We recently posted a news item on the latest edition of Alan Dyer’s interactive eBook, How to Photograph & Process Nightscapes and Time-lapses, which covers the latest equipment, software, and processing techniques on time-lapse nightscape video for creating great still images and time-lapse movies of the night sky.
To see how amazing time-lapse nightscape video can be, check out the video below.
According to Dyer, “This 2-minute music video incorporates time-lapse and still images I shot at the Old Man on His Back Prairie & Heritage Conservation Area in southwest Saskatchewan, Canada, on three perfect nights, May 18-20, 2015. The area is named for the nearby hill formation that is thought to resemble the profile of Napi, the Siksika creator figure, who laid down to rest here after having created the world. The area is operated by the Nature Conservancy of Canada as a place to return the prairie to its natural state, with native plant and animal species. The land was once owned by the Butala family who settled here the 1920s and operated a family ranch for many decades. In the mid-1990s Peter and Sharon Butala turned over their ranch to the NCC to create the Conservation Area. It is between Grasslands National Park (to the east) and Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park (to the west), both designated as Dark Sky Preserves. The OMB area is also very dark at night, with little sign of manmade light pollution, providing wonderful views of the Milky Way and the night sky. It is an ideal spot for stargazing.”
He continued, “The video makes use of footage I shot around the OMB Visitor Centre, the former ranch home of the Butala family. To shoot the sequences I used three cameras, and time-lapse gear such as a Dynamic Perception Stage Zero dolly with the Stage R pan motor, a Radian motion controller, as well as static cameras on a tripod. Software I used in processing included LRTimelapse v4, Adobe Camera Raw, and Photoshop CC, PTGui (for the 360° panorama), and the Advanced Stacker Actions from Star Circle Academy (for the star trail streak effects). I used the program Sequence to assemble the frames into movies. For final editing of stills and movies I used Aperture’s slide show function. Music is the royalty-free piece “Live Your Dreams” by the composer Adi Goldstein (AGSoundtrax.com) whose wonderful music is great for time-lapse compilations.”
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