Learn How To Create A Milky Way Time Lapse (start to finish)

[@joeg7849]

Thanks! That is very helpful. Your time lapse was fun.

[@danielj8177]

Subscribed after 4 seconds of footage. Unreal.

[@Milkywaymike]

Thank you very much!!

[@AniketMohite1988]

Amazing timelapses.... :)

[@Milkywaymike]

Much appreciated, thank you!

[@kenwong2080]

very nice demonstration, thanks a lot!

[@TonKuipers134]

Thx for posting, very nice tutorial 👌

[@jamiesonthorgalsen6413]

The timelapse at 6:38 sucked me into a vortex lol. Great informative video

[@BabyG084]

what a great video. straigth to the point i love it. Cant wait to try my 1st MW TL this year!!

[@Milkywaymike]

Thanks for watching and good luck 🌌

[@arlenecruz9578]

Awesome Video Mike!

[@Milkywaymike]

Arlene Cruz 😊 thanks

[@dipanka]

Thank you!

[@Bee0213]

Great as always Mike!

[@astronuts8194]

Do you like my milky way time lapse??

[@Milkywaymike]

Astronuts cool stuff!!

[@mikemeedia]

6:36 😍😍😍🔥🔥🔥

[@rinskuruvila8674]

Thanks brother ♥️♥️♥️

[@janettebritton5800]

Thank you great video

[@PeterSchurte]

Thanks for the Video!

[@abahoutdoor]

really great job

[@ossumblossm]

Great video... really awesome content.. particularly, loved the way u explained different ways of focusing at night U got urself a true subscriber i.e me 😊😊

[@Milkywaymike]

Amiya biswas thanks for watching and supporting the channel!!

[@brianjordan8990]

Great video. Do you use an external power source? Or will a full battery last that long? Thanks.

[@Milkywaymike]

1 battery gets me about 4 hours of time lapse shooting. I have an extended battery pack if I need more time but typically 1 batter does the job.

[@brianjordan8990]

@@Milkywaymike Thanks. I appreciate it.

[@Martin-iv4jn]

Did you still edit the timelapse at the end, because between what you showed on the Mac and the very end, it looked like it was laggy on the Mac.

[@metalmike669]

Very easy to understand here. I made my first ever video work with the trial version. I think I will buy my own license. Is there a way to add a watermark with LR Time Lapse or do I need to do that in LR editing?

[@Milkywaymike]

Thanks for watching! I rarely do watermarks, but I’m pretty sure you would just do it in LR or add to the video later when using adobe premiere (or whatever video software you use).

[@AnandBawa]

Great video Mike! If my shutter speed is 10 sec, what interval should i set in the camera for timelapse?

[@Milkywaymike]

Thanks, you would use an 11 or 12 second interval. 11 should be enough time to write the image to the memory card and trigger another shot. If it’s too short than try 12.

[@CharlesParmar]

Hi Mike, great video… thanks ! A stupid question from me - if each exposure is 20 secs… don’t you get star trails?

[@Milkywaymike]

With a wide angle lens the star trailing is minimal at 20 seconds. For photos I typically keep my exposure under 13 seconds but for time lapses the video is smaller than than my prints that I sell so it is less noticeable and I’m able to use a longer shutter.

[@someguy3508]

Damn that's beautiful. Nice job!

[@Milkywaymike]

Thank you so much!

[@kanondou1599]

I took some pictures to make into a timelapse. When I was done and ready to export from lightroom I realized that they were in different folders because they were taken before and after 12 am. (They weren't on a different folder on the sd card. Lightroom separated the photos) Do you know how to fix this problem?

[@007silverwings]

This is awesome. Thanks for sharing your workflow. Quick Q, on some of your video timelapses you have significant movement, are you using a slider or auto pano head? I think the movement is too much to gain from a crop of a 6k image down to 4k/1080p? 👍🏻

[@Milkywaymike]

Thanks and yes I have slider and pan head.

[@007silverwings]

@@Milkywaymike that was my best guess! I'm looking at maybe purchasing the zeapon micro 2 or maybe the new iFootage Shark nano.

[@VictorGoodpasture]

Terrific video Mike! I love the Owens Valley and have wanted to shoot at the observatory but the few times I've been there, the gate is locked. Do you need to arrange for special permission to shoot inside the facility? Are they accommodating to that?

[@Milkywaymike]

You have to reach out to Caltech Astronomy professors a few weeks in advanced to get permission. I talked to a couple of different people so I forget who the main contact was. The main contact actually never replied to my email because I sent it the day before I went, however I met 2 other photographers there, one of which was friends with the main guy in charge. He said it was fine to go there and the gate was open so I didn't have any issues.

[@VictorGoodpasture]

@@Milkywaymike Sorry for the delay. Thank you for your reply!

