How to Shoot a Blue Hour Blend in the Field - Astrophotography

Any time you use a star tracker to take amazing long exposures of the Milky Way, you'll need to also take a blue hour shot of the foreground to blend your Milky Way with. This serves multiple benefits, most notably in the fact that the blue hour shot will have minimal noise, as well as maximum detail.
In this video, you'll be guided on how to shoot a blue hour shot in the field, which you can then combine with your Milky Way image in Photoshop.
How to do a blue hour blend in Photoshop: • How to Do a Blue Hour ...

[@PonthusPyronneau]

I appreciate this video. I was never much of a fan of noisy foregrounds, so having this technique in my back pocket will help out a bunch. Here's hoping you get more viewers on this topic.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Glad it was helpful!

[@tonesvisuals8690]

Love you work mate , keep these awesome videos coming 🤙

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Thanks so much!

[@MarcelloQuieti]

very informative video! thank you !

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Azunaii]

Super helpful :)

[@AustinJamesJackson]

I'm so glad!

[@MartinFransson]

Absolutely helpful :)

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Glad it was helpful!

[@traviscole9527]

Super Helpful!!

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Glad it was helpful!

[@krimke881]

This was great! =)

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Thank you!

[@davemacdonald3804]

Thanks Austin. I'm subscribed.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Thanks so much!

[@paddykpaddykav]

Very helpful. Thanks

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Thanks for watching!

[@Into_the_darkness_photography]

Keep up the great content. Appreciate what you do for the community. 🤙🏼

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Thank you so much!!

[@ronmead1583]

I have always kept my camera set in the same position for the bh blend and the milky way shot/shots. Good idea to get more foreground! Thanks,

[@AustinJamesJackson]

That is probably the easiest way to blend it!

[@Henry_Churches]

Great tips! It hard to remember all those little things in the field so having someone lay it out like that is awesome. Thanks!

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Glad it was helpful!

[@flaggboi]

Cannot believe that this has only 36 Views. Great work :)

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Thanks much!

[@joekmorals]

He keeps growing, you’ll see him in future trust me

[@gmata007]

Thanks I'll try it tomorrow at the 12 Apostles

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Good luck!

[@laurap9229]

I have been doing astrophotography for several years now and just updated my system to the Nikon z6ii. I’ve actually never have thought about blending my photos together with blue hour photos. Thank you for the helpful tutorial! Going to Glacier national park in just a couple weeks and I would love to try this out! Thanks for the helpful tutorial. Loving your videos!

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Thanks so much for checking it out! This technique will give you amazingly detailed night photos. Good luck out there!

[@stevechong65]

You should have hundred of thousands of subscribers!

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Thanks! Haha

[@leonardodeurielgalvanluna]

¡Tienes un contenido excelente! En español no hay tantos videos que hablen acerca del blending o de técnicas avanzadas de revelado de Vía Láctea.
¡Tu canal merece tener muchos más seguidores!

[@AustinJamesJackson]

I’m glad it was helpful!

[@MrKevreg]

Awesome milky way shots.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Glad you like them!

[@JenniferKlinger]

Awesome pictures. Very good tutorial.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Thank you!

[@septembertwenty-nine9989]

I'm an astrophotographer too, loving Milky Way and star trail images. Although the Milky Way is pretty much the same each time, the variety of foregrounds can make the Milky Way quite memorable. A have a star tracker but don't always take the time to align it. Have you compared stacking a dozen 20 second Milky Way images to a single star tracked image of 2 minutes? I am heading to the desert southwest to find dark skies with interesting foregrounds. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. ALSO, are you getting ready for the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024?

[@AustinJamesJackson]

The tracked image will always outperform stacked photos. Once you get past 6-8 stacked images, the return on each image diminishes and it doesn’t get a ton better. I’m leading a workshop in Utah during the eclipse so I won’t actually be shooting it! I don’t care too much to shoot the eclipse.

[@the_film_foto]

Thank you for your video. I have few questions... don't you think that the edges of foreground is a little bit "sharp"? Is there possibility to soften it a little bit?! This would make the feeling more realistic that everything is made at one shot 😊
And the second question - how do you make the stars glow? It looks so awesome 👍👍👍

[@AustinJamesJackson]

You can feather the mask slightly but this usually won’t look great. There are a couple masking tricks you could use on a case by case basis though! I didn’t do any star glow on this photo, but you can paint with a brush to create a little glow if necessary!

[@peteroberransmayr]

Great video! One question: At the end of the video you explained how you can gain more pixels if you point the camera down a little since you don't need the sky of the blue hour image anyways. If you do that, how do you make sure the horizontal position of your camera stays consistent? I mean if you don't the blend won't be perfect, right? Or do you just stretch and adjust the images while blending?

[@AustinJamesJackson]

You can easily stretch and adjust the images. Oftentimes, I move the tripod for the Milky Way shot and it’s pretty easy to blend. If you want to check out my video on the post processing side of blue hour blending, you can find it here: th-cam.com/video/91wT7vKdId8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=jyPhPIeUmWSri3SB

[@peteroberransmayr]

Thanks for answering! I'll watch that video now!@@AustinJamesJackson

[@ThirstyCampr]

Do you use a tracker?

[@AustinJamesJackson]

I do!