A Complete Astrophotography Workshop, for Free

There are a lot of good tutorial resources out there, some of them free, but for the most part if you want a high quality video tutorial, you'll need to pay. Well, this is a rare exception.

Lonely Speck is a couple, Ian Norman and Diana Southern, who are experts in astrophotography. Their YouTube channel is one of my favorites on the platform and they create some of the best starscapes and Milky Way images out there.

In 2016, they created a full astrophotography workshop which covers everything from the technical, theoretical information, through to post-processing once you've got your shot. They have now uploaded the entire thing to YouTube, which you can watch for free. It might be the best resource for astrophotography that any beginner could hope for.

Though I haven't got to do as much astrophotography as I'd like due to where I live, I have done it whenever I've had the chance. There is one thing I learned very quickly indeed: post-processing is everything. There are few genres of photography — if any — that require more nuanced work in post to coax out the best possible image. As a result, astro can be off putting for beginners. Well, make yourself a drink, grab a notepad, and receive a free masterclass.

Rob Baggs's picture

Robert K Baggs is a professional portrait and commercial photographer, educator, and consultant from England. Robert has a First-Class degree in Philosophy and a Master's by Research. In 2015 Robert's work on plagiarism in photography was published as part of several universities' photography degree syllabuses.

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5 Comments

2 years ago I used to make astrophotography post processing videos and while the weather in California hasn’t permitted me from shooting the stars much, being a new father has! Regardless though I went out recently and shot the stars, and trying to manage post production of the sky after so much time off in this genre felt so foreign after the time off. It was fun to go back and look at how my processing used to be, meanwhile blending my newer knowledge of Photoshop from interior photography post production and how those worlds collide.

Astro is just a beast in general. You hear 500 rule, NPF rule, stacking, tracking, dark frames, panoramas, etc etc. plus, actually blending blue hour and stars from new moon phases. None of This isn’t even considers deep sky imaging...

I did do some astro photography here and there.. the occasional milkyway shot and such.
But during the Covid downtime I've been getting into deep sky imaging.

it's.... a beast... tracking and exposing four hours and hours.. it's one hell of a learning curve.. but very rewarding!

What is a shame though, it's a hobby where money matters. a lot..
Here's the result of last night, 3 hours worth of exposure in the end

great picture !
what kind of scope do you use ? the eagle nebula is so small, even with an apsc and a 300mm, I couldn't have this kind of result...

Thanks, it's with a Skywatcher 150/750 scope. So, 750mm.
And got an old modified Canon EOS 1200d for the imaging on it

A few years back, this youtube channel helped me a lot on how to process an astrophotography, I now use their method on all the milky way pictures I take...