I've uploaded new and comprehensive video tutorials on shooting and processing still images and time-lapse movies of:
The Northern Lights
And of Star Trails, both as stacked still images and as time-lapse sequences, using specialized software such as StarStaX and the Advanced Stacker Plus actions for Photoshop.
Both tutorials take you from "field to final," starting from a shoot in the field capturing images, followed by a studio session at the computer processing the images taken that night.
Both are aimed at beginners, and neither goes into the more advanced steps of using LRTimelapse itself. But I hope many will find these tutorials of interest.
The videos are in support of my eBook How to Shoot and Process NIGHTSCAPES and TIME-LAPSES advertised on this page and available only though the Apple iBookstore.
Thanks for watching ... and clear skies! — Alan
Hi Alan, thanks for sharing! Great tutorials indeed!
I'd appreciate, if you would do a more advanced one, showing the advantages of the LRTimelapse editing process with Lightroom since it's faster and easier then using Bridge/ACR/Photoshop once you know the workflow. Additionally many users do not have the Creative Suite, because it's fairly expensive.
Especially when shooting the aurora, I experienced, that sometimes keyframing is really important - I often experienced massive changes in activity (brightness of the aurora) during the shot - especially when you shoot on a moonless night. Then you have to keyframe the bright parts to make them darker. Another option would be to use LRTimelapse with the visual deflicker and a fairly high smoothing setting.
Anyway - keep up the great work and good luck with the new edition of your EBook! Hope you'll make a cross-platform version this time to reach an even bigger audience.
All the best
Gunther
Thanks Gunther,
I am just working on the outline for the revised version of my ebook right now (!) and will be redoing all the LRTimelapse sections with LRT4 and LR6/CC workflows and screen shots, and will keep it in mind to use an aurora clip as an example.
My free tutorial was to show the basics, as most people don't even know how to develop a single raw frame let alone hundreds, then keyframe them. But my ebook (for a price!) does show the LRT workflow both with Bridge and LR and will be revised with your suggestions in mind.
There is a myth Adobe CC is expensive -- it is $10 US a month for PS and LR, and you'll spend a year and a half's subscription just buying the boxed LR6 or upgrading it. And with the boxed CS versions of Photoshop you spent more than that (i.e. > $120/year) averaged over the lifetime of the boxed product to upgrade it, from CS4 to CS5 to CS6 etc., assuming you upgraded it! Many still work with CS4 or even CS2 - a decade old product.
For less than what you used to spend on boxed versions and upgrades, you get the latest versions of LR, with features not in LR6 -- and you get Photoshop, which used to cost $800. Plus other benefits of the Creative Cloud. For just time-lapse work you might not need PS, but you sure do for still images.
But I know a large part of the market (Windows users mostly) refuses to update, thinking it is all a conspiracy, and still works with old LR and PS versions. Indeed, I have had friends make that comment about LRTimelapse -- that V4 offers nothing of value for the price so they stick with LRT3 or whatever, avoiding your obvious "money grab!" What??
LRT4 is fabulous! Way better in all respects. And well worth the upgrade. But people struggle with the old versions, happily spending thousands of $ or Euros on cameras and lenses, but avoiding spending anything on software! Software is the cheapest yet in some respects the most important part of the workflow. In my eBook i'm going to refuse to show how to use the older versions of software for the stubborn die hards. Upgrade or perish!
Video tutorials with more advanced workflows might be coming from me, but I have to draw the line someplace as to how much to make free and how much to offer for a fee, perhaps as part of an ebook or paid tutorial series.
I have it in mind to produce smaller subset ebooks on very specialized topics (as in the tutorials) and make them multi-platform, perhaps as PDFs or ePub3 Fixed Format, for sale thru my own website or elsewhere.
But the Apple eBooks are the easiest to produce (when you want something more advanced than just a PDF) and to market -- and they actually make money. Nobody else (Amazon, Google, Nook, etc) offers 70% to the author for a 1 gig interactive eBook. You can't even offer such a book via Amazon -- just adding a couple of hundred images into your Kindle ebook will cost you dearly!
These tutorials were a lot of work and delayed my V2 of my ebook by 2 or 3 months I'm sure! But I hope they help promote the ebook.
All the best! Thanks for the great software! I recommend it all the time. -- Alan
Hi Alan,
thank you for your in depth explanation - I see it like you: the Adobe Photographers Cloud is a real bargain. I recommend it to anyone. I think the mistake Adobe made was to call it "Cloud" - people assume the have to put everything in the cloud, but in reality it's just a rental model for the same software they can still buy.
I for myself have the full CC because I use Premiere Pro, Illustrator, Indesign etc. too - but for the normal photo enthusiast the photography cloud is mostly the way to go - and for 9,99 US$ a month (in Europe 12 €) it's a no brainer.
My comment above was referring to the option to use Bridge+ACR+PS to create time lapses. I did not know that Bridge was included in the CC Photography plan too. But still I think for beginners the route with Lightroom and LRT is the easier way, even if you only use the LRTExport Plugin and LRT Video renderer and no keyframing at all. Even the free version of LRT would do.
Let me conclude, that I find that your ebook is a masterpiece and I'm looking forward to see the new edition. But I know too how much work is involved in this... :-)
Thanks Alan for your video tutorials, your website, and thanks to both you and Gunther for your explanations for why Adobe CC is a good deal. I've been a PS user for many years, and a LR user since 2011. I had not considered upgrading to CC versions, largely due to a silly paranoia about that "cloud" term, which you and Gunther debunked nicely. Your explanations gives me pause to reconsider a potential upgrade.
Best wishes,
Bob
Yes, there is a misconception that your Adobe software is running "in the cloud." Of course it isn't.
But there's also the fear that if you don't connect to the internet your software will not work. When I'm on the road and not connected for some length of time occasionally a message pops up warning me that I have X time to connect to ensure my Adobe software continues to run, and it's usually now a grace period of several months before you absolutely must connect to verify your subscription. It used to be just a month.
There's also the fear that if you decide to end your subscription you won't be able to run your Adobe CC software (yes, true enough) or open your photo files, Premiere files, etc. You could still open then with your older boxed versions of Photoshop or other Adobe programs if you have them available to re-install, assuming those old versions will recognize the files created with the newer versions, always an issue with software. e.g.: What will old versions of LR or ACR do with raw files that have had the Dehaze tool applied to them? Ignore the setting? I'm not sure. So yes, if you use new software to create lots of files, then decide not to keep that software then you could have a problem. But that's true of any software - Office, Final Cut, etc.
But the CC deal is a good one , costing less than the boxed versions and annual upgrades used to cost, and the Cloud service does offer several advantages such as storage, LR Mobile, syncing and saving of user preferences, access to fonts, etc, that I think you get even with the basic PS/LR package. And I'm sure Bridge comes with PS regardless. You don't need to subscribe to the $50 full package to get it.
While time-lapsers could live with just Lightroom, and therefore buy the boxed version for a fixed price, to me all still images have to go into PS. I'm always stacking, layering, compositing, and masking. You just can't do an of that in LR.
Clear skies!
Hi Alan,
i 'd like to buy your ebook. When i can expect the release of v2 ?
Hello -- V2 won't be out for a while, but anyone who buys the book now or has my book, or any Apple eBook, gets all updates for free. When one is available, Apple would provide a notice when you open the book that a new version is available, asking if you would like to update your copy. All updates are always free. Thanks! — Alan