I got quite a few questions about how I made my latest movie, "The Night is Dark". I hope to answer most of those in this post and video.

TL;DR

The short version is: I took a lot of shots and put them together in a video.

Longer version

Indeed, the shots you saw on the video were made from still images, anywhere between 150 and 300 for each one of the shots.

Location

I didn't do any scouting because I couldn't. We are under quarantine, so I'm limited to the farm and what's around it. Luckily, I was still able to find compelling subjects.

We might need to explore our subjects both during the day, when you can see your them, and during the night, when you can see how they'll be lit. It's also at night when you'll be able to identify nearby light sources that could potentially ruin the exposure.

My subjects were mainly old houses and structures that are falling apart, and contrasted them against the night sky.

Find the North Star

It'd be good to be aware of where the North Star -also known as Polaris- is in the sky. This is the only fixed star, every other one will appear to circle around it (in the Southern Hemisphere, you'll need to find the equivalent - the Southern Cross).

If you point the camera towards Polaris, you'll get beautiful star trails. Point it in the opposite direction and you'll still get trails, but they won't be forming circumferences.

I used the free version of an app called SkyView Lite (iOS - Android) to locate the North Star, but there is no shortage of apps to do this.

Weather

It goes without saying, but you'll need clear skies to capture the night sky, and to be far away from light pollution created by towns or other sources. That includes the Moon! Ideally, we'd do this on a moonless night.

I use an app called Sun Surveyor (iOS - Android) to know when total darkness will happen, so I know the best time to capture the stars.

This can still be done even if you live close to a town, or when the Moon is out. You'll get fewer stars, though.

Camera gear

You'll need a camera and a lens, obviously. The bigger the sensor and the faster the lens, the better, but they don't have to be anything fancy.

I used my Sony a6500 and the Rokinon 12mm f/2 lens to create all the shots in the movie, but any of my cameras could have done the same job.

To prove it, I used my RX100VA with its tiny 1" sensor to make this:

Using a manual lens like the Rokinon is a plus when photographing stars. The more modern lenses I have are focus-by-wire, and I find it extremely hard to properly focus to infinity with them.

You might need an intervalometer or cable release, if your camera doesn't have that feature built-in.

And of course, a tripod.

Taking the photographs

I take a series of test shots until I find the right composition and settings. To give you an idea, I used exposure times between 5 and 10 seconds, keeping the lens wide open at f/2, and ISO values between 400 and 1600 depending on the subject.

Make sure your exposure time isn't so long that the stars start to appear like lines instead of dots. Don't forget that the stars move, and they do it faster than you might think. Follow the 500 rule: 500/focal length = maximum exposure time; for a 18mm lens, that'd be 500/18 = 27.7 seconds before the star trails start to appear.

Once everything is ready, I use the intervalometer to take photos during the next 30 to 60 minutes. Since I made this movie at the farm, I was able to wait inside the house where it was warm. When I did something similar in the past from the field, I'd wait in the car. And if the car wasn't an option either, I'd make sure I was wearing proper clothes. It can get very cold at night, even during the summer. Don't get sick.

It took me 5 nights to make the movie, at 3-4 shots per night. That was somewhere between 3 and 4 hours of photography every day, and I loved it.

Software

You can use any software you want to edit the images. Export them and drag them into a video editor like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. Give each one of them a duration of 1 frame, and you are done!

I used Lightroom Classic instead, because it can export the video directly. We can do this from the Slideshow tab and using these time-lapse templates. I used the 15FPS one because I didn't have enough frames for higher framerates and because I liked the look of it.

Star Trails

I used the free software StarStaX to create the star trails. This program is very easy to use, but if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask me!

That's all

It's a long process, but a relatively simple one. I had a lot of fun making this movie and I can't wait for the clear skies to come back so I can play a bit more with night photography.

Again, if you have any questions at all about this whole process, please ask!