Welcome to the Milky Way Masterclass! In this course you will learn everything you need to know about photographing the Milky Way. This course is broken downing 3 sections. Basic, where you will learn how to locate the Milky Way, the best time to see its core and plan your shoot around moon phases. We will also go over recommended gear, and show you how to shoot on location, along with the entire post processing workflow in Lightroom.

In the intermediate section, we start to improve the quality of our images! It will no longer just be about basic settings and capture. We are going to discuss light painting the foreground as part of the creative process, taking multiple images to stack for noise reduction. These videos will be both in the field techniques as well as post processing. We'll use specific software to stack the photos, as well as have a lesson on how I do the same stacking in Photoshop, for those that don't want to use other software.

In the advanced section, will be learn how I created a 60 image panorama, full of long exposure foregrounds, light painting and stacking! This is my most in-depth tutorial that starts in the field with planning, and goes through the entire post processing workflow in Lightroom and Photoshop.

You will come away from this course with the knowledge and confidence to take amazing night sky images! All RAW files for each section are included and available for download so you can follow along and practice!

Course Curriculum

  Introduction
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days after you enroll
  Basic
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  Intermediate
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  Advanced
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days after you enroll

Hi, I’m Mike Perea


I am a landscape photographer based in the Southwest US. I absolutely love teaching and sharing my knowledge and passion of taking images of nature's beauty. There's nothing more satisfying than seeing students of my courses and workshops, begin to create their own art and find their artistic vision using some of my processes and techniques.

Choose a Pricing Option

Basics Section


Learn how to located the Milky Way. Basic settings. Focus in the dark and planning.RAW file included.

Intermediate Section


Planning and light painting, as well as stacking for noise reduction using stacking software, and a lesson in how to stack using just Photoshop. All RAW files included.

Advanced Section


Learn how I created this 60 image panorama, from in the field to post processing. All RAW files included.