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You may think you need to burn a lot of
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money on a big telescope to take photos
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like this.
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Think again, because I took that photo
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using this very exact setup. A simple
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tripod and a really cheap camera and
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lens combo that costs about $200. And
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I'm going to show you every step I did
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to do [music] that. 2 and a half million
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lightyears away is the Andromeda galaxy,
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the most distant object visible to the
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naked eye. This galaxy is a classic
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example of a spiral galaxy. Here we can
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see the companion galaxies. Now, this is
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quite large in the sky and spans the
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width of about six full moons. Before we
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continue, do you like astrophotography
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tutorials and want to be featured here
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on my YouTube channel? If yes, feel free
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to tag my Instagram account on your
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posts. I would love to take a look and
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see how my videos are helping others.
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Let's get back to the video and first
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talk about the gear. The gear I use for
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this project [music] is a simple tripod
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plus a Canon Rebel T6 paired with a 50
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mm lens or the nifty50 as we call it. I
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like to use this because it's a fast
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lens.
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Well, fast in a sense that it has a
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large maximum aperture or a low f-stop.
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And coming in at about $60 used, this
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lens is a great budget lens for
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astrophotography, which is why I like to
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call it the thrifty50. Now, you don't
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have to use a DSLR. You can use a
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mirrorless, and you don't have to use
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the nifty50 lens. In short, you'll need
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a lens with a low f-stop, a digital
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camera, and a tripod. Let's talk next
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about the location. Remember how I said
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the Andromeda galaxy is really bright?
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[music] That's the best part because
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unlike other deep sky objects, you don't
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have to go to a dark sky site to image
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it. If you can, [music] it's ideal, but
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not necessary. In fact, I shot this
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photo in Bortalass 5 skies near my
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house. To figure out what the light
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pollution looks like in your area, go to
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lightolutionmap.app.
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Here you'll find a website where you can
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see a map showing areas of the greatest
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light pollution all the way down to the
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areas of the lowest light pollution. To
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figure out what the light pollution
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looks like in your area, go to the top
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right corner and click the search icon.
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Here you'll enter your address and
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you'll be able to see the specifics on
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the light pollution in your area. Now,
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unfortunately, light pollution does
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change over time, but one of the nice
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features about this particular [music]
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website is in addition to seeing the
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light pollution, you'll also be able to
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see the light pollution trend [music]
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over time. You'll also want to avoid
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other sources of light pollution such as
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street lamps and security lights as
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these can wreak havoc on your images.
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Let's talk next about the time. But
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first, where exactly is the Andromeda
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galaxy in the night sky? In the northern
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sky is a constellation called Cassiopia.
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It looks like a W or an M. [music] To
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find Andromeda, start with this bright
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star here, Shedar, and use the other two
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stars to draw [music] an arrow. This
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will point in the general direction of
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the Andromeda galaxy. Both of these
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rotate counterclockwise around the north
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star, Polaris. In August, as the evening
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begins, you will see these in the
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northeastern sky to the right of
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Polaris. As fall progresses into winter
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and then into spring, Cassiopia and the
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Andromeda galaxy will rotate to the
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other side of Polaris in the
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northwestern sky, which means the
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Andromeda galaxy is visible many months
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during the year in the mid-n northern
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latitudes. You just might have to wake
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up really early to see it. In the mid-n
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northern latitudes, Polaris is higher in
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the sky, so the Andromeda galaxy will be
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as well. However, in the southern
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latitudes, Polaris is not visible. So,
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the Andromeda galaxy will be
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significantly lower in the sky. Whether
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you're in the northern or southern
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hemisphere, August through November is
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the best time to photograph this. You'll
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also want to wait for a new moon, which
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is when the moon is least illuminated.
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Also, try to photograph the galaxy when
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it is at its highest in [music] the
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night sky. Let's talk next about your
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camera settings. First, switch your
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camera to manual mode. Then, turn on
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manual focus. To calculate the exposure
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length, we'll use the rule of 500, where
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[music] we take 500 and divide it by two
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variables. The first is called crop
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factor. that measures the size of your
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camera [music] sensor. For full-frame
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cameras, it'll be one. And for smaller
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sensor cameras like your crop sensors,
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it will be greater than one. In my case,
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it was 1.6. Then we'll look at focal
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length. In my case, it's a 50 mm lens.
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So, it will be 50. I then take 500
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divided by the product of 1.6 * 50. That
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equals about 6.25 seconds. These
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exposures could have been longer. The
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goal of all of this is to compensate for
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the rotation of the Earth and avoid star
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trails in your images. The exposure on
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the left is too long. The stars are
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trailing. The exposure on the right, the
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stars are pinpoint, [music] and that's
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what we're after. Next, you'll want to
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open the aperture as wide as possible.
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As far as the ISO, I chose 3200. You may
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need to adjust this for light pollution.
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You may also want a 2-cond delay on your
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camera so your hand is off it while it's
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shooting. I also decided to shoot in RAW
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and large JPEG. Raw images will be the
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ones we use for our final photo, and
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JPEG can be used for the computer
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preview. This example of a single photo
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is a bit underwhelming, but don't worry,
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we'll turn it into a masterpiece soon
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enough. Next, let's talk about imaging.
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Because we're shooting with such a wide
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field lens, and because Cassiopia is
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such a bright constellation, it won't be
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hard for us to find it in a live view of
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our camera, [music] even under light
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polluted skies. The first thing you'll
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want to do is use the digital zoom to
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zoom in on a bright star. This is how
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we'll achieve focus. Once you're zoomed
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in, push your camera lens all the way to
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infinity and then slightly back it off.
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The goal is to have the star be the
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smallest white dot. Purple fringe is
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okay. That's expected with cheap lenses.
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Then you'll want to zoom out and
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refframe Cassiopia to where we can get
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Andromeda galaxy in frame. Remember,
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move the direction of the imaginary
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arrow to find the Andromeda galaxy.
