Am I right or a Meringue (Scottish Joke!!)

[dugnsuz]

Hi all,
In the spirit of other threads...
Please let me know if I'm on the right track with my wide field imaging attempts.
Cheers and check out the pic.
Pentax ist-D, 5x20sec exps @ iso400 - stacked in Registax, Levels processing only in PS8.
As I can't reduce my pic to 150kb without making it look crappy I've decided to post on Flickr...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29333475@N00/230911128/

All comments greatfully received.
Doug:thumbsup:

[joe_smith]

Looks very good to me Doug well done :thumbsup:

[Dennis]

Nice one Doug - I just love these Milky Way photos.

Cheers

Dennis

[dugnsuz]

Thanks Joe and Dennis,
My wife likes it too - so I've earned some kudos, and can somehow justify the expenses of this hobby!!;)
Cheers
Doug:thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

Nice one Doug. :thumbsup:

Doug if you are using Photoshop then to resize go File>save for web. Then select the Jpeg option on the right (I think the default is gif) then adjust your size at the bottom and then adjust the quality to get it under the 150 mark. Easy as :clap:

[dugnsuz]

Thanks Paul - nice tip.
Cheers
Doug:thumbsup:

[RB]

Good one Doug, very nice mate.

[spearo]

The other tip i learned is (in PS) go to image, then image size and change the width to something that will fit a screen better say 800 or 1000 or even 1200 before doing the subsequent jpeg quality save.

that's made a difference for me
f

[spearo]

forgot to mention that the height will automatically adjust proportionately
frank

[Garyh]

Nice shot Doug!!!, nearly bought a pentax myself. Be interesting to see how it holds up to the canons...
Cheers Gary

[Ric]

Great widefield Doug,
widefields really give you a great sense of perspective as to our place in the universe.

great work

[dugnsuz]

Thanks Gary,
The Pentax ist-D (DS,DL) is an affordable entry to the DSLR market.
I'm pretty happy with the day and night performance so far. But, I must add that it's my first DSLR so I can't compare performance with Canons.
I reckon the 300D (like yours),20Da or the 5D would be the preffered weapons of choice on this forum.
I bought the camera + accessories from leon on this forum, but I've seen the Pentax ist-DL + 18-50mm Sigma lens for $759 new from one Aussie dealer online.
Great thing about the Pentax is it can use both screw (with adaptor) and k-mount lenses.
I took the photo with an old Super-Takumar lens which you can pick up pretty cheaply on ebay and the like.
Cheap lenses have become my new obsession - it used to be premium eyepieces, so it's pretty much the same thing!!:rofl:
Cheers
Doug:thumbsup:

[EzyStyles]

great shot doug. very nice.