Official Digi Cam Pic Thread!

[GravY]

Thanks Gravy! Great pic AGibbon, and of course the rest of you. I took some pics of the Kansas City Zoo yesterday, thought some turned out well.




Those are my two favorites, but the rest are here if you are interested: http://imgur.com/a/sUnwe

Cats Rule!

[RFtinkerer]

Aw, look...now you've made the African painted dog sad...

[wangFu]

Got a vintage Nikon at the flea market and it came with a 50mm 1.8 AI lens and a 28-135, as well as a teleconverter.
Shot these 2 with the 28-135 with teleconverter convo.
Gonna keep just the 50, will see if I can sell the rest of the gear.

[RFtinkerer]

I hope you don't mind--and if you do too late --I adjusted some things quickly to make them pop more. I just thought they had some things to do.





In PS, "Auto Contrast", "Shadow/Highlight 5%, 10% respectively", "Saturation 15", #81 warming filter on the pigeon, 35%, "Smart Sharpen (Gaussian blur, 100%, 0.9 radius".

[wangFu]

Thanks , looks much better, I used to process my stuff in LR years ago, these days I rarely even turn on the home pc, it's mostly just transfer the photos and go to bed, gotta make sometimes to look through them and make them pop :P

[Tyr-Sog]

d810/ 80-200 2.8

[Trunks0]

Mushroom season.


This guy was actually very, very tiny.


Little crow just chilling out @ UBC.

[RFtinkerer]

Mushrooms are nasty but always look fascinating. Nice shots.

[AGibbon]

Couple shots of todays sun.



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[GravY]

Amazing as always.

[RFtinkerer]

I love pictures like that. Got me thinking about the solar cycle so I looked it up. Saw this:

In 2015, a new model of the solar cycle was published. The model draws on dynamo effects in two layers of the Sun, one close to the surface and one deep within its Convection zone. Model predictions suggest that solar activity will fall by 60 per cent during the 2030s to conditions last seen during the 'Little ice age' that began in 1645. Prior models included only the deeper dynamo.[84]

The model features paired magnetic wave components. Both components have a frequency of approximately 11 years, although their frequencies are slightly different and temporally offset. Over the cycle, the waves fluctuate between the Sun's northern and southern hemispheres.[84]

The model used principal component analysis of the Magnetic field observations from the Wilcox Solar Observatory. They examined magnetic field activity from solar cycles 21-23, covering 1976-2008. They also compared their predictions to average Sunspot numbers. The model was 97% accurate in predicting solar activity fluctuations.[84]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle

Would be interesting if that bears out.

[AGibbon]

Here is a shot of the Helix Nebula. Guiding was off a little, but came out half way decent.



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IC 1805

[RFtinkerer]

Beautiful!


...deletes own picture of IC 1805 off computer.

[AGibbon]

Todays Sun



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[GravY]

x1000

[UberBeavis]

Those solar photos are awesome!

[necropimp]

going through some stuff on my sd card... one day i apparently was bored enough to take a picture of my lunch

[Tyr-Sog]

[necropimp]

[Tyr-Sog]

Todays Sun



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that's awesome

[Tyr-Sog]

[Tyr-Sog]

[Mahjik]

[RFtinkerer]

Finally got back to astrophotography Sunday night. Decided to shoot Orion around the Barnard's Loop area. This is a ring of gas in the Orion molecular cloud.

To orient yourself, picture Orion laying sideways head left. The 3 belt stars are in the upper middle area. On Altinak, the lowest belt star, the Horsehead Nebula is hanging off to the right and the Flame below. On the upper right, the pink-purpleish nebula is the Great Orion (M42), that appears as a fuzzy star to the naked eye. Barnard's Loop is pretty dim. I used a Rokinon 85 f1.4 at f2.4 for about 3 hours of exposure at 3 minutes subframes.

[Osirus]

awesome.

I really want to get into shooting space,
may i ask whats the process to get that image?

3 min subframes, so is that 3 min exposures for 3 hours?
then you put all images in a program and stack them?
then edit more from that?

Camera was mounted on top of your scope i presume?

[RFtinkerer]

awesome.

I really want to get into shooting space,
may i ask whats the process to get that image?

3 min subframes, so is that 3 min exposures for 3 hours?
then you put all images in a program and stack them?
then edit more from that?

Camera was mounted on top of your scope i presume?

Thanks; there's a pretty big learning curve here, long story short check Reddit on the astrophotography subforum and look at the FAQ. Then check the weekly ask anything thread, browse the pictures and techniques they've stated. Then decide what you want to shoot, what's your budget. Your budget is a very big deal here. Astrophotography can get very expensive, very fast. Don't make the mistake of pushing all the money on a scope either, beginners do that and then find out their mount sucks and they cannot get the narrow field shots to work because the mount won't hold good alignment. Prime example: My Celestron CG-5 sucks. It was $300 used and really I need to spend $1200-1500 minimum. If you want EXTREME, ask AGibbon what he uses. He is able to shoot from Las Vegas in really terrible light pollution due to narrow band filters, high sensitivity CCD, awesome mount and autoguiding.