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Here's the arrow, and here is where we
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can expect to see the Andromeda galaxy.
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Let's take a test shot and see what
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happens. Here's
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Cassiopia on the right and on the left
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we can see the core of the Andromeda
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galaxy.
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Next, center your camera on the
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Andromeda galaxy or about to where you
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think it is. This may take several tries
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and require several test shots.
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Eventually, you'll want it looking like
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this. After this, you'll take 250 light
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frames or photos. Now, you will need to
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reenter your camera every 10 to 15
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images because of the rotation of the
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Earth. An easy way to do this is use the
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rectangle to reframe on a bright star.
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As long as you keep that reference star
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centered between sets, you'll be good.
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Now, your camera sensor can be pretty
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noisy. Wait, what? That's right. I don't
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have to tell you that our technology
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today is sometimes less than reliable
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and not perfect. Here's a simple process
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of an image I captured. And even just a
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little bit of it reveals noise and
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artifacts. Things like vignetting,
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noise, and hot pixels. We can compensate
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for these noise and artifacts by taking
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three calibration frames. Dark frames,
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which capture the thermal noise from the
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sensor, bias frames, which capture the
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sensor readout noise, and flat frames,
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which capture any vignetting or dust
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present. Still confused? Think of it
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like this. You finally made it to that
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scenic overlook and just as you
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expected, it happens.
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>> Main character
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for real.
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>> In our astrophotography images, we
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expect to see noise and artifacts. Just
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like when you're at that scenic
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overlooked, you expect to see these
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guys. Calibration frames can help to
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isolate and identify noise and
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artifacts. In short, the calibration
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frames allow us to account for the
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unwanted distractions in our images.
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Now, it may sound a little like
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cheating, but it's not. Even NASA uses
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calibration frames. So, let's talk about
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how to take calibration frames. Take
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these after your actual photos so that
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the dark frames are taken at the same
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temperature as the photos and so you can
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keep the same focus. For the dark
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frames, you'll first want to replace the
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lens cap, turn off the shutter delay,
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and then shoot. You'll want to take
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about 50 of these. For the bias frames,
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you'll set the exposure length to the
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shortest possible with the lens cap
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still on and shoot about 50 photos. The
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flat frames are a bit more involved.
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You'll need first a white t-shirt or
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paper sheet and an evenly lit
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background. What do I mean by that?
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No, I don't mean that. [music]
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I mean an evenly lit sky or light
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source, such as the dusk sky or ceiling.
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I used my lights here to evenly light
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the ceiling, and it worked best for me.
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First, you'll remove your lens cap and
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then switch to AV mode. Then, you'll
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point the camera vertically at that
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light source and place the t-shirt or
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paper sheet over the lens, making sure
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it's flat. Then you'll take the photos.
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Let's rewind that real quick. Take a
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look at the histogram. It's about 50%
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exposed, [music] and that is what you
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want to aim for. Take 30 of these flat
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frames. Here is a quick review of the
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details for each of these. Please feel
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free to stop this video and take a
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screenshot at this time so it's easier
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for you to remember. After you have
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those photos, I'd recommend taking them
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off your camera, putting them in your
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computer, and organizing them into
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folders. It makes things a lot easier.
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Let's talk next about stacking. Now, you
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may be doing the math and be asking
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yourself, "Why on earth did I take all
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those photos?" I mean, isn't one photo
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good enough? Not quite. See, space
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photos have a secret. Even though
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they're masquerading as one, they're
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really a bunch of photos that have been
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combined. They've been combined through
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a process called stacking. Get it? Where
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you take the individual photos,
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00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:21,680
integrate them together, and then you
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00:09:21,680 --> 00:09:23,839
get a finished image. We use the stars
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in each of the photos to align the
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images. The noise is fairly random
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across the photos while the signal is
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fairly consistent. So as we integrate
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more individual photos into our final
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image, we increase what is called the
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signal to noise ratio and get a much
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cleaner image. What we will do is
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integrate the light frames, the dark
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frames, the flat frames, and the bias
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00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:45,760
frames using a free online software
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called Deep Sky Stacker. When you open
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Deep Sky Stacker, it will look like
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00:09:49,839 --> 00:09:51,920
this. The first thing we'll do is upload
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our light frames. And like I said,
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organizing ahead of time really helps.
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00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:58,240
Go ahead and go to the lights folder and
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make sure you're selecting the raw
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00:09:59,680 --> 00:10:02,000
files. Go ahead and select all those
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files and then click open. Now, even
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though we've imported these, we need to
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check all the boxes. So, instead of
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going down one at a time, you can select
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all the files that have been imported.
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And after doing so, rightclick and then
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click check. Now, they are all imported.
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Next, we'll import our dark frames using
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the same approach. In this case, you
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00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:24,240
won't need to check these boxes. They're
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already imported. Make sure again that
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you are using the raw files. After the
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dark files, we'll then go to the flat
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files. We'll do the same thing again,
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00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:35,200
making sure we have the raw files, and
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then we'll open. Lastly, we're going to
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00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:40,399
import the bias files, select them all,
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and then click open. We now have each of
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the light frames, dark frames, flat
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frames, and bias frames imported. The
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next thing we'll do is adjust the
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register settings. I'd recommend setting
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this to the best 95% photos. Next, we'll
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00:10:54,640 --> 00:10:56,160
want to make sure we have enough stars
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00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:57,920
in our images so they can align
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00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:00,399
properly. We can see we've got quite a
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00:11:00,399 --> 00:11:02,000
number. We can actually slide that
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00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:04,240
slider down so we don't have quite as
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00:11:04,240 --> 00:11:06,399
many. Let's run it again. And after
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00:11:06,399 --> 00:11:08,160
doing so, we've see that we've got a few
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00:11:08,160 --> 00:11:10,079
hundred. That should be good enough.
