Each subject is covered from a personal perspective by an expert and acclaimed nightscape photographer – an authority and inspiration to many in the topic they chose to write about. Here’s some of the topics:
Our aim is to put in your hands the book every night photography enthusiast would love to read.
There’s many books and tutorials that teach nightscape photography techniques. However, no photographer can master every facet of nightscape photography, so readers are often left with useful but standard procedures and perhaps a taste of the author’s own take on all those techniques.
In Secrets from the Stars you’ll go with Royce Bair to produce incredibly effective images using low level lighting techniques, accompany Sean Parker across the Arizona desert at night, watch Mack Murdoc sharing how he does some amazing light-painting tricks, walk with Daniel Greenwood seeking one of a kind compositions, see the imagination of Ben Canales at work as he creates stories in a single nightscape scene, learn how Joshua Snow uses stacking not just to reduce noise, and more!
That’s right! Secrets from the Stars isn’t just eight lessons on “standard nightscape techniques” that use the voice of eight world-class nightscape photographers. Far from it, Secrets from the Stars is as much about the topics it covers as it is about the authors themselves and their unique ways to carry out their craft.
Not only you will learn each technique from a true master on the topic, but you will also see how each author has adapted “standard procedures” to their own particular way of doing things, literally learning above and beyond what every other book teaches. This makes Secrets from the Stars a great book for both novices and experts as well. That’s the spirit of the book: instructional, beautiful and personal!
Last, while the written content of the book is mostly instructional, Secrets from the Stars also does its part as a tool to spread greater respect and love for our planet and our night sky, awareness about light pollution and finding our place in the Universe. Paraphrasing Dr. Carl Sagan, nightscape photography is a humbling experience. You can’t capture the beauty of a night scene and the night sky unless you recognize them as beautiful and earn their respect. Nightscape photographers are true ambassadors of the very things we photograph, and that message is also reflected in Secrets from the Stars.
Secrets from the Stars is packed with, well.. stars! If you’re slightly familiar with the nightscape scene, you should recognize most of these names. This truly is a dream team of night photographers whose collective knowledge virtually covers every skill ever known to man that has been applied to producing stellar nightscapes.
In no particular order, here are the human stars of the book. Again, for a more detailed bio, please check the FAQ.
Low level lighting or LLL is a topic Royce wrote the book about. Literally! Royce does have a book about LLL!! In this chapter Royce gets to the point about what it takes to successfully compose, stage and produce a successful night shot using this technique! Like everyone else in the book, Royce excels at many night photography skills, but if you wanted to learn about LLL from the best, yup, that’s Royce!
Ben is a household name for anyone who ventured into night photography when not many others were doing it. A true pioneer in this field, he’s the kind of photographer who doesn’t just settle for a nice view, but is always thinking about trying things no one else has even thought about! We need more photographers like Ben, basically. Here, Ben tells us how he goes from crafting the concept of a night scene that includes the human figure, to executing that vision – no matter what it takes!
Josh shares his knowledge about stacking, a technique that can greatly improve the quality of an image, and a topic he’s been a great advocate for some time. Joshua is, no doubt, one of the photographers producing some of the most astonishing night images using this technique. Of course, that’s not just because of the stacking but also his keen eye to composition and many other details! A hot topic among nightscapers, Josh will not only reveal the secrets of this technique but also how it can help during your creative process.
If you have seen Daniel’s work, you know his creative vision is palpable in every image he produces. Wouldn’t It be awesome to learn a bit about what goes on in his brain during that process? Daniel’s contribution to Secrets from the Stars describes how he uses and reads the landscape to envision a composition that, like most of Daniel’s work, is out of this world.
The satisfaction that can be obtained through the execution of an image that closely represents your experience as a photographer and artist cannot be matched by image processing mastery. The idea that a photograph can closely approximate the experience the photographer is at the heart of landscape photography’s essence. In this chapter, Matt explores various concepts, tools, practical approaches, thought-processes, and ways to overcome technical challenges associated with planning for and executing on night photography that is “true to experience.”
Sean is another photographer everyone knows. He’s walked the walk when “nightscape” wasn’t even a word, and you could almost say he owns nightscaping in the Arizona desert. In Secrets from the Stars Sean talks about a topic that for many is the most attractive part of being a night photographer – the adventure! From what to expect while traveling, things to bring with you, how to make the best of mother nature’s unpredictability, and hopefully inspire you to push yourself a little further on your next outing.
Light painting is not illuminating a scene but the craft of creating amazing light effects with all sorts of lights, artifacts, multiple tricks, etc. We knew light painting had to be a topic in this book and Mack’s name hit immediately not only because some of his light-painting work is really amazing but because he also pushes his limits and doesn’t just go by the script. Here we asked Mack to share many of the things he has learned or even come up with on his own so that we all can try to produce our own images or even bring new ideas to the table.
Rogelio does deep-sky astrophotography like no one else but he’s definitely another nightscape pioneer. Here he talks about the thought process of coming up with catchy, unusual or difficult but visually appealing concepts, and the process to take them from idea to reality without replying on Photoshop to get there.
Even superb photography, content and storytelling will look dull if presented in average quality printed media. The talent, knowledge and art compressed in this book could only be presented as a high-quality hardcover book, a book that looks beautiful and feels great in your hands.
If you love night landscape photography, I hope you find Secrets from the Stars your kind of book, get your copy and support our project. Thank you!
This is the approximate breakdown of how we’ll be using the funds from the campaign:
Our goal is to have 100% of the DTP work done by mid-March 2020, and be ready to hit production right after that, assuming a successful funding. Delays shipping the book to the backers may happen if production goes slower than scheduled, if we need more proof-runs than anticipated or due to rare but possible shipping delays. We will not compromise quality in order to make a deadline. The project involves production from eight different authors, which multiplies the risks due to individual problems that could affect completing any given chapter on schedule due to unforeseen circumstances. Other than that, aside from catastrophes beyond anyone’s control, the only other thing that might prevent this book from happening would be if the funding goal is not reached.