Milky Way - widefield images and time lapse animations - Page 3

Octane (Humayun) · #41 29-10-2009, 08:49 PM

Alex,

Agreed with everyone -- these are works of art.

Imagine, if your output at this stage is so good, give it a few months/years -- think of what you'll be producing then.

You've also inspired me to chuck my 5D Mark II on a static tripod and give something like this a go. Only problem being, in Canberra, there's no coastline. Just the lake, but, it might work.

Regards,
Humayun

csb (Craig) · #42 29-10-2009, 08:58 PM

Wow! ALL your photos give a fantastic perspective of our Milky Way.
Beautiful!

alexch (Alex) · #43 29-10-2009, 09:41 PM

Thanks again everyone!

Attached is one of my first attempts at Milky Way from Border Stargaze where I caught the astro-imaging bug. BSG was great fun and very well organised (Thanks Petra!). I managed to get the Magellanic clouds in there as well as a few telescopes (the white Dob at the right corner is mine). The light glow is from Albury.

Cheers,
Alex

danielsun · #44 29-10-2009, 09:48 PM

Another stunner Alex. Beautiful work with nice colors.

Cheers Daniel.

Octane (Humayun) · #45 30-10-2009, 01:56 AM

Alex, I met you! We were looking at M31 and M33 through your scope through that enormous eyepiece. You had to hold the dob up as the eyepiece was so heavy.

I was set up towards the left hand side of the left court. That's me in the freezer suit standing next to the green light which was emanating from the on/off switch of my regulated power supply.

Regards,
Humayun

alexch (Alex) · #46 30-10-2009, 07:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Octane

Alex, I met you! We were looking at M31 and M33 through your scope through that enormous eyepiece. You had to hold the dob up as the eyepiece was so heavy.

I was set up towards the left hand side of the left court. That's me in the freezer suit standing next to the green light which was emanating from the on/off switch of my regulated power supply.

Regards,
Humayun

I know

meliux (Dan) · #47 30-10-2009, 01:23 PM

wow... they're great. quite artistic!

mill (Martin) · #48 30-10-2009, 06:22 PM

Those time lapses are just beautiful and very well executed, a pleasure to look at.

bps1104 · #49 31-10-2009, 12:23 PM

Awesome picsss...

White Rabbit · #50 31-10-2009, 03:13 PM

Beautiful work there Alex. If you dont allready know about www.timescapes.org you should check it out. I'm sure the guys over there would love to see your work as well.

Well done.

Sandy

Jazza11 (Jeremy) · #51 31-10-2009, 03:57 PM

Very beautiful images congratz

White Rabbit · #52 31-10-2009, 09:50 PM

Hi Alex

Could you explain how you up the iso to 6400 in post production.

Thanks
Sandy

alexch (Alex) · #53 31-10-2009, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by White Rabbit

Hi Alex

Could you explain how you up the iso to 6400 in post production.

Thanks
Sandy

I always shoot RAW (NEF in Nikon terms) and then post-process in Nikon Capture NX2. Nikon D700 has amazing RAW headroom and allows to recover about 2-3 f/stops of extra info.

How I do it depends on an image and is hard to explain, I use my normal daylight image processing experience. Mostly I use control points or gradient to select portions of the image and then apply levels and/or curves to brighten the highlights and midtones. Sometimes I use a few iterations to get the output I want.

I am not sure if this is "technically" correct, but my understanding is that by doing so I amplify the highlights/midtones signal by 1 or two f/stops for parts of the image (effectively increasing ISO sensitivity in highlights/midtones).

I found that with Nikon DSLRs RAW format you can underexpose by 2 f/stops at say ISO1600, then increase the exposure level in post production by 2 f/stops and arrive at the same output as if you shot at ISO6400 (the only difference is in noise reduction as set by the camera).

Hope this helps.

Alex

Martin Pugh · #54 04-11-2009, 02:33 PM

Fantastic photography

well done indeed.

Martin

troypiggo (Troy) · #55 05-11-2009, 07:12 AM

How did I miss this thread? Awesome images!

rastis95 (Scott) · #56 07-11-2009, 08:20 AM

Just awesome Alex

.
Cheers
Scott

Omaroo (Chris Malikoff) · #57 10-11-2009, 04:17 PM

To think that I was set up there too on that very court.

Brilliant images Alex. I've only just cottoned on to them today. Wonderful! I must accelerate my D700 purchase.

alexch (Alex) · #58 10-11-2009, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omaroo

To think that I was set up there too on that very court.

Brilliant images Alex. I've only just cottoned on to them today. Wonderful! I must accelerate my D700 purchase.

Thanks Chris,

D700 is a fantastic machine especially in the high ISO department.
Alex

AlexN · #59 10-11-2009, 11:27 PM

That shot from Border Star Gaze is fantastic!! Theres a hell of a lot going on in there!

3 galaxies, a bunch of happy astronomers and quite a few scopes..

The D700's dynamic range must be great... the illuminated areas on the ground look nice an smooth, the milkyway looks stunning and the SMC and LMC are both showing detail! Top work!