Silhouettes & Southern Cross and Pointers

[rogerg]

G'day all,

A shot from a few weeks back which I've finally finished processing. It's from Friday night at Astro Camp (March 23rd) when I had a great time walking far and wide through the bush surrounding the actual observing field doing different shots until 2am :)

Larger with technical details (http://www.rogergroom.com/items/southern_cross_silhouettes)

Enjoy :)

Roger.

[leinad]

Very nice roger.

[leon]

Good stuff Roger, I really love that type of imaging, well done.

Leon

[TrevorW]

Nice Roger

[rogerg]

Thanks Trevor & Dan.



Good to hear :) Thanks

[jjjnettie]

The trees made the perfect frame. :)

[Ross G]

Great photo Roger.

Nice "mood" and composition.

Ross.

[rogerg]

Thanks Jjj :) some times it just works out :)



Thanks for your comments Ross, much appreciated :)

[SkyViking]

Top shot there Roger, it's very atmospheric and the star colours are nice and natural looking.

[Paul Haese]

Just a little different. The wider framing is interesting.

[rogerg]

Thanks :) I like that it looks natural not you, I like to think such shots give more the feel of being there.



"different" is good I think. Thanks :)

[Paul Haese]

Yep different is good.

[Rigel003]

Very atmospheric shot Roger. The stars have a diffuse look that suits the mood. Must have been quite a job to process.

[strongmanmike]

Very beautiful image Roger and complete with coloured stars and trees in the frame.. if you decide to enter it into the David Malin awards this year I am certain David will like this very much :thumbsup:

Mike

[rogerg]

Thanks for your comments :) Yes, quite a job to process, I'm slowly getting a bit quicker at blending silhouettes with such tricky outlines but it still takes a few hours work. I guess I like a challenge :rolleyes: :)



Thanks for the tip Mike, I always forget tthe David Malin awards until it's too late :screwy: .. really must put it in my calendar this time and put aside the time to prepare entries.

[Stevec35]

Very impressive. I reckon that would do well in the Malin awards.

Cheers

Steve

[strongmanmike]

I'll go out on a limb here :question:.... I think this would be in contention for overall winner, probably the most beautiful version of this type of photograph I have seen :)

Mike

[midnight]

One for the canvas I would say. Bringing the Sky and Earth together in some respect.

Well done Roger!
Darrin...

[rogerg]

Wow! Thanks for your enthusiasm and support Mike. I am glad you like it so much, and promise I'll try to get an entry in :)



Thanks for your vote of confidence Steve, glad you enjoyed it :)



Thanks Darrin .. I agree, canvas would be awesome :) .. I wonder .. I could replace the current Southern Cross canvas in my observatory with one of this ... hmmm... will think about it :)

[gregbradley]

That is very nicely done Roger. I appreciate the difficulty here of matching the foreground with the moving stars. Did you have the foreground as a separate layer?

I like the soft glow of the bright stars. Did you defocus these halfway through the exposure?

Nice effect. It accentuates them nicely. I take it you didn't smear Vaseline all over your lens! Perhaps one of those
glow filters?

Greg.

[rogerg]

Yes, lots of layers :)

Simplistically:
- A layer for the full stack of 21 frames
- A layer for the first half (10) frames
- A layer for the second half (10) frames
- A layer for a single middle frame

Then it's a case of manually blending them with masks to leave you with only the silhouettes from the one frame, with the full 21 stack showing where no trees cover the stars ever, and using the two half stacks to paint back through the stars which would otherwise be covered by blurred silhouettes in the full 21 stack. So, while it's a stack of 21, there's a lot of areas where only data from 10 is showing. Hope that makes sense. Lots of manual editing around the silhouettes to bring through what I wanted and didn't want in order to achieve the effect.

I find the exact technique used varies quite a bit depending on the shot. I don't always do the split frame thing for example, and I often instead use an initial stack of unaligned frames for the silhouettes. I find I need to take all possibilities on the night and then see what works best for the shot in Photoshop.

