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Shooting The Milky Way


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Hey guys I wanted to get some criticism, my small fan base on youtube is always giving me really lovely compliments, and I love it. However, I want serious criticism. I went out to film the Milky Way this month. I went to the middle of the desert. I live in Egypt. I am 16 years old. Here is my film : bit.ly/zThviF

I regularly make these montages. However this is the most focused one I've done.

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I've loved it despite of is a "simple" montage but I loved the colors. How did you edit it? Which program? Which equipment did you use? Lens? Filters? Mattebox+FF?

 

Tell us more, please!

Thank you so much! I edited this in Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro. I used a Nikon D5000 and a Sigma 18 - 200 mm ( I know Canon are better at video but I couldn't afford a 5D mkII or 550D at that time)and my really standard Targus tripod. That's all the equipment I had + a charger.

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Criticism? I love to give criticism to anyone who doesn't get offended, heh. In some day shots the composition needed a little bit fine tuning: you show too much sky, tilt the camera just few degrees down, then it would have been more harmonious. Astrophotography is really hard subject to shoot especially the Milky Way, which glows very dim light. You need really fast lens, a digital camera that has a modified IR filter and a desert to shoot it (which you have). How long was your exposure for the stars? I liked the shot where the stars move above the tents and the car. You got quite a good results with your camera, and for a 16 year old that is really, really well shot video.

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Criticism? I love to give criticism to anyone who doesn't get offended, heh. In some day shots the composition needed a little bit fine tuning: you show too much sky, tilt the camera just few degrees down, then it would have been more harmonious. Astrophotography is really hard subject to shoot especially the Milky Way, which glows very dim light. You need really fast lens, a digital camera that has a modified IR filter and a desert to shoot it (which you have). How long was your exposure for the stars? I liked the shot where the stars move above the tents and the car. You got quite a good results with your camera, and for a 16 year old that is really, really well shot video.

It's okay haha I don't get offended by it. Yeah I agree with the day shots not being as interesting too. I didn't take the time to focus on crafting my composition on day shots because I was mainly there to shoot the stars and didn't focus on day. It was a challenge to shoot the Milky Way, yes, I've seen some shots that are much much brighter than mine, and I want to achieve a look like that, but in order to do that, I have to travel 2 days into the desert to the corner of Egypt. Whereas here, I traveled 5 hours. I do need a fast lens, and I wanted a fisheye one for this project, but those are really expensive and I haven't found a store that I can rent lenses from. I know a modified IR filter would help a lot but I think you can get a good shot without it being modified, again, by travelling 2 days to the corner of Egypt. My exposure for the stars was 15 seconds, I know it's too low but at that time after I took a 20 second one, there was some motion blur, and I didn't want that at all. So instead I bumped my ISO up to 3200 and my exposure at 15 seconds with 15 second interval time in between, which ended up being 30 seconds total. I loved that shot too! That was my favorite shot out of the entire video. Thank you so much! really appreciate it!

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Great video, especially the sunrise/ sunset/ night shots. Very atmospheric.

 

 

Liked it alot. Especially the sunset and stars.

 

 

Wow. Really liked that. I especially liked the color saturation in the shot with the tents. Nice shadows.

 

Very well done! Stay at it!

Thank you so much! I liked the shot with the tents too

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It was a nice attempt, I liked your footage of the day mixed in. Here's some milkyway stuff I've shot which I'm not even all that happy about.

 

http://vimeo.com/29296408

 

There's two distinct shots at the end were you can clearly see the milkyway though and I think that's what you're kind of after.

 

I was shooting on a 10-22mm Canon lens that I borrowed from someone at f/3.5, 30 seconds exposure, around 1250 ISO I think. But even with all those exposure settings it's still not enough. I will be going back to the same place to shoot more and try to dig a little deeper into the shadows, but it's very tricky cause you get a lot of noise, specifically with a 7D. If I can make enough money, I plan to get a 1Dx, shoot at a comfortable 6000 ISO, 30 seconds +, get a 24mm lens and shoot at f/1.8 or even wider. ATM I can't shoot with 24mm because it's not wide enough on a crop sensor, but those are the kind of settings that will get you very wonderful results.