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After that, we'll go to the recommended
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00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:13,760
settings. And as a general rule, the
323
00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:15,839
recommended settings in blue beneath red
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00:11:15,839 --> 00:11:17,920
usually yield good results. For the
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00:11:17,920 --> 00:11:20,160
stacking setting, there are two options.
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I used the Sigma clipping method that
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00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:24,399
worked best for me in my case. After
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00:11:24,399 --> 00:11:26,800
that, you'll click okay
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00:11:26,800 --> 00:11:28,880
and then click okay again. All of our
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light frames have been uploaded for a
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total of about 12 minutes of exposure
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and we have all of our calibration
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00:11:34,320 --> 00:11:36,959
frames as well. Go ahead and click okay.
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00:11:36,959 --> 00:11:38,640
Depending on the computer you have, it
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00:11:38,640 --> 00:11:41,600
may take anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes.
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00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:44,000
Let's go ahead and jump ahead. This is
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00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:45,920
our final output image. And up here in
338
00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:48,079
the top lefthand corner, you can see the
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00:11:48,079 --> 00:11:50,079
location of your file. Now that you have
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00:11:50,079 --> 00:11:51,760
your stacked image, we can move on to
341
00:11:51,760 --> 00:11:53,440
the final part of this tutorial,
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00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:55,680
processing. In this case, I'll be using
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00:11:55,680 --> 00:11:57,839
Photoshop, and you can get a free 7-day
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00:11:57,839 --> 00:11:59,600
trial online. Now, if you have an
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00:11:59,600 --> 00:12:01,120
aversion to free trials and don't want
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00:12:01,120 --> 00:12:02,800
to put in credit card information, then
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00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:04,480
Photo P is a good alternative. In
348
00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:06,160
addition to having a similar interface,
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00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:07,920
it has many of the same functionalities
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00:12:07,920 --> 00:12:09,760
as you'll find in Photoshop. But like I
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00:12:09,760 --> 00:12:11,040
said, we're going to do ours in
352
00:12:11,040 --> 00:12:12,880
Photoshop. And the first thing we'll do
353
00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:16,000
is save our file as a PSD or Photoshop
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00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:18,399
file. The next step is we'll go to image
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00:12:18,399 --> 00:12:21,120
down to mode and then 16 bit channel.
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00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:23,279
We're going to change the mode using the
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00:12:23,279 --> 00:12:25,600
exposure gamma settings and change it to
358
00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:28,880
16 bit mode. Click okay. And now what
359
00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:30,639
we're going to do next is duplicate the
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00:12:30,639 --> 00:12:33,120
layer. You can use the hotkeys J to do
361
00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:35,120
this. I plan on renaming all of my
362
00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:36,480
layers so that you can have a simple
363
00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:37,920
reference to screenshot [music]
364
00:12:37,920 --> 00:12:39,760
when you're doing your processing. The
365
00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:41,200
next thing we're going to do is we need
366
00:12:41,200 --> 00:12:43,279
to level out this background so it's
367
00:12:43,279 --> 00:12:46,160
more gray. So we do ctr L to do a levels
368
00:12:46,160 --> 00:12:48,320
adjust. Click the middle eyropper and
369
00:12:48,320 --> 00:12:50,079
then click somewhere in the middle to
370
00:12:50,079 --> 00:12:51,600
try to get a nice background that
371
00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:53,519
matches. Once you've done that, you'll
372
00:12:53,519 --> 00:12:56,160
click okay. Go ahead and do Ctrl L
373
00:12:56,160 --> 00:12:57,839
again. And then we're going to grab the
374
00:12:57,839 --> 00:12:59,839
leftmost slider and pull it towards the
375
00:12:59,839 --> 00:13:01,760
histogram. Usually you wouldn't want to
376
00:13:01,760 --> 00:13:03,760
clip off this part, but that's just an
377
00:13:03,760 --> 00:13:05,600
artifact from the stacking and that's
378
00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:08,000
okay. We'll address that later. pull it
379
00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:09,360
a little bit more towards the center and
380
00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:12,160
then click okay. Now to address those
381
00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:13,920
artifacts, we're going to crop the image
382
00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:16,320
in. So grab the crop tool and pull the
383
00:13:16,320 --> 00:13:17,920
sides in slightly to get rid of that
384
00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:20,480
weird framing artifact.
385
00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:23,120
Now we can do ctr L again. And this time
386
00:13:23,120 --> 00:13:24,800
you'll see that there's no artifacts in
387
00:13:24,800 --> 00:13:26,639
the histogram. So go ahead and pull the
388
00:13:26,639 --> 00:13:28,079
left slider over and then take the
389
00:13:28,079 --> 00:13:29,360
middle one and pull it towards the
390
00:13:29,360 --> 00:13:31,440
histogram. We're going to do this a few
391
00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:33,040
more times. And as we're doing this,
392
00:13:33,040 --> 00:13:35,040
you'll notice that we are revealing more
393
00:13:35,040 --> 00:13:37,760
detail in the galaxy right here. Uh, but
394
00:13:37,760 --> 00:13:39,279
we're also keeping the background a
395
00:13:39,279 --> 00:13:41,040
little bit balanced. We'll go ahead and
396
00:13:41,040 --> 00:13:42,720
do this one more time. Now, what you
397
00:13:42,720 --> 00:13:44,000
start to notice is some of the
398
00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:46,000
background changes as we're doing this.
399
00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:47,760
So, what we'll need to do is go in and
400
00:13:47,760 --> 00:13:49,839
grab the middle eyropper again to set
401
00:13:49,839 --> 00:13:51,680
another gray point. The other thing that
402
00:13:51,680 --> 00:13:53,200
we're going to do is we can actually
403
00:13:53,200 --> 00:13:55,519
adjust the individual channels. We can
404
00:13:55,519 --> 00:13:58,320
go through the red, green, and blue and
405
00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:00,639
try to get them as balanced as possible.
