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GAF Photography Q2 - 2014

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H

Halo 2

Banned
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T

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
jchap said:
I would take a few test shots at 20 seconds and make sure you aren't getting too long of star trails. If you are go for a shorter exposure and take more of them for stacking. I'm not sure how many consecutive shots Nikons take before taking a dark frame for the LENR corrections. I would probably run a few of whatever that burst count is (probably 3-4 exposures) and then recenter of the frame on a fixed bright object (unless you are also shooting a landscape). Also don't stop at 5 exposures per location. Take at least 20 or so at 10-20 second exposures. You can then use deep sky stacker (or photoshop) to align the stars you are shooting so as long as they are within a 30 minute window or so it should be fine with a little cropping. I'm also not as familiar with the noise performance of Nikons at high ISO levels but I always shoot at 6400 ISO on my Cannon. I would probably at least try 3200 if you can keep the moon out of the frame.

Assuming you will be shooting in the next couple days around midnight then we have a nearly full moon that is almost right on top of the milky way core. Bad luck!

Because of the obnoxiously bright moon you may you probably want it out of the frame which would be the NE section of the milky way core. That is the direction of the heart and soul nebula (which are in the milky way core but unfortunately they wont rise until about 2 AM. If I were in your shoes I would focus on shots of the northern milky way core pointed the opposite direction of the moon. Also, you can always go for some lunar shots, or you could get Saturn and Mars in the same frame. You could also or go after constellations like the big dipper. Because your frame size is so large you could maybe even get a shot of the big dipper in the left side of the frame and the northern milky way core in the right. Good luck.

I'm going to be messing around with periodic error correction and tracking settings tonight but I don't anticipate taking any real shots of anything because of the moon. If I get my tracking work done early I might do some shots of saturn.

Update: Took some 30 minute exposures tonight and the stars are perfectly round despite the terrifying looking PHD graphs. Guiding at 2800 focal length is not for the faint of heart :p
Click to expand...

I'm shooting the weekend before July 4th. Moon will be set for nearly 2 hours when I shoot. Will be vivid.

But yeah I should take a couple of sanity test shots first. I'll tinker with all sorts of settings and try 10+ stacked at 10 second exposures and see what works.

I was able to stack successfully with Enchanted Rock, but I was at f/2.8, and with a D3200, and it's 2 notches brighter on dark sky finder than Fort Davis, and I completely overlooked the fact that the milky way core didn't rise until nearly 1 AM so I made a foreground thing of it. Turned out well for a first attempt. I haven't seen so many stars in my life.
 
T

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
ISO 1250 it is.

This guy has the *exact* same setup as me and with ISO 1000 at the McDonald observatory got this detail.

I'll do ISO 1250 at the moonless sky and get more detail. 2 weeks to go.

Edit: Maybe ISO 1600. Dude is using f/2.5 on a f/1.4 lens. I'm guessing you would only do something like that for the foreground...otherwise you want to maximize aperture for stars. So if I have the same equipment at the same location at the same time of year, and I stack photos to reduce noise without a moon in the sky and without the McDonald Observatory int he field of view, I'm thinking ISO 1600 with 10 photos per set stacked at ISO 1600 should do well. The ideal settings may be different but I believe I have as good of a starting point as I can get.
 
G

Grums

Neo Member
Anyone on here use a Fuji X100? (The older model not the 100s)

What are your thoughts on it? Thinking of picking one up.
 
T

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
Practicing my Astrophotography with my new Nikon D800 and AF-S 24mm f/1.4G ED:


Subject: Dimly glow in the dark TV remote in a closed laundry room. The additional light source is light seeping through the door. Pretty fucking awesome how much light it captures, though maybe not a very good picture aesthetically.

Settings:
f/1.4
20 second exposure
1250 ISO
5 photos stacked

The photos had a few different color hues, but I'm not too worried about it because it was probably because I was looking at the timer behind the camera with the light on for various amounts of the time per picture, causing the auto-white balance to change behaviors.

Despite the colors being off, the stacked export does look better than each of the originals.

