused by not enough light rather than a high ISO, but I think a more fair comparison would have been two images at ISO 40,000 and one 15 second shot vs one 60 second shot. It doesn't really exemplify that ISO doesn't matter much for these shooting scenarios when you shoot at ISO 1600 for the long exposure image. Just some minor constructive criticism. But overall, great video, and looking forward to see more!

Awesome diy mang 🤙

I recommend reading the article. True, she is in French. There is a much more accurate formula for calculating exposure. It takes into account pixel size and sensor resolution in general: "Règle NPF - calcul du temps de pose sans filé d'étoiles"

great stuff mate, love your simple practical tutorials 🤘🏼🤘🏼

Thanks for all the great info. I'm going to attempt my 1st milky way shot this weekend. No tracker or intervalometer and in bortle class 4 on the east coast. Hopefully I can get something to work lol.

I'm looking forward to doing some deep space object and Milky Way shoots over the next few weeks. I got the Pentax K1 which has a built in AstroTracer allowing 5 minute exposures of stars without an external tracking device.

Hey Peter great video as always! I've learned so much from you over the last year or so. I finally got my star tracker (Skywatcher Star Adventurer pro) and have been having fun with it taking images of things like Orion Nebula and Milky Way. In the future, I'd love to see a short video on balancing those trackers with the heavier tele lenses like 70-200. I feel like when I try and balance my tracker AFTER having to polar align, it moves while attaching the extension arm enough to really impact image at say, 200mm. Not sure if there is a technique or not to keeping things in alignment while having to attach that heavy arm. Anyhow, I had a question for you. When I have used Sequator in the past and even recently I always run into this same problem. I use Lightroom to batch edit like you say before for basic adjustments then I save as TIFFs and reopen in Sequator. When I do this and this is where the problem is, it always changes the color of the image. So, if my LR edit was what I wanted and I take it into Sequator it changes it purple. I was curious if you had any ideas/input as to why it does. Should the output color profile be RGB from LR when I save as TIFF? Does Sequator only recognize one color profile? Should I be converting the original to 8 bit before saving as TIFF? It' a HUGE problem which is why I never use it and go to Photoshop to stack instead even though it's more work. Thanks for all you do as we appreciate it. Great instructionals. Cheers from Florida.

Nice info, very helpful.

Hi Peter, Great video, I have a question on the Star tracker. The image your taking with the tracker, is it at the same location that your foreground image is taking or do you have to take it at another location with no distraction or subject matter blocking the horizon. something I noticed on the video that you didn't show the star tracking image before you showed it stacked onto the foreground image. Cheers

Waooo amazing!!!

Excellent.

i just used a gfx 100 to get the milkyway and dude you have to try it !

When you use crop sensor then you need to square the crop factor as what matters is the surface of each pixel. For example if you turn on apsc mode on a FF camera it will be the same squared conversion. Like 42 megapixel a7r3 is 18 megapixel in apsc mode. Also the rule of 500 400 300 does not account the megapixels. I usually use the following formula: 6000 divided by (megapixels * focal length * crop factor squared).

ThisVideo is so informative

Hey. Do you have any good solutions how to blend such a foregrounds with a lot of details sticking into the sky? With long exposures they get blurred both sides (because tracker moves with the sky) but in the nature they are smaller ;) that's the only downside I always get troubles with.

Great channel. Well explained 👌🏼 What would you say is better. A foreground stacked with a program (several 15 sec) or a longer exposure for the foreground which is then blended with a stacked sky?

Recently I just create my first milky way timelapse video shooting with a single smartphone, that's really a enjoyment when done it. I'd like to try this application and stack a single picture.

Great tutorial. Going to Colorado to shoot some stars, will be first time. Shoot Nikon and use a Mac so I am hopeful it will all work.

Love the Noveria soundtrack from Mass Effect.

The closer you are to the celestial pole with your composition, the longer you can go without trails. The Milky Way is at the celestial equator, which means the 500 rule won't give you sharp stars because of faster apparent stellar motion. If you take some dark frames, that will help but I don't know if Sequator supports it. Starry Landscape Stacker does.

Interesting and well produced tutorial. One question, where’s the music coming from?

The most important Part is missing: Plan and scout for an interesting compositions. 😉 The other stuff is important, too, though.

awesome

Thoughts on a wide angle fish eye lens with no AF? Ive always had trouble adjusting focus with no star tracker.

Hey Peter, thanks for the video. I am interesting of how you blend your long exposure foreground image and images taken with tracker, since the foreground will be rotating when tracker is on. I can get some OK result with painting mask in sequator but wondering if there is other tips? Thanks!