406
00:14:00,639 --> 00:14:03,040
So, we've got a nice flat background.
407
00:14:03,040 --> 00:14:04,639
After this, create a new layer from the
408
00:14:04,639 --> 00:14:07,040
visible by holding control shift alt E,
409
00:14:07,040 --> 00:14:08,560
which is something we'll do throughout
410
00:14:08,560 --> 00:14:10,800
this [music] process. Then, we will
411
00:14:10,800 --> 00:14:12,399
continue to do a few more levels
412
00:14:12,399 --> 00:14:15,040
adjusts. Open up levels again. Grab the
413
00:14:15,040 --> 00:14:16,560
left slider and pull it towards the
414
00:14:16,560 --> 00:14:18,880
center. Click okay. Open up levels
415
00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:21,600
again. Make sure you do not pull it into
416
00:14:21,600 --> 00:14:23,279
the histogram. This is called clipping
417
00:14:23,279 --> 00:14:25,920
the data and it's not good. So, pull it
418
00:14:25,920 --> 00:14:28,480
right up to the edge and then click
419
00:14:28,480 --> 00:14:30,880
okay. Open up levels again and then pull
420
00:14:30,880 --> 00:14:32,639
the center one towards the histogram as
421
00:14:32,639 --> 00:14:34,240
well. Now we're really starting to see
422
00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:36,480
the galaxy pop out in our image, [music]
423
00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:38,480
which is great. We're going to do one
424
00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:41,839
more levels adjust.
425
00:14:41,839 --> 00:14:43,120
And that's looking pretty good in the
426
00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:45,360
center here with the galaxy. We're going
427
00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:48,800
to create a new layer from the visible.
428
00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:50,320
Next, we'll do what's called a curves
429
00:14:50,320 --> 00:14:53,040
adjust. So holdm [music] and the curves
430
00:14:53,040 --> 00:14:54,959
window will pop up. This shows the
431
00:14:54,959 --> 00:14:57,199
histogram from the black point all the
432
00:14:57,199 --> 00:14:59,120
way to the white point. And what we're
433
00:14:59,120 --> 00:15:01,920
going to do is stretch the data. So
434
00:15:01,920 --> 00:15:03,519
we're going to click somewhere on the
435
00:15:03,519 --> 00:15:05,680
histogram
436
00:15:05,680 --> 00:15:07,839
right about here. And we can pull that
437
00:15:07,839 --> 00:15:09,760
up slightly and pull the middle part of
438
00:15:09,760 --> 00:15:11,839
it down. This is going to allow us to
439
00:15:11,839 --> 00:15:13,680
have more contrast and reveal more
440
00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:15,680
detail in the galaxy. We don't want to
441
00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:17,199
do too much cuz we're starting to get
442
00:15:17,199 --> 00:15:19,680
this nasty gradient over here. So we can
443
00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:22,320
pull this back just slightly and then
444
00:15:22,320 --> 00:15:26,920
pull the part down a little bit too.
445
00:15:27,440 --> 00:15:28,959
It may take a little bit of playing with
446
00:15:28,959 --> 00:15:30,959
it, but do your best to get something
447
00:15:30,959 --> 00:15:33,680
that looks just about like this. Click
448
00:15:33,680 --> 00:15:35,839
okay.
449
00:15:35,839 --> 00:15:37,760
Now, as you can see, we have this nasty
450
00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:40,079
gradient. So, after creating another new
451
00:15:40,079 --> 00:15:42,240
layer from visible, what we are going to
452
00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:44,880
do is use the linear gradient tool to
453
00:15:44,880 --> 00:15:47,040
get rid of that. First, make sure you
454
00:15:47,040 --> 00:15:48,880
save that project before you lose it.
455
00:15:48,880 --> 00:15:51,120
Very important. Learned this one the
456
00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:53,600
hard way. And then, we're going to
457
00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:56,320
address the gradient. So, go to filter,
458
00:15:56,320 --> 00:15:59,360
camera raw filter.
459
00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:01,680
And what we're going to do first is zoom
460
00:16:01,680 --> 00:16:03,199
out a little bit farther to something
461
00:16:03,199 --> 00:16:05,839
that's maybe about 12%. Here you can see
462
00:16:05,839 --> 00:16:07,920
the gradient is pretty bad. So, we're
463
00:16:07,920 --> 00:16:09,759
going to go over to the circle icon and
464
00:16:09,759 --> 00:16:12,880
create a new linear gradient. We'll go
465
00:16:12,880 --> 00:16:14,320
to the side of the photo that has the
466
00:16:14,320 --> 00:16:16,320
gradient. Click in the area that has the
467
00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:18,000
most gradient and then pull towards the
468
00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:19,600
area that does not. Now, you can
469
00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:21,519
redirect the center and vector of the
470
00:16:21,519 --> 00:16:23,440
gradient, but this looks pretty good.
471
00:16:23,440 --> 00:16:24,959
Then when you go back to the right hand
472
00:16:24,959 --> 00:16:26,800
side, you can toggle the amounts of the
473
00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:29,360
exposure, the contrast, as well as any
474
00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:31,360
number of other values to make sure it
475
00:16:31,360 --> 00:16:34,160
meshes in well. After zooming in, we can
476
00:16:34,160 --> 00:16:35,680
see that the gradient's looking a lot
477
00:16:35,680 --> 00:16:37,839
better. If we go down, we can also
478
00:16:37,839 --> 00:16:40,480
adjust the tint and the temperature, but
479
00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:42,480
I'm pretty happy with the contrast and
480
00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:44,399
exposure that we've landed on. And I
481
00:16:44,399 --> 00:16:46,079
think this is looking pretty good. You
482
00:16:46,079 --> 00:16:47,920
can really see how this simple process
483
00:16:47,920 --> 00:16:49,920
took care of much of the gradient. And
484
00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:51,920
as we zoom in on the galaxy, we can
485
00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:53,440
really start to see some of the dust
486
00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:55,519
lanes popping. You can even see some of
487
00:16:55,519 --> 00:16:59,600
the young blue stars on the outer edges.