[@mirzadanishbaig]

Thanks for the video. I've been getting into Astrophotography and typically for single pictures, I stack around 15 exposures using a program called Sequator to align the stars and remove the noise (since I'm shooting at 6400 iso). However, I can't really stack images if I wanted to do a timelapse of say 150 exposures to last around 6/7 seconds. How would I go about removing that noise for each exposure? I use Luminar (alternative to Lightroom) and it only goes so far in removing noise. Any tips?

[@Milkywaymike]

For a time lapse I usually just use noise reduction in lightroom but in your case it would be in Luminar. The time lapses are typically 1080p or 4k. The dimensions for 4k are usually 4096 × 2160 or 3840 × 2160 which is usually downsized from the actual dimension of most cameras being used. For example a 24 megapixel camera like my Z6 shoots at 6048 × 4024. So when I am making a 4k timelapse the file size is smaller which hide some of the noise since it is down-scaled. You can also be more generous with noise reduction since it is a video and things are moving. It won't be as noticeable as a still image.

[@mirzadanishbaig]

@@Milkywaymike Thanks!

[@Zhorellski]

Do you have to ask for permission shooting at Owens observatory? Planning to shoot the Milky Way there.

[@kenmaier6870]

Mike - great video. In fact, all your video's are great. wondering if you or your other subscribers can help me out. I just started attempting to take photos of the Millky way. I have yet to see it and I'm wondering what it looks like to the "naked eye" Is it obvious? does it look like your time-lapse? Thanks !!

[@Milkywaymike]

Thank you very much! To the naked eye it is visible however it would look a lot darker since the eye can not take in as much light as a camera sensor. You also need to make sure you are in a very dark area during a new moon and during the right time at night for whichever month you are in. For example the Milky Way bulge (yellowish-gold area that photographers photograph the most) is not visible this time of the year. You have to wait until March or April of 2020 for the Milky Way season to begin again. It will rise East / South-East a couple hours before sunrise. (around 4am give or take some time) As the season progresses the milky way will rise earlier at night!

[@jackdeangelis6585]

One trick I use is to determine which bright planet or planets will be near the Milky Way for the current year. This will vary by year so you'll need to use a program like Stellarium. For example, this year (2019) Jupiter was very near and to the right (west) of the core and Saturn was above and to the left (east) of the core. Since these bright planets appear as twilight begins you'll be able to predict where the Milky Way will be as the sky gets darker. Also, remember that the best time to see the Milky Way is about April through October, on a moonless night at a dark location. Good luck.

[@kenmaier6870]

Thank You. I was in northern Maine the last week of October on top of a 3000 ft mountain with a 360-degree view. I Used Stellarium and Sky View Ap (free) with the hope that I would see the Milky way about 7PM (1.5 hrs after sunset). My guess is that since the sunset only 1.5 hrs earlier the sky wasn't dark enough. What do you think?

[@jackdeangelis6585]

@@kenmaier6870 You should have been able to see the MW under these conditions assuming that the moon was not too bright. I usually start taking photos around 1 hr after sunset. The sky will keep getting darker for another hour or so but 1.5 hr after sunset is a good time to start seeing the MW. Are you facing roughly south toward Jupiter (this year). If you are having trouble finding the bright planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and Mars then a little practice with Stellarium should help. Good luck.

[@kanondou1599]

Hello! When i read the XMP Metadata it doesn't change the image. Do you know how I can fix it?

[@giulianoproietti8128]

Noise reduction for long exposure on or off? Thanks

[@Milkywaymike]

Off

[@giulianoproietti8128]

@@Milkywaymike thank you

[@wliu6381]

Hi Mike, thank you for the great content, I have a question and I guess there might be some other guys also do: in some Milky Way time-lapse videos, especially Milky Way with shooting stars, every single shooting star actually appear in a video for at least 0.5~0.7 second, but when I edit my Milky Way time-lapse, the shooting star only appears in one single frame, means it just quickly flashed, how can I make the shooting star staying for longer period of time? Which means it must appear throughout at least a dozen of frames (if I make the video in 24 fps frame rate), thank you very much!

[@Milkywaymike]

Hello, sorry I just saw your comment now... You can take that photo with the shooting star, then isolate the shooting star and removing every other star in the photo. Make sure the rest of the photo is black with just the shooting star being white (sometime they have green tint to them as well which is fine). You have a couple options after you isolate the shooting star on a black background. You can make it a brush in photoshop or you can just save it as a picture. If you save it as a picture you change the blend mode to lighten in photoshop and now you can place the shooting star onto any other photos in your time lapse sequence. If you make it a brush you can paint onto any photos in the sequence. If you want it to be done to a batch of photos you can make a action in photoshop and apply that action to multiple photos. Maybe I'll make a tutorial on this for people since it involves quite a few steps

[@wliu6381]

@@Milkywaymike Thank you very much! Looking forward to your new video!

[@naik4633]

Hi I've done with 3 exposure. How can I make my timelapse in this case. Thank you

[@Milkywaymike]

You can’t make a time lapse with 3 exposures. You need at least 24 exposures to make 1 second of video.

