What a difference image processing can make

[Cimitar (Evan)]

Just thought I'd share a recent experience. Never under-estimate the detail you can extract from your photos!

Ducked outside for 5mins on 10 June and took this with my DSLR and normal tripod (x8 shots, 25sec each @ ISO 3200).

First image is a simple stack of all 8 photos (for all intents and purposes each individual photo looked virtually identical to this one, albeit with slightly more noise). The second image is the final processed version. Huge difference!

Cheers
Evan

[Atmos (Colin)]

Very nice!
I totally agree with that sentiment. It doesn't even have to be vigorous manipulation for it to have a huge effect either. A while back I converted a picture from raw to a smaller JPEG, sent it to my phone and then edited it in Instagram! Just playing around with those sliders made a HUGE difference

[Somnium (Aidan)]

Great effort, there is a lot of difference between unprocessed and processed which is funny when people ask me "is that what it really looks like or have you adjusted it" ...

[Cimitar (Evan)]

Originally Posted by Atmos

Very nice!
I totally agree with that sentiment. It doesn't even have to be vigorous manipulation for it to have a huge effect either. A while back I converted a picture from raw to a smaller JPEG, sent it to my phone and then edited it in Instagram! Just playing around with those sliders made a HUGE difference

Yep, I know exactly what you mean. I occasionally download some of my working photos onto the phone and apply a few test filters just to see how the colours turn out. And when it's on a small screen it often looks better, well my photo's do anyway, haha.

Like you say, it often doesn't need much to draw out the good stuff!

[Cimitar (Evan)]

Originally Posted by Somnium

Great effort, there is a lot of difference between unprocessed and processed which is funny when people ask me "is that what it really looks like or have you adjusted it" ...

Yeah, I occasionally get the disappointment at the eyepiece when friends/family see my photo's and it doesn't match up with what they can physically see in the telescope, despite my best (short) efforts to explain averted vision and the reasons why we can't see this stuff.

So lately I've just taken to attaching my DSLR and cranking up the ISO to 12800 for a 50 sec exposure. That get's the detail and colours visible on my small LCD on the back of the camera. The screen pivots as well on the 600D so that comes in handy

Once they see a small picture of the object they usually understand how it all comes together