Shooting the Moon

[Kevin Farnell]

I was looking through my photos and found the following one of the Moon that I took a few years ago. I played around with it in Photoshop and this is the result -



Kevin

[Airspeed]

It's a good subject, isn't it, Kevin? Pity it's upside down
Looks great
What did you do with it in Photoshop?
I can get good shots with my current Nikon P1000, but have trouble with Jupiter; looks great in the viewfinder, but goes to fuzz when I hit the button. I've tried manual focus, but still nothing worth showing, it suddenly shrinks to a tiny image.
Joe (Airboatr) probably would have all the answers; he's pretty hot with photography

[Kevin Farnell]

Hi Mike

This is the original image (it wasn't dark, when I took the shot) -



Shot with the following equipment -

Nikon D200
Nikon 70-200 F2.8 VR + Nikon 2X teleconverter
Manfrotto Tripod
400mm
1/125 F5.6
ISO 100

Nikon Capture NX-D software was used to adjust the sharpness and exposure of the original '.RAW' file (I always shoot in '.RAW', as this gives much greater flexibility when processing the image. My camera can record the image as both '.RAW' and 'JPEG' simultaneously).
The image was then exported as a '.JPEG', and opened in Photoshop, where further enhancements were made to contrast and brightness to give the black background. I then cropped the image for the final picture.

Kevin

[Paul K]

Great picture, Kevin

[Airspeed]

Hi Mike

This is the original image (it wasn't dark, when I took the shot) -

........
Nikon Capture NX-D software was used to adjust the sharpness and exposure of the original '.RAW' file (I always shoot in '.RAW', as this gives much ......... I then cropped the image for the final picture.

Kevin

I've got mine set to record both, as you have.
TBH, I haven't put the time in to learn how to jiggle around with the RAW files, so why do I do it

[DaveG]

Great picture Kevin.

My daughter has been getting into Astro photography lately. She took this sequence of the moon over a couple of weeks in January:



And these are a couple she took last year:


Andromeda Galaxy


Flame and Horsehead Nebula


Orion Nebula

Amazing what you can see from your back garden!

[TSR2]

They’re absolutely stunning Dave. I remember a few years ago she entered the photo for the competition online, but these are incredible. She’s clearly come a long way from kicking about at Brunters… the grow up so quickly!

[Kevin Farnell]

WOW , stunning photos. I'm guessing most were taken using a telescope with a dedicated imaging device (I'd be surprised if you could capture a Galaxy or Nebula with just a camera). The Moon shots would be achievable with a DSLR, a suitable lens and a sturdy tripod.
Anyone interested in getting started in Astrophotography will find plenty of advice online e.g. -

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/astr ... otography/

Alternatively, the naked eye or a pair of binoculars can give a wonderful insight into the heavens, for which I highly recommend the free Astronomy program Stellarium (available for Windows, Mac and Linux or you can use their web based viewer and for a small cost, there is an App) -

https://stellarium.org/

Kevin

[DaveG]

The moon shots were taken with a Canon DSLR ( not sure which model off the top of my head), modded to have the infrared filter removed, with a 400mm f4 lens.
The others were with the DSLR attached to a telescope. Again if have to look up which model it is. The images are built up of hundreds of individual shots taken over the course of several hours then stacked and processed.

[Kevin Farnell]

I've got mine set to record both, as you have.
TBH, I haven't put the time in to learn how to jiggle around with the RAW files, so why do I do it

To be honest, I only set the camera to record both 'RAW' and 'JPEG' if I've been to an event with friends and they want to see the photos on the computer (or TV) as soon as we're home. Otherwise, it is just set to the highest quality 'RAW' setting.
Working with 'RAW' files is not at all daunting. Do you have the free Nikon software? You can change all sorts of settings and even recover photos that you thought were lost due to over or under exposure.
If I've been to an event like an airshow, it's nice to have a sit down and work through the images whist enjoying a cold beer or three. If you're not happy with your work, it's easy to set it back to the original camera settings.When happy with them, save them as a 'JPEG' which you can post at your favourite aviation themed website.

Kevin