Peter, this would have been more accurately illustrated if you did not change the ISO, only the Shutter Speed (Time). Of course, you would have gotten a "Cleaner" image using a Lower ISO setting as you did. But leaving the ISO at 40,000 and increasing the Time or Shutter Speed would have better illustrated a Cleaner Image with the Additional Light. Also, a good trick to help minimize noise at Higher ISO settings is to Over Expose you Image about a Stop, and when you process it you have to now make it Darker, thereby Compressing the Exposure which helps make the Noise less noticeable. When an Image is Under Exposed, and you Lighten it in processing, you are Expanding the Exposure, thus making the Noise more noticeable.

Thank you for this Peter. Besides being interested in trying a Milky Way photo, I want to bracket indoor real estate photos (and basically everything!) and merge them. I tried to subscribe to photoshop and Lightroom, but I couldn't get them installed for love or money, so I'm wondering if this software will help me.

Thanks for the video Peter. I believe Sequator is pronounced " see' qway tor" like equator with an "s" in front. I've used the program myself with good results. Good tips!

Hi Peter, first of all great video! I noticed that all of the presented images are taken at quite dark locations. But due to the lockdown still going on at the moment in Europe I can't travel far. Does a sky tracker also improve the details in the milky way in more light polluted areas (Yellow areas on dark site finder)? Are light pollution filters, clear sky filters here of any use? Any tips for shooting in those areas? Thanks a lot for your support.

i will try this for my Samsung phone, I'm sure it works fine.

I personally love the star trails

2020 vibes

Yep. I've always asked myself, why do I get star movement, no matter what rules I use and differences in my shutter speed. Great tip on 300 rule. Haven't heard it anywhere before but that what was working for me all t he time. Also, using longer exposure against noise is a wrong solution. You get less noise only when you use lower ISO, nothing else. Amazing video, I've learned a lot!

I've been testing photo stacking with the comet. If I stack 150 pics, I get really good results. But, if I stack 300, it's amazing. I wouldn't recommend stopping at 20 pics. Take as many as you can possibly get. The more pics you stack, the better the signal to noise ratio will become, giving you a cleaner, more detailed final image.

Thanks for the video :) what's the music in the background? It's very relaxing

Great Video Peter! Qq: for the Utah shot, how did you blend the foreground so cleanly on a 4 minute exposed sky? Didnt the blur of that rock jutting into the sky region leave dark blurry blobs after you replaced it with a non tracked FG?

Regarding the 500 rule. It is more accurate with Film, but with Digital you have to go 1 stop Faster Shutter Speed, or now known as the 250 rule

Stacking allows you to brighten up the pixels, while reducing the noise at the same time. However, in your stack of the milky way, I did not see the image become bright at all, or the details to be more clear, even though it did reduce noise. Any explanation for that?

The PhotoPills app will give you a good estimate of max. shutter speed than the rule of 500.

Can someone tell me the BEST astrophotography lens that can mount a Canon like Canon T8i or Canon 90D? I heard of IRIX 15mm f/2.4 as well as Rokinon? Any suggestion of the BEST lens that is amazing in all aspects that can take nice shots of the Milky Way as well as Orion Nebula?

Great review of stacking vs tracking. quick question, is there a method to polar align if you can't see polaris? I use PS Align Pro for my Sky Watcher Star Adventurer but if I am in the canyons i can't always see the north star. if I use a wide angle lens, can I "wing" and try to get close enough and maybe only track for 1 min vs 4 min?

With gathering more light with longer shutter speeds using a star tracker, do you get more color in the stars and gases than when stacking 10-20 shorter shutter images?

So if you use a sky tracker/guider, it is going to cause the foreground to rotate as well in the images. How do you account for that? Will stacking software automatically adjust it? In the case with Sequator, freeze ground I assume?

Since I have Pentax cameras I ordered the astro tracker GPS unit for $160.00 it can give me a 5 minute exposure for little money by tracking the night sky with the in body Stabilization unit on the camera the cameras come with the software built in it will also stack in camera also if I do multiple exposures

Nice tricks

Well with these settings my camera doesn't take any pictures I'm using canon m50 with kit lense 15-45mm

Do you change the exposure by changing the ISO? Or do you change your shutter time?

Great vid! What kind of lens are you using? :)

Sir may I ask a question, nikon z6 samyang 14mm is it a good combination for the Milky Way

Would the result be different if I stack the images before the editing, or should I rather stack the images after the adjustments in Lightroom? I always stack the images before doing any adjustments.

The odd thing to me is, and I have watched many many Milky Way processing videos, none of the videos who recommends Sequator touches on the fact that it does not support the ProPhoto colour space. For example, you use the sRGB colour space, which is the most limited of all colour spaces. That is part of the reason why your stars are just white blown-out dots and contain no colour, even though many stars actually do have colours. The best and easiest solution most likely would be if as many people as possible kindly ask the developer to incorporate support of the ProPhoto colour space.

weird I have to use 1 sec exposure to avoid startrails on 34mm cropsencor camera. But you do 20 seconds? Btw I had to use 400 shot 1 sec picture to get a decent image

Can you do this on a entry level camera like d5600? Do you already have similar video?