Here's my details I put in a thread there:

Hardware:
Canon 70D stock
Rokinon 85mm f1.4
Astronomik CLS EOS clip-in filter
Celestron CG-5 mount
Orion SSAG/50mm (it TRIES to help the CG-5 in the RA but for the DEC the motor is too bad)

Software:
BackyardEOS acquistion
PHD2 guiding
DSS stacking
Startools main processing
Photoshop CC 2015 final
Neil Carboni's actions

Acquistion:
56 lights; 85mm f2.0, ISO 800, 3 minute subs; about 2.4 hours worth before cloudiness got the best of it.
27 darks (the good part about clouds--I can then set it to run darks until the battery gives up)
30 bias
1 flat (Had trouble with multiple flats distorting the image. No clue why yet.)
Yellow zone, Bortle 4/5 maybe

...note I am not using a telescope at all; just the camera attached on the mount side by side with the autoguider. I got the autoguider to try and help with the crappiness of the CG-5 but it doesn't work for much except periodic error correction.

Moon, planetary photography is a lot simpler and you can use a normal telescope with alt-az mount and basically a web cam with LOTs of subframes through video mode and special stacking software like Registax. Hundreds of frames, ditch most, wavelet sharpen and voila! Good planet photo.

[RFtinkerer]

I'm going to drive myself insane with Orion. I've shot this area in a number of different ways, including a couple posts above with my 85mm with long exposures to try to get a good amount of Barnard's Loop. I wasn't quite happy about it though, shortcomings of that image were bad chromatic aberration, some tracking issues based on some misalignment, focus, and blown out M42 and even though I tried to compensate with another exposure it wasn't that great. My goal in this shot was to:

1) Include the Horsehead, Flame, M42/43 areas.
2) Very little CA; sharp stars and nebula ripples.
3) Multiple exposure stacks for the large dynamic range of M42.
4) Better alignment of the mount before shooting with at least some drift alignment.
5) As much light as I can possibly get.

My Canon 70-200 f4L has very little CA due to the flourite element, and 200mm fit the areas I wanted so off I went. It also has a 50mm aperture which is okay I suppose and as good as I get. Next, I drift aligned to a 'fairly good' standard I could get in an hour because I wanted to get shooting, and was okay for 200mm. I have an Orion SSAG, but my CG-5 is not that good and the declination motor stinks so bad I cannot correct it without making it worse. It DOES help periodic error in RA, so it is still beneficial to use. When I got the SSAG, I was hoping for more correction, but oh well. Eventually I will get a better mount. Finally, I made 3 different stacks. The moon was in the west as a waxing crescent so I shot the short exposures first and tried to wait for the long exposures later. I did the short ones, but couldn't wait for the moon to set for the longer exposures because I was too antsy and knew clouds might be rolling in from the forecast. Fortunately, the clouds waited until around 12:30 AM so I actually acquired quite a bit of data, shooting the longer ones from 7:40 PM to 12:30 AM and after a little data snipping ended up with around 4.5 hours (woot.)

So now focus. I knew from experience the focus would drift over temperature change so I had brought out the lens/camera to cool beforehand (it was in the 30's F) and then did some fine tuning. The lens is hard to focus--a slight move either way makes too much change for comfort. The close up of stars shows that a little off one way distorts it elliptically in one fashion, then a little off the other way the ellipse goes 90 degrees the other way. Note: It is NOT MUCH, it only shows up at 100% and examining small stars very closely, so the lens isn't broken it's just the way it is. I got it as close as possible for me with just a slight ellipse. Fortunately, over the evening to night the temperature drift actually crossed the perfect focus through to the other elliptical distortion, which is all I can hope for. I need to remember that focus offset for the future...

Coma. There is some coma near the corners of the image. It is what it is, something I manipulated in processing with the repair feature.

Exposure times. I made shorter exposures than I really wanted and was probably capable of, only 2 minutes, but I wanted to make sure the alignment, periodic error drift would kill too many frames to maintain the sharpness I desired. I also did not stop down the lens. I hate giving up light and from my experience with that lens knew the sharpness gain would not be realized due to other focus, drifting errors, so that was my choice.

Enough babbling, the meat.

Hardware:
Canon 70D stock
Canon 70-200 f4L
Astronomik CLS EOS clip-in filter
Celestron CG-5 mount
Orion SSAG/50mm

Software:
BackyardEOS acquistion
PHD2 guiding
DSS stacking
Startools main processing
Photoshop CC 2015 final
Neil Carboni's actions

First stack, M42 core:
9 10s, ISO 400, f4 lights. No darks or flats.
File: https://www.dropbox.com/s/va7vi6y33h..._core.FTS?dl=0

Second stack, M42 transition:
8 120s, ISO 400, f4 lights. No darks, 12 flats.
File: https://www.dropbox.com/s/u08ksa8lny...ition.FTS?dl=0


Third stack, here we go:
131 120s, ISO 1600, f4 lights. About 4.5 hours worth, yummy.
30 darks
30 bias
12 flats
File: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1kwp7lr1wm...ngexp.FTS?dl=0

The flats cause some color changes I don't understand, but without them it's too vignetted. I may try to shoot more flats and see if it helps later, but whatevs. It came out in the wipe.

