My first ever ISS

rollmebackagain · #1 16-06-2008, 04:28 AM

I'm pretty new to all this, so it's just ok, but i was excited about it.

This one was taken a little over a week ago. Sadly the light you're seeing near the horizon isn't residual sunlight, it's the city lights of Houston, TX, USA. I hate living near a big city. Good thing I'm only here for the summer!

This is a 10 second exposure, with a little camera that was delicately balanced on the table.

I hope you like it!

iceman (Mike) · #2 16-06-2008, 04:49 AM

Hey nicely done! It's always a thrill to catch it the first time.

Try resizing the photo first, before reducing the quality. Resize it to around 800px wide, and then when you save as jpeg you won't have to compress it as hard to get it under 200kb.

rollmebackagain · #3 16-06-2008, 05:14 AM

Do you have a recommendation for (preferably free) software to use for that? I have PhotoPlus6 but it doesn't allow me to make small changes in the compression.

iceman (Mike) · #4 16-06-2008, 06:14 AM

You can try "irfanview". It's free windows software that can resize, crop amongst many other things, and when you save as jpeg you can set the quality using a 0-100 slider.

But it should be your last step in saving for the web.

rollmebackagain · #5 16-06-2008, 08:27 AM

great - thanks for the help

this look better?

renormalised (Carl) · #6 16-06-2008, 12:47 PM

You can also get the GIMP for Windows. It's free and it's very good image processing software. IrfanVIEW is good as well. I'd get both, actually

AlexN · #7 17-06-2008, 02:37 AM

Gimp is a great program.. rivals photoshop in some areas!...

And yes, the 2nd pic is alot smoother, Its a great capture.

I can definitely relate to the delicately balanced camera sitting on a table... Im yet to get a tripod and have done many a shot just like that with my DSLRs...

Well done

Kirkus (Kirk) · #8 17-06-2008, 07:35 AM

Nice image. Especially for a first go! Space station flyovers just fascinate me!