Creative Shots

Here are some ideas as raised at the AGM: Talks on (by club members?): Use of lenses Effective use of Web site Joe also mentioned use of multiple exposures to achieve effects similar to neutral density filters; might be a speaking topic on this & related things; I would be happy to have a go at this...

Thanks for sharing your shots everyone. Looks like great fun!

Thanks for that Phil. I'll think about it!

Someone (sorry, forget who!) brought up the problem of using .fits format astronomy images with software such as Photoshop & Affinity Photo. To do this, the .fits images need to be transformed into, say, .tiff or .jpg images. Free GIMP software seems to be able to do this; Open the .fits file, then ...

Here are my astronomy pictures from the meeting. Star trails are built up from 70 pictures. The night sky is much more colourful than I ever thought! Star Trails Notes 1 Canon 0X5A4354_e.jpg #1 single image 70 photos taken using: Canon EOS 7D Mk II manual focus fixed 50 mm lens f 1.8 20 s exposure -...

I thought it was worth making some notes on Nik's talk, so here they are fresh from memory. Notes on Nik Szymanek’s astrophotography talk For pictures, see Nik’s site www.ccdland.net Can take good pictures of moon using DSLR & telephoto lens. Can use around 250 mm but 500 mm small telescope better. ...

Lisa, thanks for your answer to my question about spell checking.

I had everything on my operating system (Windows) set to UK English; however, I noticed that my browser (Firefox) was set to US. I changed that to UK & that made the difference. I didn't even know a browser had a spell-checker!

Robert

Thanks Phil,

Getting that marvellously focused picture from that sequence is really impressive - I must try it out. Now where is that herd of wildebeest I put away for a sunny day...

Robert

Phil,

I was interested in your focus stacking with the feather etc. What does a single image in the stack look like? I like the crispness of the image everywhere - it's almost surreal.

When taking the photos, do you use a fixed focus by, e.g. switching off auto-focus?

I'd like to go and see it too. I don't know Marks Hall at all - it seems to be a favourite with a lot of members.
Robert

PS Aaaargh! Lisa, wizard of web-sites, is there a way to switch the UK spell-checker on? The Americans don't know how to to spell!

Interesting remarks Phil. I certainly haven't discovered a planet but I may have discovered a satellite! In the lower right corner there are 3 or 4 streaks which are not aligned; this may be due to something moving relative to the stars - so maybe a satellite. On the streak, what you say about 8-bit...

Absolutely gorgeous hollyhock Phil. Perfectly composed & lit.

Gorgeous sunset Ed. The variation of colour in the sky and clouds is quite something!

Love the gravel wheels Phil. Really shows off the unique qualities of IR. Don't think I could fake those skies!

I am interested in the idea of correcting a sequence of pictures of the night sky for the motion of the Earth with the aim of seeing more stars. This is a far as I've got... First is a single frame of the night sky on a fairly clear and moonless night. I thought I might see the stars better if I use...

Hi Trevor,

Oh yes, you've made it glow! How did you do that - a sharpening filter?

Robert

Thanks for the comments Trev, Ed & Phil. I've had another go at the scabious. More pixels (I did rather undersize it!) & I've thought about the colours/impact etc. Thanks for identifying the plant, Trev, I was unsure - my reference books showed a much purpler flower, whereas this one is quite a deli...

Here is a handful of pics from the Alresford outing.

Thanks for organising this, Richie. It was great to get out of the house and chat to a few people and enjoy a bit of photography.

Robert

Hi Richie,

I will be coming to Alresford.

See you all there!

Robert

Unfortunately I won't be able to make it, since I am temporarily without car!

I look forward to seeing you all again on a future occasion.

I like your Black Grass Phil!

All the best

Robert

Hi Ed, I think LUT is a separate tool - not sure what it does. The tool I was talking about is called 'Channel Mixer' & is in the same Adjustment group as LUT. I worked in electronics research for 40 odd years, so I'm very techie! Python is a much nicer language to use than either of those you menti...

Here's a photo I was hunting for a while back when we were doing 'looking down' photos. I was practicing separating complex objects from background to enhance the seedhead & de-emphasise the background.

Hi Ed, There is a tool called 'Channel Mixer' in AF under their Adjustments tab. The elements of the matrix are entered using slidebars or numbers, though the accuracy with which you can enter values seems quite limited. There is an excellent macro facility in AF, so if you record setting up the cha...

The colours are a bit weird arent they? The colour changes are not in any way random or curated by me; they arise from a bit of mathematics that I've done and enjoyed enormously. The colour changes are based on the idea of swapping the contents of the red-green-blue colour channels in a colour pictu...

Hi Ed, I'm running AP on quite an old machine, so it's spec is nothing wonderful. It has 8 GB RAM, which is the most the machine can have. My immediate reaction to your post is that more RAM should have a dramatic effect on your machine's performance. I find that background processes alone on my Win...