488
00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:01,279
So, we'll create another new layer from
489
00:17:01,279 --> 00:17:04,079
visible.
490
00:17:04,079 --> 00:17:05,679
And after we've done that, we're going
491
00:17:05,679 --> 00:17:07,919
to do yet another curves adjust. When
492
00:17:07,919 --> 00:17:09,439
the curves windows open, you can
493
00:17:09,439 --> 00:17:11,600
actually click with the eyropper tool
494
00:17:11,600 --> 00:17:13,360
somewhere in the image and that value
495
00:17:13,360 --> 00:17:15,439
will plot itself on the chart. This
496
00:17:15,439 --> 00:17:17,439
makes it easy for adjusting just the
497
00:17:17,439 --> 00:17:19,600
areas you want to focus on. We can zoom
498
00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:21,520
in on the galaxy and you really start to
499
00:17:21,520 --> 00:17:23,679
see the details popping even more with
500
00:17:23,679 --> 00:17:26,000
that simple curve stretch. Next, we're
501
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:28,000
going to do a new layer from visible.
502
00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:29,360
And then after that, we're going to
503
00:17:29,360 --> 00:17:31,600
address these nasty blue halos around
504
00:17:31,600 --> 00:17:33,840
the stars that were caused by our cheap
505
00:17:33,840 --> 00:17:35,840
lens.
506
00:17:35,840 --> 00:17:38,799
Go up to filter camera raw filter and
507
00:17:38,799 --> 00:17:40,400
then go over here on the right hand side
508
00:17:40,400 --> 00:17:43,280
to optics. Here we can set the purple
509
00:17:43,280 --> 00:17:45,280
amount and purple hue we're choosing to
510
00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:47,280
different. Don't pull it too far into
511
00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:49,200
the blue or else you'll remove the blue
512
00:17:49,200 --> 00:17:51,360
stars from the galaxy. So, really focus
513
00:17:51,360 --> 00:17:53,280
on adjusting the purple amount to get to
514
00:17:53,280 --> 00:17:56,840
where you want to go.
515
00:17:57,600 --> 00:17:59,120
You might have to play around with it,
516
00:17:59,120 --> 00:18:01,039
but that's okay. Do some guessing and
517
00:18:01,039 --> 00:18:02,400
checking to make sure that [music] the
518
00:18:02,400 --> 00:18:05,600
blue stars in the galaxy are remained.
519
00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:07,520
After you click okay, you can really
520
00:18:07,520 --> 00:18:09,120
start to see the big difference that you
521
00:18:09,120 --> 00:18:11,200
made in the stars and how they look a
522
00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:15,160
lot better than they did before.
523
00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:19,520
After this, we'll do another new layer
524
00:18:19,520 --> 00:18:21,760
from visible and then another levels
525
00:18:21,760 --> 00:18:24,760
adjust.
526
00:18:25,760 --> 00:18:27,360
We can see the background is starting to
527
00:18:27,360 --> 00:18:29,120
look a little bit green up here. So,
528
00:18:29,120 --> 00:18:31,360
we're going to go to the green channel
529
00:18:31,360 --> 00:18:33,760
and slightly adjust some of the sliders
530
00:18:33,760 --> 00:18:35,520
for that. We can pull the left-handed
531
00:18:35,520 --> 00:18:37,280
one in, but you don't want to go too
532
00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:39,679
far. It'll turn to red. Next, we'll go
533
00:18:39,679 --> 00:18:41,360
to the red channel and we'll adjust that
534
00:18:41,360 --> 00:18:45,039
one slightly as well.
535
00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:47,679
And then we can click okay. We'll do
536
00:18:47,679 --> 00:18:49,120
another levels adjust. And this time
537
00:18:49,120 --> 00:18:52,080
we'll focus on the blue channel
538
00:18:52,080 --> 00:18:53,440
and make sure that we don't move those
539
00:18:53,440 --> 00:18:56,400
sliders too much. That looks pretty
540
00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:59,440
good. Before we continue, go up to file,
541
00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:02,320
save as, and then grab the drop down to
542
00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:04,960
make sure that the Tiff is selected. We
543
00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:06,799
need to save this file as a TIFF file
544
00:19:06,799 --> 00:19:08,799
for Staret. I'm naming it something
545
00:19:08,799 --> 00:19:10,720
including Staret so that I can make sure
546
00:19:10,720 --> 00:19:12,640
I know where it's at. Once it's saved,
547
00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:15,120
click okay and then click okay again.
548
00:19:15,120 --> 00:19:16,960
What is Staret, you may ask? It's a free
549
00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:18,880
program to remove stars from your photo.
550
00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:20,720
So, you can take a photo like this and
551
00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:23,120
turn it into one like this. This is what
552
00:19:23,120 --> 00:19:24,640
the website looks like. And if you
553
00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:26,320
scroll all the way to the bottom, you
554
00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:28,080
can see the download for Windows. Now,
555
00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:29,440
once you've downloaded it, you'll have
556
00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:30,880
to make sure you rightclick it and
557
00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:33,679
extract all the files. Now, what I'm
558
00:19:33,679 --> 00:19:35,520
going to do is go back to that TIFF file
559
00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:38,240
I saved and actually cut it and paste it
560
00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:41,120
into the extracted file folder.
561
00:19:41,120 --> 00:19:42,960
Then I'm going to go up to the Staret
562
00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:46,480
GUI and doubleclick it. This will open
563
00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:48,640
the interface for Staret. I can then
564
00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:50,720
browse to the file that I just moved to
565
00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:52,720
the folder. Here's even a test file they
566
00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:54,640
provide. And then I can click on that
567
00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:57,440
file. Once I've opened that, I then need
568
00:19:57,440 --> 00:19:59,200
to make sure I change the output file
569
00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:01,120
name. I'm going to change it to
570
00:20:01,120 --> 00:20:05,480
something called Staret Output.
