It was peak night in Sedona, AZ December 13-14, 2023 for the Geminids Meteor Shower. Weather was perfectly clear for most of the moonless night. Between 9:15 p.m. and 5 a.m., I made over 1000 images. See the initial cull of the images using Adobe Bridge here.
Capture
1,230 images captured during the night using the time-lapse feature with Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III. A 7-14mm M. Zukio Pro f2.8 lens set at 7mm. Stars exposure was 20 seconds ISO 6400. Due to no light from the moon a separate foreground image was made. Exposure at 7mm 20 sec ISO 25,600. I used a Fotopro T-Roc Max tripod with a Platypod Elite ball head. The ball head is extremely strong and the T-Roc very light and strong which works well for hiking. I went about 3/4 of a mile with all my gear on the trail in Sedona. The hike was necessary to keep headlights from cars from interfering with the capture.
Processing
After all the images were downloaded into a folder, I checked them for meteors. Next, I opened a single image in Adobe Camera RAW and processed it to intensify the stars and open the shadows in the foreground a bit. That image was highlighted, and Control + Click (right-click on a PC) brings up a menu. Click on Develop Settings > Copy Settings. Select all the other images and Control + Click Develop Settings > Paste Settings. All of the settings are applied. In this case, it took a little over 35 minutes as I had done some masking in the process.
Photoshop
I selected images with meteors in Adobe Bridge. Next, I went to Tools > Photoshop > Load Files into Photoshop Layers to stack the files into layers. The master image was chosen and moved to the bottom of the stack. Option + Click on the bottom layer eyeball to turn off all other layers. Click on the eyeball of the second layer to turn it on. Add a Mask. Using a Paint Brush set to 100% Black remove the meteor. Making a brush just a little larger than your meteor click at one end, hold down the Shift key and click at the opposite end of the meteor. Holding the Shift key ensures a perfectly straight line between the two points. Finesse your mask selection and invert the mask. Voila! The meteor is now visible. Repeat these steps for the rest of the layers.
I recommend saving the image as a .PSD or as a Large Format Document, .PSB depending on how many layers you have. Keep saving every 10 minutes or so. You definitely don’t want to lose any work as you go along.
Rotation for meteor radiant
The sky has apparent movement throughout the night due to the rotation of the Earth. To show how the meteors come from the same general place in the sky, additional work needs to be done to the files. When making the exposures I made sure to have Polaris in the frame. Having that point which does not move makes it easy to line up all of the meteor exposures to show the radiant, or origin, point. I rotated all the meteor strikes around the North Star lining up the Big Dipper. See the original placement of meteor captures below.
Tips for rotation
Here are some tips for making the lining up of the images easier. Start at the bottom layer and as before Option + Click on the eyeball to turn off all other layers visibility. Take two guides and place a horizontal and vertical over Polaris. Turn on layer two. Invert the mask to reveal most of the layer. Change the Blend Mode of the layer to Difference. Activate the Transform Tool. Press Cmd + T or Ctrl + T on PC. Move the rotation point from the center of the image to the point over Polaris. Rotate the layer until most of the stars disappear. In this case, I looked for the Big Dipper to line up. Accept the transformation. Invert the mask and change the Blend Mode back to Normal. Repeat for the rest of the layers. If you don’t see the rotation point for the Transform Tool in the top left-hand corner, there is a check box that will turn it on and off.
Blending foreground
Due to the dark skies I made an image for the foreground. Since I set the ISO to 25,600, there was some noise with which to deal. Adobe Camera RAW and the Denoise worked well. When using Denoise, be careful about applying too much. There is a point of diminishing return. In this case, I set it at about 40. This removed the most objectionable color noise yet still left me with detail and not mushing up the red rocks.
Final cleanup
It’s time for final cleanup of the masks around the meteors. Ensure masks are accurate by zooming in close. What looked as if it was fine when you first made it may need a little adjustment after the rotation. You may also do some final tweaking of the tones on your starry background, brighten the meteors a bit and tone up or down the foreground to make it mesh.
When done, go have a celebratory coffee, wine or cocktail. You deserve it! Let me know how this works for you.
More on meteor showers and nightscape photography
Here are some links on capturing meteor showers:
Did I mention it was a wee bit cold in the overnight shoot? And, I loved every minute.
Yours in creative Photography, Bob