Often one of the hardest steps is colour matching all the different stacks and layers so the blends aren't obvious.



I use a real (on-camera-lens) filter for diffusing, I find it gives the most aesthetically appealing result in all but a few exception cases.



No vaseline eeek! :) I have gel's I'm planning to use for light painting but haven't used any in this shot.

Thanks!
Roger.

[alexch]

Masterfully planned, executed and processed image. I agree with all the comments about DM awards - it should do rather well.



I was looking at "fog" filter for awhile now, which one do you use?

Cheers,
Alex

[rogerg]

I use Cokin filters. This one is the P086. I bought them years ago (10 maybe?) when I was using film and still use them. Not what H would recommend but they seem to do the job for me :shrug:

Edit.... it might not be P086. I'll have to check at home some time. It's the P series I use, but not sure on exact filter code.

[StephenM]

A stunning widefield image Roger! Great stuff.

Cheers,
Stephen

[iceman]

Congrats on such a stunning image, Roger. I hope you do well with it.

It's now IOTW (http://www.iceinspace.com.au).

I might have to get one of those fog filters!

[Greg Bock]

Great shot of a familiar area to make it more interesting Roger, well done.
Fog filters??? don't need 'em here in SE Qld, we have plenty of moisture and dew here to do the job instead!!

[stardust steve]

Congrats on a fine IOTW. Love how the other stars are small and pin point whilst the Southern Cross is big, bright and beautiful.:thumbsup:

[PeterM]

Roger that is just a very lovely image. Just showed it to some work colleagues who love it and they would buy it as a print! Frame it and get it into the shops and local markets around Oz.
If Bockie and I can make lots (and lots) of $ and pay for our astro gear from astro busking many years ago then you could easily pay for your new mount in no time.

PeterM

[Park123]

Top shot Roger

looks great:eyepop:


Stu

[rogerg]

Wow, thanks everyone! I'm surprised by the response! It's like I have a record that has gone platinum! :eyepop:



Thanks Stephen :)



Thanks Mike! Wow, a IOTW!! A first for me :) Thank you :)



:lol: Sorry to laugh Greg .. but I just have to :) If it helps, it's been annoyingly partly cloudy here for the last two weeks .. 2 weeks.. hmm, no, that probably won't help you, sorry ... well, what can I say, come to WA? :) (ps, that's my way of hopefully getting us some rain ... maybe I've jinxed it now...)



Thanks Steve :) It is nice having the diffusion much more evident on the large stars, more so than the small ones, agree.



Thanks Peter :)

I have been selling a selection of my astro photograph (http://www.astrophotography.com.au/) since 2003 .. not sure I will ever be able to make it pay for the telescope though :( one day maybe :) or maybe I need to buy smaller telescopes.



Thanks Stu :) Shame there's no SN visible in it :)

[multiweb]

Nice framing Roger and congrats on IOTW. One for the cool wall. :thumbsup:

[rogerg]

Thanks Mark :) If only I had larger walls :)

[iceman]

Or more cool? :)

[beren]

:thumbsup: Congrats Roger beautiful image......Dryandra reserve is a great place.

[naskies]

Well done and congrats on IOTW! I especially like the big glowing orbs of the Southern Cross & Pointers.

[Geoff Scott]

Roger, you're a very patient Man. Very nicely done.:)

[rogerg]

Thanks :) Yeah, good for daytime and nighttime photography .. no sleep while there :)



Thanks :)



I always think I'm not patient enough actually. I come back from getting some photo's (like this weekend just gone) and find I'm telling myself "why didn't you spend more time doing more!" .. my wife thinks I'm too hard on myself. I can't help but think I waste good opportunities :)

[Greg Bock]

yes Roger, you are too hard on yourself.
:rofl:

[hotspur]

congrats:thumbsup: on IOTW-best one I've seen for ages

[rogerg]

One day I will learn :)



Thanks Chris, much appreciated :)