571
00:20:05,679 --> 00:20:08,400
And then I'm going to click run.
572
00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:11,360
Now, this will take some time.
573
00:20:11,360 --> 00:20:13,600
But let's use some movie magic again.
574
00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:15,200
Now that it's finished, we can see the
575
00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:16,960
output file. And we're going to open
576
00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:20,278
that in a separate Photoshop project.
577
00:20:20,278 --> 00:20:20,934
[music]
578
00:20:20,934 --> 00:20:22,880
[cheering]
579
00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:24,400
The first thing we'll do when we open it
580
00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:26,559
in a project is zoom in and look at that
581
00:20:26,559 --> 00:20:28,640
detail that we can see now that we've
582
00:20:28,640 --> 00:20:30,720
removed the stars. So, the first thing
583
00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:32,320
we're going to do is we're going to
584
00:20:32,320 --> 00:20:34,080
actually remove a lot of these artifacts
585
00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:35,760
from the leftover stars that were not
586
00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:37,679
removed. We're going to use a spot
587
00:20:37,679 --> 00:20:39,440
healing brush tool on the left hand
588
00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:41,600
side. As far as the brush tool settings,
589
00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:44,000
I used something medium. And you want to
590
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:45,600
make sure you also have a low percentage
591
00:20:45,600 --> 00:20:48,400
hardness for the brush. The normal mode
592
00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:50,480
also works pretty well. And all you're
593
00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:52,559
going to do is just click on each of the
594
00:20:52,559 --> 00:20:54,880
stars and remove them. This may take
595
00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:56,720
some time. Let's use that movie magic
596
00:20:56,720 --> 00:20:58,480
again. Now that we're done, we're going
597
00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:02,799
to create a new layer from visible.
598
00:21:02,799 --> 00:21:04,480
And then again, we'll create another new
599
00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:07,039
layer from the visible. Next, we'll do a
600
00:21:07,039 --> 00:21:08,880
curves adjust. And we're going to do a
601
00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:10,720
slight adjustment. Again, stretching the
602
00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:13,120
data a little bit more. As we're doing
603
00:21:13,120 --> 00:21:14,240
that, we want to make sure we're not
604
00:21:14,240 --> 00:21:15,919
blowing out the core of the galaxy. So,
605
00:21:15,919 --> 00:21:17,200
we want to be careful [music] with those
606
00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:19,440
highlights.
607
00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:21,919
Click okay. And things are looking a lot
608
00:21:21,919 --> 00:21:24,400
better. We'll do another levels adjust
609
00:21:24,400 --> 00:21:26,080
to make sure that things are balanced in
610
00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:27,600
the background, going through each
611
00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:29,440
channel as needed to where we can get
612
00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:33,559
something that's nice and neutral.
613
00:21:35,919 --> 00:21:37,440
We're going to create another new layer
614
00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:40,480
from the visible
615
00:21:40,480 --> 00:21:41,919
and then we're going to adjust the
616
00:21:41,919 --> 00:21:44,320
vibrance and saturation for this
617
00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:46,320
particular layer. So grab that
618
00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:48,400
saturation slider and pull it up but not
619
00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:50,720
too much.
620
00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:52,640
If we zoom in, we can start to see some
621
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:54,559
of the detail in the outer edges and
622
00:21:54,559 --> 00:21:56,480
some of that blue coming through nicely.
623
00:21:56,480 --> 00:21:58,480
After we've created another new layer,
624
00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:02,240
we're going to do another levels adjust.
625
00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:04,080
We're going to set the gray point again
626
00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:05,760
by clicking somewhere in the image and
627
00:22:05,760 --> 00:22:07,760
then clicking okay. Now, one thing we
628
00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:09,919
want to focus on is a selected color
629
00:22:09,919 --> 00:22:12,320
range for focused saturation. So, we'll
630
00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:15,120
click select color range and then we'll
631
00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:16,880
use the eyropper to click somewhere in
632
00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:19,919
the galaxy. You can adjust the fuzziness
633
00:22:19,919 --> 00:22:21,360
to change the amount that's being
634
00:22:21,360 --> 00:22:23,039
selected
635
00:22:23,039 --> 00:22:25,200
and then click okay.
636
00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:26,880
We've primarily selected the outer
637
00:22:26,880 --> 00:22:28,400
edges. And then we'll click hue
638
00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:30,720
saturation again to bump up that
639
00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:32,880
saturation even more on the outer edges
640
00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:35,360
of the galaxy.
641
00:22:35,360 --> 00:22:37,440
Things are looking pretty good. And
642
00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:39,120
after we create another new layer, we'll
643
00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:42,000
do yet another levels adjust.
644
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:43,679
Now, as we continue to brighten this
645
00:22:43,679 --> 00:22:45,520
image with these level adjusts, we want
646
00:22:45,520 --> 00:22:46,880
to make sure that things are remaining
647
00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:48,720
balanced. So, we can go into these
648
00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:50,799
individual channels again and make sure
649
00:22:50,799 --> 00:22:52,880
that things have a neutral background.
650
00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:54,640
This is a constant iterative process
651
00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:56,159
that you'll need to keep checking on
652
00:22:56,159 --> 00:22:59,799
throughout your process.
653
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:05,440
If we zoom in on the galaxy now, we can
654
00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:06,960
see things are looking really, really
655
00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:08,799
good both in the core and the outer
656
00:23:08,799 --> 00:23:10,960
edges.