[@charlesg6583]

How do you avoid the star trails in your timelapse video?

[@Milkywaymike]

Charles G They won’t Trail unless you combine the photos in photoshop or starstax

[@enqiyang2829]

Hey Mike! Great video! I subscribed! Would you mind telling me the shutter speed for the star trails (6:45)? Would I also need a shorter shutter speed if I want to capture the shooting stars flying across the frame (6:52)? Thanks!

[@Milkywaymike]

Thanks for watching.. the shutter shutter speed was 25 seconds for the star trails. You don’t need shorter shutter speeds for shooting star, just do your normal night timelapse settings.

[@enqiyang2829]

@@Milkywaymike Hey Mike. Thanks for the response! Just a follow up question: It seem as if when I do a 20 second shutter speed, the shooting stars just create a solid streak in the video, instead of shooting/dashing motion. Any way to solve this? Thanks!

[@VincentGong0323]

Hi, I'm following what you've done step-by-step, however I'm getting stuck on the part where you've filtered out all the images in Lightroom except for the first and last photo. I selected the first and last photo, then selected 01 LRT keyframes and got the message "No photos match the filter." I'm using the latest version of Lightroom Classic in Windows 11 but it shouldn't matter, right? Appreciate any advice, thanks.

[@Milkywaymike]

You may need to watch tutorials on LRTIMELAPSE first to get a more thorough understanding of that program and then see if that helps. The inventor of LRtimelapse has a bunch of free tutorials

[@mankyy1]

I set 20 sec exposure and interval 200 images, why camera takes only around 40 images?

[@Milkywaymike]

Your exposure has to be shorter than you interval so you camera has time to write to the memory card and trigger the next exposure otherwise you will lose shots. So if you want to use a 20 sec exposure, then you need to make the interval 21 or 22 seconds

[@mankyy1]

@@Milkywaymike It does make sense. Thanks man 👍🏻

[@blueman841]

thanks for posting this. it helped alot. One question I do have, if you have a mirror camera, do you loc the mirror up during the time it is taking the pictures? Do you cover your view finder? I had heard that doing this helps. thanks

[@Milkywaymike]

Yeah I have Nikon D810, but I don't lock up the mirror. That can help to prevent camera shake, however with wide angle night photography I never noticed a difference. Definitely cover the viewfinder if you plan on doing a time lapse or long exposures during the day. The ambient light can mess up your exposure... At night it is not totally necessary but I still do it for night time lapses.

[@blueman841]

I've looked at pretty much all your video's and have got a good grasp on this. Thank you. One item that just eludes me is, how do you determine on much time in between shots. I understand the 2 sec time in order for the camera to write to the card, but do you (typically) have a long space of time between shots?

[@z-manoverstreet]

Do know any free programs I can make my milky way time-lapse in

[@Milkywaymike]

Any free software that can create a time lapse should be able to make a milky way time lapse. Sorry I just saw your comment now so hopefully you found something already but if not you can check out this link. www.worthwagon.com/best-free-time-lapse-software/

[@KenToney]

Mike I would love to see a tutorial on Keyframes editing for a night to day Timelapse with LrTimelapse for doing the MW

[@hotcoffeeamericano]

At 7 minutes 30 second mark, what is the purpose of you to "check off" the 1st and last photos and hitting save? I do not understand what you did and why.

[@Milkywaymike]

Any photos you check off in LRTIMELAPSE gives them a star rating. Then in Lightroom you only have to edit the images with the star rating. In this case you only need to edit the first and last photo and then when you save the meta data and bring it back into LRTIMELAPSE, LRtimelapse will make the changes needed to the other photos between the first and last photo. Look up LRtimelapse tutorials for a more in-depth explanation if you would like to learn more about that program.

[@hotcoffeeamericano]

Explain why you need to focus on a light 30 feet away. You did not say why.

[@Milkywaymike]

To make sure my focus was at infinity to allow me to get the stars and foreground in focus.

[@thomsonsunil7394]

Can you see milky way with naked eyes 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

[@Milkywaymike]

Yup!

[@ZackWolfMusic]

milky way Is not as colorful as you see it on the internet! Because people use software to enhance the look of milky way!

[@KenToney]

If anyone has upgraded to Lightroom 9 that came out about a week ago LRTimelapse will not work as normal. Here is the work around until Adobe fixes this. lrtimelapse.com/news/lightroom-9-bug-concerning-lrtexport-plugin/

[@KenToney]

BTW if you haven’t upgraded LR CC 9 yet don’t, wait till fix comes out!

[@Milkywaymike]

Hey Ken, Just saw your comment now and I already upgraded, however I figured out it was just the naming convention issue. So when you export with the new LR it wasn't naming the files "LRT_"FILE NAME". As a work around I exported the files and then batch renamed them to "LRT_" and it fixed the issue as a temporary fix for now. Thanks for sharing the link too!

[@KenToney]

Milky Way Mike that’s it!! Love your YT channel