I did learn that my timer's interval means delay between photos, which is not what I thought it would mean. I thought interval would be time for each photo exposure + time between start of next shot. I also learned that my camera takes about 22 seconds to long term exposure noise reduce. So my interval will be 25 I think, but it may change depending on how long it takes for actual stars.

If there are any astrophotography veterans, I would be highly appreciative if you'd chime in whether or not I should even enable long exposure noise reduce. It seems like it's valuable. The most advanced method is to manually do this by taking a picture with the lens cap on and somehow post processing that into the set of stacked images, but using the long exposure NR is not some disruptive camera embedded post-processing feature that degrades external/Photoshop post-processing (like using all post-processing on camera with JPEG, or high ISO noise reduction features).

This boosts my confidence for my West Texas trip. I'm kind of surprised by how many good pictures I see in flickr with astrophotography from Fort Davis that have settings that are just wrong. People that have the same setup as me, but rather than leverage the f/1.4 setting of this lens, auto this stuff and get f/3.2. WAT. The whole point of the lens is to get crazy large aperture so you capture more light. Either I'm going to get some really good pictures, or I'm going to come back understanding why they used such settings and be slightly humbled/embarrassed.
 
T

Tugatrix

Member
Damaged if was me and I had the knowledge I would go black and white for all the photo except the girl in umbrella, would be a good symbolism of modernity(color) vs old times(B&W).
 
T

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
I understand why people are decreasing their aperature now with astrophotography. It's to increase sharpness and reduce light falloff. Depending on the lens, the difference between setting it to f/1.4 and f/2 or even f/2.8 can be huge.

The Nikon AF-S 24mm f/14G ED has pretty substantial light falloff. But I think it should be fine if the galaxy is center. I'm also going to try multiple apertures/lenses.

I mean, it's still also some people are setting stuff wrong.
 
T

Ty4on

Member
Damaged said:
If you are happy shooting black and white its so easy to process at home for a fraction of the cost. My initial outlay for chemicals and tank was under £70 easy.
Click to expand...
I have thought about it and will probably not think twice if I come across the equipment. I could also get chemicals for C41 and E6 if I get the hang of B&W processing.
C41 seems complicated with the temperatures, but I have an IR thermometer which might make it easier.

Speaking of B&W I prefer the color one of your two photographs not because I dislike B&W, but because the red on the woman and building looked nice as did the brown gradient on the gravel.

teh_pwn said:
I understand why people are decreasing their aperature now with astrophotography. It's to increase sharpness and reduce light falloff. Depending on the lens, the difference between setting it to f/1.4 and f/2 or even f/2.8 can be huge.

The Nikon AF-S 24mm f/14G ED has pretty substantial light falloff. But I think it should be fine if the galaxy is center. I'm also going to try multiple apertures/lenses.

I mean, it's still also some people are setting stuff wrong.
Click to expand...
I didn't think of fall off which is huge, but my first thought was coma ruining the stars.
 
T

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
Ty4on said:
I didn't think of fall off which is huge, but my first thought was coma ruining the stars.
Click to expand...

coma doesn't appear to be huge in my lenses
24mm prime
14-24mm Zoom

Though people more into this are likely taking longer captures with higher f/stop to get better images. I'm doing it more casually I guess and more aperature = more light for me.
 
C

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
Damaged said:
Cool, thanks all :) oddly enough the Black and White one was more popular on my facebook page
Click to expand...

I would say the black and white as well. As it sits the color one is a little too washed out for my taste, if you could see the same amount of details that you can see in the black and white, it might be better.

Took this January in Barbados on my honeymoon.
Seafarer by WRY Photo, on Flickr
 
S

sechsterangriff

Member
This weekend I went to a "matsuri", or Japanese festival here in Lisbon. I had a really good time!

Sorry for the somewhat lengthy post...