657
00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:13,679
What we're going to do now is Ctrl C and
658
00:23:13,679 --> 00:23:16,400
Ctrl +V this starless image onto our
659
00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:18,720
main project. Here you can see the
660
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:20,159
difference in terms of the amount of
661
00:23:20,159 --> 00:23:22,320
galaxy we've revealed compared to how it
662
00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:25,440
originally looked. After renaming this
663
00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:28,000
layer, I'm actually going to copy the
664
00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:30,080
layer that had the stars and place it on
665
00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:31,541
top of the one that does not have the
666
00:23:31,541 --> 00:23:33,200
[music] stars. Then I'm going to adjust
667
00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:35,360
the opacity of the star layer on top to
668
00:23:35,360 --> 00:23:37,679
80%. I'm then going to create a new
669
00:23:37,679 --> 00:23:39,760
layer from visible. Now, there are many
670
00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:41,440
different ways to combine starless and
671
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:43,679
star layers. This is just one really
672
00:23:43,679 --> 00:23:46,240
quick option. Not necessarily the best,
673
00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:48,240
but it can get the job done. Let's do a
674
00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:49,600
quick comparison to the way things
675
00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:51,360
looked before and the way things looked
676
00:23:51,360 --> 00:23:52,960
after. We can see the stars are
677
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:55,039
significantly less bright and they're a
678
00:23:55,039 --> 00:23:56,640
little bit smaller as well, which can
679
00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:59,120
help our overall process. Zooming back
680
00:23:59,120 --> 00:24:01,120
out, we'll turn on all of our layers
681
00:24:01,120 --> 00:24:04,559
again. Create another new layer.
682
00:24:04,559 --> 00:24:05,760
And then we're going to do another
683
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:07,840
curves adjust. clicking that eyropper
684
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:09,360
somewhere on the outer edge of the of
685
00:24:09,360 --> 00:24:12,080
the galaxy and then pulling up to the
686
00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:14,000
right. Then we'll click in the dark
687
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:19,240
space down below and we'll pull down.
688
00:24:20,159 --> 00:24:22,000
As we do this, you'll really start to
689
00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:24,080
see the difference between the starless
690
00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:26,400
and star image. Notice that the stars
691
00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:27,919
don't really change at all, but the
692
00:24:27,919 --> 00:24:30,080
galaxy is that much more pronounced.
693
00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:32,720
This is exactly what we are after. But
694
00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:34,240
we also want to make sure that the core
695
00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:36,400
of the galaxy is not blown out. And I
696
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:37,840
think we've done a pretty good job here
697
00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:40,080
retaining that detail, especially in the
698
00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:43,320
dust lanes.
699
00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:46,640
After zooming back out and turning on
700
00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:48,480
all of our layers, we can see that
701
00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:50,480
there's a lot of unused space in this
702
00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:52,720
image. Because of the sensitivity of our
703
00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:54,640
camera, we can't pick up much of
704
00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:57,120
anything else. So, what you can do as an
705
00:24:57,120 --> 00:24:59,600
option is copy the top layer [music] to
706
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:02,400
a new Photoshop project, and then we're
707
00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:04,240
going to crop it in from there. I don't
708
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:05,840
want to crop it in this layer because I
709
00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:07,360
don't want to lose the processes I've
710
00:25:07,360 --> 00:25:09,840
already worked on. So once we've pasted
711
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:11,840
it into a new project, we'll then use
712
00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:13,919
the crop tool to bring it in to adjust
713
00:25:13,919 --> 00:25:15,919
the area of focus, particularly around
714
00:25:15,919 --> 00:25:18,000
the galaxy. This will make things
715
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:19,520
significantly easier when we're
716
00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:22,520
processing.
717
00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:26,480
After this, we'll do another new layer
718
00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:28,720
and then we'll do another levels adjust.
719
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:30,480
Grab that middle eyropper and click
720
00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:34,120
somewhere in the image.
721
00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:38,440
Then click okay.
722
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:41,200
After creating another new layer, we're
723
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:42,720
going to adjust the vibrance and
724
00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:45,039
saturation yet again for this image. Go
725
00:25:45,039 --> 00:25:46,880
ahead and pull that vibrance up a good
726
00:25:46,880 --> 00:25:51,640
amount. And then the saturation as well.
727
00:25:51,679 --> 00:25:53,360
This is getting some of the details we
728
00:25:53,360 --> 00:25:55,120
really want to start to see, especially
729
00:25:55,120 --> 00:25:58,320
those blue stars on the outer edges.
730
00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:00,000
But we don't want to do too much, so you
731
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:03,600
might have to back it off some.
732
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:07,279
We'll create another new layer. I know
733
00:26:07,279 --> 00:26:08,640
you're probably tired of hearing me say
734
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:10,159
that.
735
00:26:10,159 --> 00:26:11,840
We'll create another layer. And then
736
00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:14,400
we'll do a curves adjust.
737
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:16,000
So, by clicking somewhere on the outer
738
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:17,919
edges of the galaxy and then pulling
739
00:26:17,919 --> 00:26:20,000
that up and then pulling down the left
740
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:22,559
hand side, we can really really start to
741
00:26:22,559 --> 00:26:25,520
see the outer edges of this galaxy
742
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:30,279
contrast against the darkness of space.
743
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:32,320
After creating another new layer and
744
00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:33,919
naming both of these, you can do an
745
00:26:33,919 --> 00:26:35,919
optional brightness adjust. If you feel
746
00:26:35,919 --> 00:26:37,919
that the stars and the galaxy in your
747
00:26:37,919 --> 00:26:39,360
image are perhaps a little bit too
748
00:26:39,360 --> 00:26:41,520
washed out, what you can do is go to
749
00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:44,320
adjustments, brightness, contrast, and
750
00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:45,919
then turn down the brightness just a
751
00:26:45,919 --> 00:26:48,000
little bit. You don't have to. I just
752
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:49,440
want to show you all some tools and
753
00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:51,440
tricks you can use so that you can
754
00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:53,520
develop your own process. When we create
755
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:55,200
a new layer, you can see the difference
756
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:56,960
and how things aren't quite as washed
757
00:26:56,960 --> 00:26:58,799
out in the center, which is what we're
758
00:26:58,799 --> 00:27:00,400
going for.