For the main file, processing through Startools: Autodev, crop, wipe gradients, develop, contrast, HDR reveal all, NR, repair for coma or other effects, star mask, sharpen nebula, life with hard optimization to reveal gasses better. I like the low visibility gases to come up. My family tells me I'm gassy; I think that's what they meant.

The others basically I cut out M42 and tried to get the best dynamic range for each.

Photoshop: Merge and optimize M42 layering. Color adjustment, curves to taste.

I put those stacks up on Dropbox; play with them if you want.



...I also adjusted the colors of the nebula to match more of what you would expect with the emission lines. I tried, anyway.

[GravY]

Visited the Henry Ford Museum for a few hours on Friday..

[GravY]

[RFtinkerer]

That's seriously cool. Love the shots.

[Tyr-Sog]

Well, after many years in the hobby, I have finally quit and sold it all off.

[Tyr-Sog]

Last photo of what was my current setup...

[GravY]

Why?

[RFtinkerer]

Ditto.

[Tyr-Sog]

Lot's of factors.

Mainly it's a solitude hobby that requires just too much time. Too often I'm either rushed or feel rushed(even when I'm not rushed) when I'm out. It's hard to get any joy out of it under those conditions.

It's not only with the picture taking end of it but all of the editing that is involved. I can go out in the woods and it's nearly an all day event. Then I get home and there's nearly the same amount of time going through the pictures and editing the keepers.

It's just not feasible with a young family.

I also get hung up on picture IQ. I hit my max on what I can shell out $$$ for this hobby but I want better gear still. Better equipment at this stage means $7K - $11K superzooms, $6K bodies and tripods not much cheaper. That's not happening.

In short, I've lost the joy shooting. I needed a break and the only way for me to take a break was selling my gear.

[RFtinkerer]

I get that. One of the reasons I like astrophotography is that it is at night. I can get it done after the kiddos go to bed; a great benefit because I don't have to rely on my family schedule to get out. Which frankly is always FULL. It does take all night in general for one shot's data capture though...and is dependent on clear weather and no moon. Oh you mentioned processing. Oh boy is that a ton of hours and you redo and redo. I have an image I posted on the prior page, 20 iterations later I have:



...still not satisfied with it. Looks posterized. My equipment is also pathetic in terms of what other people have; I just have a cheap mount, DSLR, and lenses. A person I asked had $45k invested. Sheesh. But I don't have the spare money to invest.

But I do it anyway because they're MY freaking photons. And it's fun to get out in the sky all alone, watching the stars go by. I've always been sort of a loner even though I have a wife and family.

I had a point here somewhere. I think if you ditch your equipment you'll miss it. Yeah, put it down for a while, it won't go away or expire. I'm using lenses I got 10-15 years ago and hadn't shot much in the intervening years when I had no direction. It's fine. Even your DSLR won't get WORSE, just in comparison to new technology.

[UberBeavis]

One of many shots I've captured recently at Universal Studios Hollywood.

[A2597]

I get that. One of the reasons I like astrophotography is that it is at night. I can get it done after the kiddos go to bed; a great benefit because I don't have to rely on my family schedule to get out. Which frankly is always FULL. It does take all night in general for one shot's data capture though...and is dependent on clear weather and no moon. Oh you mentioned processing. Oh boy is that a ton of hours and you redo and redo. I have an image I posted on the prior page, 20 iterations later I have:



...still not satisfied with it. Looks posterized. My equipment is also pathetic in terms of what other people have; I just have a cheap mount, DSLR, and lenses. A person I asked had $45k invested. Sheesh. But I don't have the spare money to invest.

But I do it anyway because they're MY freaking photons. And it's fun to get out in the sky all alone, watching the stars go by. I've always been sort of a loner even though I have a wife and family.

I had a point here somewhere. I think if you ditch your equipment you'll miss it. Yeah, put it down for a while, it won't go away or expire. I'm using lenses I got 10-15 years ago and hadn't shot much in the intervening years when I had no direction. It's fine. Even your DSLR won't get WORSE, just in comparison to new technology.

What are you using? That photo is amazing.

[RFtinkerer]

Thanks! The basics are a Canon 70D, 70-200mm lens, and telescope tracking mount. Details are in this post: http://www.rage3d.com/board/showpost...ostcount=12747

Basically, the telescope mount tracked the earth's rotation while I focused on the Orion "belt and sword" area and took 4.5 hours worth of photos in 2 minute chunks. Then stacked them to improve signal to noise ratio and processed the living daylights out of it to get as much detail as possible. The prior post I had another version...then as you can see, I have another here. I may reprocess again sometime to try to reduce the posterization from the noise reduction here. Who knows.

[A2597]

Ahhh, now your making me want a trqcking mount!

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