Little Fan, Japan Festival in Lisbon 2014 por sechsterangriff, no Flickr


Composed, Japan Festival in Lisbon 2014 por sechsterangriff, no Flickr


Then it all goes over 9000, Japan Festival in Lisbon 2014 por sechsterangriff, no Flickr


Flying Taiko Drummer, Japan Festival in Lisbon 2014 por sechsterangriff, no Flickr


Bon Odori Dance, Japan Festival in Lisbon 2014 por sechsterangriff, no Flickr

Went home in the classic Lisbon electric tram.

Classic Lisbon Electric Tram at Night por sechsterangriff, no Flickr
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
is this just posting photos, or also photography discussion generally?

Microsoft just announced that office 365 subscribers are getting a onedrive increase to 1TB online storage. So now it is finally viable for me to use it as a backup for all my photos - both raw and processed jpgs.

Does anyone have any advice for getting a workflow going with lightroom on PC to back up my imported photos and keeping it in sync with onedrive?
 
S

Sickbean

Member
mrklaw said:
is this just posting photos, or also photography discussion generally?

Microsoft just announced that office 365 subscribers are getting a onedrive increase to 1TB online storage. So now it is finally viable for me to use it as a backup for all my photos - both raw and processed jpgs.

Does anyone have any advice for getting a workflow going with lightroom on PC to back up my imported photos and keeping it in sync with onedrive?
Click to expand...

Was just about to ask this. Great deal for current subscribers.
 
C

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
mrklaw said:
is this just posting photos, or also photography discussion generally?

Microsoft just announced that office 365 subscribers are getting a onedrive increase to 1TB online storage. So now it is finally viable for me to use it as a backup for all my photos - both raw and processed jpgs.

Does anyone have any advice for getting a workflow going with lightroom on PC to back up my imported photos and keeping it in sync with onedrive?
Click to expand...

you could setup a scheduled task for robocopy to sync your photography files to your one drive folder on your computer. Once its in there it will upload to the cloud. There are also other free sync apps out there they can also setup a schedule.

I have seen on my onedrive, you could make the onedrive folder or specific folders available offline so you *could* potentially put your main photography folder in there and it will update to the cloud when you make modifications. I wouldnt go this route though.
 
T

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
Wow, I got really lucky with the weather. I'm going to Fort Davis this weekend and the prediction is 0-5% cloud cover the entire time. I'll post pics here Sunday or Monday. Even a single 20s ISO 1250ish exposure at f/1.4 on a D800 should be good looking.
 
jchap

jchap

Member
Had a clear evening tonight and went after the Trifid Nebula. I only got about an hour of exposure because my guide camera / auto guide software / mount were misbehaving and I eventually gave up. I stacked the images and level stretched it... The stars are pretty eliptical because I can not get a good focus on my guide camera and the seeing conditions at 2800 mm make my guide stars bounce all over the place. It's pretty frustrating....

0po6953.jpg
Click to expand...

I may try and do a better job with the processing tomorrow but I wonder if its even worth it when I have image after image with stretched stars :(
 
R

RuGalz

Member
jchap said:
Had a clear evening tonight and went after the Trifid Nebula. I only got about an hour of exposure because my guide camera / auto guide software / mount were misbehaving and I eventually gave up. I stacked the images and level stretched it... The stars are pretty eliptical because I can not get a good focus on my guide camera and the seeing conditions at 2800 mm make my guide stars bounce all over the place. It's pretty frustrating....
Click to expand...

That's pretty awesome.

I had my first go at it trying to capture the stars. The majority of the milky way was, unfortunately, blocked by trees from where I was. I'm also not really that far from all the light pollution in the San Francisco bay area either. There're a lot of things I need to refine but this isn't too bad I guess.


ACK34518 by Andy C (AC), on Flickr
 
J

John Kowalski

Banned
Damaged said:
Any constructive criticism welcome
Click to expand...

I would take the exposure of the ground in the bw one down a tiny tiny bit, just to get the texture back a little bit, but not enough to blacken it. The ceiling in both of the pictures is kinda heh, in the bw one it looks a bit too busy but in the color one it's half cropped, which, well, i just don't enjoy a lot. Nice colors, too, though i wish it had some green to up the winterish feeling of it.

But holy god, that cropped umbrella... it irks me so.
 
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