Take mesmerizing night sky scenes in time-lapse

When it comes to enjoying a night scene, time-lapse videos ensure the divine flavor of life. If you are a time-lapse lover, you may also like to know how to make time-lapse on festival events.

Imagine, the earth is rotating, the stars are crossing the sky at night, and you would definitely want to shoot a video when you are watching these images occurring in front of your eyes. It is such an impressive view of the night sky.

A night scene time-lapse tells the stories of the play of stars throughout the night. How cool would it be if you were able to make a time-lapse video of this mesmerizing view?

sky night scene

Unfortunately, it is not as easy as you think to master the night sky. No worries! In this post, I am going to share how to take night scenes in time-lapse. Excited? Cool. Let’s dive into it.

Which Tools Will You Need?

You will need a high-quality time-lapse camera photographer and some equipment for taking time-lapse video. Now let's go and introduce these tools separately :

Top-notch camera with a built-in intervalometer

Most modern cameras come with time-lapse tool features. So you don't need to worry if you have a recent camera! Anyway, if you have an older one, the best option is to pick up an external intervalometer.

A wide-angle lens, and it's better if f/2.8 or brighter

When you think of taking night sky scenes, a wide-angle lens would be the best. Experts recommend f/2.8 as ideal for more light. Also, you can use lenses with wider apertures : the more, the better.

Tripod Is A Must To Control Over Camera

You will need the camera fixed in one place. Taking night sky scenes takes time. A tripod helps to keep the balance. By using a slider, you can add motion to your time-lapse. It will be a plus to catch the beauty of the night.

A Powerful Camera Battery

Taking a night scene time-lapse can take hours. So, your camera should have a powerful battery that allows you to shoot for a long time. There is no chance to think of it lightly.

An Empty Memory Card

While you are ready to play with night sky beauty, you will need to have enough space to store all the glamorous moments : the memory card you use must have enough space. You don't know how many pictures you will shoot, that’s why you need to bring an empty memory card.

High-quality Photo Or Video Editing Software

Editing is the way of perfection! Maybe some pictures will not turn out 100% as your mind wanted, but they are still precious. Pro photo or video editing software will help you improve your pictures.

Patience, Patience, And Patience

Shooting night sky time-lapse takes time, a lot of time! Don't hurry. Creative work requires a lot of patience. So, prepare yourself if you want to make a brilliant and perfect night sky time-lapse.

How To Capture Night Scenes In time-lapse?

There are some must-have things before you capture night scenes in time-lapse, these will play a significant role in making your night scene photography more engaging.

night scene capture

Shooting Plan

Planning is a must as time-lapse making consumes lots of time. First things come first. Try to find a safe and dark location. Then, you need to check the weather. If the sky is cloudy, everything goes in vain. Make some research to know where the stars are and how they move.

The Photographer's Ephemeris app can be helpful to find out the location of stars and the moon. However, you will need to plan the duration of your time-lapse. At first, you need to pick the frame rate before calculating the length of the time-lapse.

Remember, a higher frame rate makes motion look smoother, but your video will be slower. Shooting fewer pictures makes time appear to go faster, but you’ll need to shoot for a longer time in order to get a decent final video duration.

Set Up the Camera

As you will need to shoot for a long time, a tripod is necessary for setting up the camera. Make the camera stand still on the tripod towards the view you want to take. Make sure your camera battery is fully charged, and your memory card has enough space so that you can record the time-lapse.

Time to adjust the camera setting! Better go with manual mode as it works best for night sky time-lapses. Also, you can choose an aperture slightly narrower to make the stars sharper. When it comes to shutter speed, make sure it is shorter than 30 seconds to get lots of light.

You may balance the exposure with ISO for a good result. In the end, set the focus. Manual focus works best for shooting night sky views. You may try autofocus, but it doesn't work great when there is not a lot of light.

Do a Test Shot

How is the setup you have done? The best way to know is to do a test. Shooting a single video requires enough time. You don't want to invest lots of time on the wrong going. So, take a test shot with the camera settings locked to know if you are satisfied with them.

By using the zoom tool, get a closer look at the images you just took. You can adjust focus, composition, or exposure if you think you need it. Shoot, shoot, and shoot until you are happy with the result.

Customize the Intervalometer Settings

By using the intervalometer tool, you can capture photographs at preset periods. You don't need to sit for hours behind the camera when you set an automatic interval. Most modern cameras like Canon, Sony, Hawaii, Nikon, etc. have this built-in intervalometer setting, even iPhones have one.

Don't worry if your camera doesn't have an intervalometer! You can buy an external remote with a timer. After that, set the timer settings on the device.

Some features can vary based on the camera brand you use. So, let's try to find out the desired settings for the best photographs.

Turn your photos into a Night Sky time-lapse video

After you finish your shooting, you’ll have to use a video editing software to stitch all the pictures together. Also, you can edit contrast, and slow or fast the pace.