For a still photo, my standard process is to take a blue-hour photo of the foreground and then blend it into the multiple image stacked starry sky photo. The purpose obviously is to get good foreground detail with minimal noise.

How do I accomplish something similar for a night sky timelapse (without a tracker)? I want a night sky timelapse with a high quality foreground, and my attempts so far have been poor.

I can't extend the exposure time because I'll get unwanted star trails. (or, do star trails even matter with a timelapse? -- I've never tried that) A higher ISO would provide a brighter exposure (with possibly more noise) but could blow out the stars themselves. I'm already wide open with my aperture.

I'm stumped. Is the only answer a tracker?

My equipment:
Sony A7iv. Sony G 20mm 1.8.

You are talking about composites. I normally don't feel the need to do such. If you want to light up your foreground a bit, you can use a (weak) lamp. For example the LRT PRO Timer brings the option to use the OLED screen as a Flashlight to illuminate the foreground for a timelapse. I've already done this a couple of times with good results.
Also: mostly a fast lens will have much more impact on the results then any tracking or stacking. If you have once done a milky way shooting with f/1.4 you'll never want to go back.

If you really want to composite, take a timelapse during blue hour and then one from the exact same position during the night.
Then edit both separately in LRT and do the compositing in Davinci Resolve or any other Video editor.

This post was last modified: 2022-09-20, 16:51 by GBakker. Edit Reason: Additional question.

Thanks Gunther. Appreciate your perspective.

Faster lens? Good idea but not an option for me right now. And I'd prefer to avoid composites if possible, even with a still photo.

So, it looks like a secondary light source is the best option. Will need to be connected to a mobile battery pack to be able to last up to 3 hours or so. And will need to have a broad width/height; strong enough to make a difference yet weak enough to not overpower the photo.

Other than the LRT timer screen, do you or other members have any suggestions? (For better or worse, I'm in the US so the full breadth of Amazon's reach is open to me.)

PS -- Can you comment on the question of whether or not I need to strive to strictly avoid small star trails with a timelapse?

I recently did some composite videos of night and day from the same place:

https://vimeo.com/748347484

https://vimeo.com/748347455

Using a gradient transition in premiere pro. Sony 20mm f/1.8 and Sony 24mm f/1.4 lenses.

Doing that allows me to then blend day and night together like in this music video:

https://vimeo.com/750191258

One way to approach the fact that the foreground is oftentimes really dark at night. I run my nighttime rigs all night long and sleep, so no artificial illumination for me.

Brian, your videos are incredible. Thanks for sharing them. They are inspiring. In that first video, what is lighting up the mountains when you are capturing the Milky Way? Moonlight? Or am I misunderstanding and the mountains are also daytime timelapses that you edited and blended with a horizontal gradient transition? If so, I didn't know video editors could do that. Either way, well done!