759
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:02,320
After creating another new layer, if you
760
00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:04,159
zoom in on these stars, you can start to
761
00:27:04,159 --> 00:27:06,400
see still some of the blue halo coming
762
00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:09,679
back from earlier.
763
00:27:09,679 --> 00:27:11,600
To address the saturation of the galaxy
764
00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:13,679
without adding to this, we're going to
765
00:27:13,679 --> 00:27:17,200
go to select color range
766
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:19,200
and then we'll click localized color
767
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,159
clusters. After that, grab your eyropper
768
00:27:22,159 --> 00:27:23,600
and click somewhere in the center of the
769
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:27,120
galaxy and adjust the fuzziness to make
770
00:27:27,120 --> 00:27:29,120
sure you're selecting just the galaxy in
771
00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:31,200
the center. Make sure you pull that
772
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:34,000
range down so it's localized just to the
773
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:36,799
galaxy
774
00:27:36,799 --> 00:27:38,640
and pull the fuzziness up so you get as
775
00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:40,480
much of that core as possible. You may
776
00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:44,039
have to play with it.
777
00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:47,120
Then click okay. Now you can see we've
778
00:27:47,120 --> 00:27:48,960
selected just the core of the galaxy.
779
00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:50,559
And what we're going to do is another
780
00:27:50,559 --> 00:27:52,559
saturation [music] and vibrance adjust
781
00:27:52,559 --> 00:27:56,440
for the center of the galaxy.
782
00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:00,000
As we pull these up, we can see that
783
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:01,919
color start to come through without
784
00:28:01,919 --> 00:28:06,039
affecting the rest of our image.
785
00:28:08,399 --> 00:28:11,520
After you create another new layer, we
786
00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:15,720
can then do another curves adjust.
787
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:18,640
We're going to click somewhere on the
788
00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:21,200
very outskirts of the galaxy and then
789
00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:23,679
click over somewhere in empty space and
790
00:28:23,679 --> 00:28:26,159
pull it even more.
791
00:28:26,159 --> 00:28:28,000
Now, doing it way too much can make
792
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:29,760
things really grainy, so just make it
793
00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:31,600
subtle. [music] It's a very iterative
794
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:36,000
process and it takes practice over time.
795
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:37,919
Toggling it on and off shows us yet
796
00:28:37,919 --> 00:28:39,760
again how we're bringing out more of the
797
00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:41,679
galaxy while managing the brightness of
798
00:28:41,679 --> 00:28:43,360
the stars.
799
00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:45,039
Now, if we zoom in, we can see those
800
00:28:45,039 --> 00:28:47,279
pesky blue halos are back. So, what
801
00:28:47,279 --> 00:28:48,799
we'll do is we'll create a new [music]
802
00:28:48,799 --> 00:28:52,200
layer from visible
803
00:28:56,320 --> 00:28:58,399
and then we'll go up here to filter
804
00:28:58,399 --> 00:29:00,640
camera raw filter. We're going to use
805
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:02,880
that same def fringe optics tool that we
806
00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:05,039
used earlier, but this time in addition
807
00:29:05,039 --> 00:29:06,960
to adjusting purple, I'm going to slide
808
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:09,120
the purple hue [music] over to the left
809
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:11,360
to get into the blue. We'll use an
810
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:13,840
eraser tool to mask out this new layer
811
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:15,440
and make sure we don't remove the color
812
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:17,440
from the galaxy. Now, if we zoom in on
813
00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:19,600
the galaxy, you can see how this action
814
00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:21,760
actually removes some of the blue color
815
00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:23,600
in the stars on the outer edges of the
816
00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:25,679
galaxy, especially as we toggle on and
817
00:29:25,679 --> 00:29:27,760
off these layers. So, what we're going
818
00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:29,760
to do to bring this back is use an
819
00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:31,760
eraser tool that's a small to medium
820
00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:34,480
size with a very low percentage hardness
821
00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:36,960
and a very low percentage opacity. and
822
00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:38,320
clicking [music] on the top layer, we're
823
00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:40,480
just going to erase the galaxy as it
824
00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:42,720
appears. This will remove the part
825
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:44,640
underneath to where we can restore those
826
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:48,960
blue stars and maintain the color.
827
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:50,240
After that, we're going to create
828
00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:51,760
another new layer and then we're going
829
00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:53,919
to adjust the vibrance and saturation
830
00:29:53,919 --> 00:29:56,030
one last time.
831
00:29:56,030 --> 00:29:58,050
[music]
832
00:29:58,799 --> 00:30:01,120
After one more layer, I promise it's the
833
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:03,520
last one, we'll do another levels adjust
834
00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:05,855
to bring out a nice even background. In
835
00:30:05,855 --> 00:30:07,039
[music] this case, I'm going to go to
836
00:30:07,039 --> 00:30:08,880
the green channel and pull it to where I
837
00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:11,039
see fit.
838
00:30:11,039 --> 00:30:12,419
Now, you can repeat these processes
839
00:30:12,419 --> 00:30:14,399
[music] again and again and do them in
840
00:30:14,399 --> 00:30:16,159
different orders. There is no one exact
841
00:30:16,159 --> 00:30:17,840
way to process the image, and there
842
00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:19,600
never will be, but these are some of the
843
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:21,279
commonly recurring approaches and
844
00:30:21,279 --> 00:30:23,279
techniques that you can use to achieve
845
00:30:23,279 --> 00:30:25,520
the final image like I did. If you like
846
00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:27,279
that video, please consider subscribing.
847
00:30:27,279 --> 00:30:29,039
It really helps my channel. And if you
848
00:30:29,039 --> 00:30:30,960
have any other ideas for other astro
849
00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:32,559
tutorials, let me [music] know in the
850
00:30:32,559 --> 00:30:34,080
comments. I would love to hear them.
851
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:38,159
Thank you so much again for watching.61143
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