ABSTRACT

Creative Nightscapes and Time-Lapses is your all-in-one guide to making spectacular, multi-image nightscapes and time-lapses. Covering everything from conceptualization and planning to post-processing, this book features innovative cookbook-style "recipes" for each composite nightscape and time-lapse project.

Beginning with a review of the key fundamentals of astronomy and photography, author Mike Shaw covers the latest methods for planning your night shooting sessions and how to set up your gear to get the best constituent images. The book precisely details how to combine images into 12 different varieties of state-of-the-art nightscape trophies, each impossible to capture in a single image, before demonstrating how to create stunning level and ramp time-lapses that transition fluidly from day to night.

Each nightscape and time-lapse project category includes specific tips for (i) acquiring the constituent images; (ii) assembling them into the composite image or time-lapse; (iii) overcoming common obstacles and (iv) finding the best subjects. Providing examples of how to apply these techniques in the field through four detailed case studies, including one, three-night immersive retreat, this book is the comprehensive guide to creating creative nightscapes and time-lapses.

section I|11 pages

What Are Creative Nightscapes and Time-Lapses?

chapter 1|7 pages

Introduction and Artistic Philosophy

section II|90 pages

Single-Image Acquisition for Nightscapes and Time-Lapses

chapter 2|22 pages

Night Sky Fundamentals for Nightscapes

chapter 4|12 pages

Planning Your Shot(s)

chapter 5|19 pages

Resources and Apps for Nightscapes

chapter 8|6 pages

Common Obstacles and Solutions

section III|163 pages

Creative Nightscape Image Processing and Applications

chapter 10|11 pages

Photoshop Basics for Creative Nightscapes

chapter 12|21 pages

Composite Star Trail Images

chapter 13|10 pages

Sun and Moon Composites

chapter 14|16 pages

Meteor Shower Composites

chapter 15|14 pages

High Dynamic Range (HDR) Composites

chapter 16|23 pages

Panoramas: Milky Way, Aurora and More

chapter 18|12 pages

Light-Painted Composites

chapter 19|17 pages

Composite Light-Drawing Nightscapes

section IV|66 pages

Creative Nightscape Time-Lapse Video Processing

chapter 20|25 pages

Level Nightscape Time-Lapse Assembly

chapter 21|12 pages

Holy-Grail Time-Lapses

section V|20 pages

Detailed Case Studies

chapter 24|18 pages

Four Case Studies

section VI|4 pages

Conclusions

chapter 25|2 pages

The Future