 

Another tip is to try to keep your intervals under about 5 seconds, otherwise you don't get flowing motion.

Edited by Marcus Joseph
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It was a nice attempt, I liked your footage of the day mixed in. Here's some milkyway stuff I've shot which I'm not even all that happy about.

 

http://vimeo.com/29296408

 

There's two distinct shots at the end were you can clearly see the milkyway though and I think that's what you're kind of after.

 

I was shooting on a 10-22mm Canon lens that I borrowed from someone at f/3.5, 30 seconds exposure, around 1250 ISO I think. But even with all those exposure settings it's still not enough. I will be going back to the same place to shoot more and try to dig a little deeper into the shadows, but it's very tricky cause you get a lot of noise, specifically with a 7D. If I can make enough money, I plan to get a 1Dx, shoot at a comfortable 6000 ISO, 30 seconds +, get a 24mm lens and shoot at f/1.8 or even wider. ATM I can't shoot with 24mm because it's not wide enough on a crop sensor, but those are the kind of settings that will get you very wonderful results.

 

Another tip is to try to keep your intervals under about 5 seconds, otherwise you don't get flowing motion.

Wow you got very beautiful results! Yes that is what I was going for but unfortunately I couldn't go much further to see it. I wish I had a Canon 5D mkII that would certainly be enough for me, I could push up the highlights in post later if I'm at a low ISO. I loved the 2 shots at the end like you said, and the day shots were amazing! I also really like the music you put on there. Do you know the specific name of the song by bignic? and do you know their copyright ? Because if it is creative commons license I could use it all the time on Youtube.

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It was a nice attempt, I liked your footage of the day mixed in. Here's some milkyway stuff I've shot which I'm not even all that happy about.

 

http://vimeo.com/29296408

 

There's two distinct shots at the end were you can clearly see the milkyway though and I think that's what you're kind of after.

 

I was shooting on a 10-22mm Canon lens that I borrowed from someone at f/3.5, 30 seconds exposure, around 1250 ISO I think. But even with all those exposure settings it's still not enough. I will be going back to the same place to shoot more and try to dig a little deeper into the shadows, but it's very tricky cause you get a lot of noise, specifically with a 7D. If I can make enough money, I plan to get a 1Dx, shoot at a comfortable 6000 ISO, 30 seconds +, get a 24mm lens and shoot at f/1.8 or even wider. ATM I can't shoot with 24mm because it's not wide enough on a crop sensor, but those are the kind of settings that will get you very wonderful results.

 

Another tip is to try to keep your intervals under about 5 seconds, otherwise you don't get flowing motion.

 

 

A very nice video. Maybe a little more mellow music would be better.

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It was a nice attempt, I liked your footage of the day mixed in. Here's some milkyway stuff I've shot which I'm not even all that happy about.

 

http://vimeo.com/29296408

 

There's two distinct shots at the end were you can clearly see the milkyway though and I think that's what you're kind of after.

 

I was shooting on a 10-22mm Canon lens that I borrowed from someone at f/3.5, 30 seconds exposure, around 1250 ISO I think. But even with all those exposure settings it's still not enough. I will be going back to the same place to shoot more and try to dig a little deeper into the shadows, but it's very tricky cause you get a lot of noise, specifically with a 7D. If I can make enough money, I plan to get a 1Dx, shoot at a comfortable 6000 ISO, 30 seconds +, get a 24mm lens and shoot at f/1.8 or even wider. ATM I can't shoot with 24mm because it's not wide enough on a crop sensor, but those are the kind of settings that will get you very wonderful results.

 

Another tip is to try to keep your intervals under about 5 seconds, otherwise you don't get flowing motion.

 

Another nice video. Gorgeous images.

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