Vidalgo

Hey guys,
 
So I finally had the time to continue my space adventure. I got really better in mastering both the software and the hardware! And yet, so much to learn...
 
Here is the picture from my 1st post, reworked with better settings. The X-Trans sensor is kind of new for stacking softwares, and without the proper settings, it introduces some kind of ugly canvas in the picture. I was able to correct it though, by tweaking some options in Deep Sky Stacker.
 

 
Looks cleaner, but still a bit blurry/foggy!
 
 
 
A few days later, I had another attempt. The conditions were much better:
- no Moon (it was just after the eclipse!)
- Andromeda was higher in the sky: the higher, the better, because light has to travel through less atmosphere. And the atmosphere is full of light pollution, particules, clouds, humidity...
- The polar alignment was much more precise than the first time, so managed to do longer poses (1 min vs 30 seconds)
 
Here is one RAW image, SOOC:
 

 
 
After stacking in DSS and correcting in Lightroom, I managed to get this:
 

 
 
I didn't like the colors, so I converted everything to B&W. Then, I made a color version, just for fun! I got inspired by some Apple wallpaper that I used on my computer, a few years ago.
 

 
 
Things I need to improve:
- Reduce the noise
- Shoot from a less light-polluted area (but I only have a bike, so I'm limited!)
- Improve the tracking to make longer exposures (aiming at 2 min)
- Improve the post-production
 
Cheers!
 
Konzy
 

Hey guys!
 
I finally had a chance to make some pictures of the sky. Munich's weather is often challenging, and the Moon isn't very helpful in this regard either!
 
I bought the iOptron tracker, as well as a cheap and yet excellent lens, the Super-Takumar 200mm f/4 from Pentax. This is an old school lens from the 70', I think, which is often recommended as an affordable quality astro lens.
 
Here is one of my first test, the Andromeda galaxy. It's far from being perfect, but as a first try it's really rewarding to get just a little glimpse of something so big and far away! When you think of all the things that are in this pictures: billions of stars, planets and, perhaps, lives... And when you think that the light that hit my camera's sensor traveled about 24,000,000,000,000,000,000 km during 2.5 million years... Wow.
 

 
This 20 minutes long exposure is a stack of 40 "light" photos (as well as some "dark" frames used to diminish noise) taken with an equatorial mount (iOptron Sky Tracker Pro) and aligned together in DeepSkyStacker software. Single exposures were 30 seconds long, at ISO 1600 and f/4.
 
The big bright halo in the center is the core of the galaxy. You can see a bit of the arms of the galaxy around the core, as well as 2 satellite galaxies: Messier 32 (the brightest halo at the left of Andromeda's core) and Messier 110 (the faint halo at the bottom right). Andromeda is the closest galaxy to the Milky Way, and will collide with our galaxy in about 4.5 billion years... we have time to prepare!
 
Unfortunately, I'm still a beginner and did several mistakes:
- The tracking of Polaris was not accurate enough, and we can see a bit of star trailing. For those who are not familiar with tracking mounts, it consists of a motor aimed at the Polaris star, and rotating at the speed of the Earth, in order to eliminate the movement of our planet and make long exposures of the night sky.
- The stacking: I probably failed something, because there is a weird fabric-like pattern in the picture. Someone told me it might be due to the de-bayering of the picture, but I have no idea what it means! I'll look into that later
- The exposure: the exposure, 20 minutes, is not enough to bring all the details out of the galaxy. 1 hour would have been better! Not to mention that Munich is a light polluted area, even in the city park, and that the moon was quite bright that night.
- The aperture I used, F/4, produced quite a lot of vignetting. In astrophotography, it can be removed quite easily, but I need to spend some time on this. Perhaps next time I'll use an aperture of f/5.6, which seemed to produce better results on my test shots.
 
But on the other hand, I think it's a good start and I have a lot to learn, both in the setup itself and the post-production.
 
The version I posted on Instagram is a bit different, the enhanced filters I used brought some of the details in the arms back:
 

 
As a comparison, here is a picture taken by Hubble, NASA's space camera. You will notice that their picture is infinitely better than mine, but hey, I can't afford to send my Fuji into space
 

 
To be continued!
 
Konzy
⠀

I think, in terms of offering something different, 50/2 will be better partner for 27.
Because 35/2 close enough in both focal range and aperture values - then why to keep in bag 2 similar lenses.

Tallinn panorama by Hendrik Osula, on Flickr
 
X100F

Autumn Evening @Tallinn, Estonia by Hendrik Osula, on Flickr
 
X100F

with the Nikkor AI-S 80-200/4.0 ...
 

sunset in croatia by Enzio Harpaintner, auf Flickr

best place to be
by mr-flo, auf Flickr

Long press on MENU/OK button will lock D-Pad and some other buttons.
It's a standard feature from Fuji exactly to prevent of accidentally hitting.
Described in manual, somewhere in beginning.

Fever.

X-Pro1 w/18-55 zoom.
 
DSCF3890-IXr by tac650, on Flickr

Gloriette, Vienna

...although wide angles are also good for animal action shots on account of their depth of field and resistance to camera-shake. You have to get close, though!
 
 
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

An another camera maker was forced to create a new mechanical shutter with reduced shock for its new camera model with IBIS.
Curiously, that new camera is targeted to low segment of system cameras.
I mean, the implementing of IBIS is not based only on restrictions of bayonet design or associated electronics,
but can need some other important changes, and they are partially invisible for end user.

"Shadow" settings adjust gamma near the dark end of the luminance range. This is typically used to artificially increase luminance in low-luminance areas so you can see more detail in dark areas when the image is reproduced. Shadow enhancement can be applied to any photograph, even photo's taken with "DR" enhancement. Those settings usually just re-map gray levels. For example, gray levels 1, 2, and 3 may be re-mapped to gray levels 2, 4, and 6 making them artificially brighter.
 
Dynamic range is supposed to be an increase in the sensor's range of counting photons. That is, if a pixel element in the sensor needs 10, or more, photons to be not-black and 10,000, or fewer, photons to be not-white (saturated), the dynamic range is 1000:1. Now, say that some new sensor may be able to read only 5 photons for not-black and can accept 50,000 photons for not-white resulting in 10,000:1 dynamic range. True dynamic range is a function of the photo-receptors on the camera's sensor.
 
Please note that dynamic range has nothing to do with bit-depth - the number of gray levels. Bit-depth simply divides the sensor's operating range of detectable luminance into gray levels. A sensor with 1,000,000:1 dynamic range can have an 8-bit per color conversion or a 14-bit per color conversion but you should expect the 8-bit to show gradations, or lines, where the photon count breaches the next gray level. Spacial dithering can help smooth "chunky" gray levels but the best way is, obviously, to add more bit-depth, which divides the sensor's luminance range into finer and finer slices.
 
There are ways of fudging this, though, so beware of the difference between true dynamic range and "features" that call themselves Dynamic Range, or DR. Fujifilm has been adjusting gain in pixel elements so that, even if the element's range is small, the range can be moved, shifted, so that some elements are "tuned" to be more sensitive and some are "tuned" to be less. This technique effectively increases a picture's dynamic range at the cost of... spacial dithering; that is, half the pixels scattered throughout the image may be exposed more, leading to blooming in bright areas just to capture detail in dark areas, while the other pixels might be less exposed to preserve detail in bright areas at the cost of losing detail in shadows.
 
Using a DR setting sprinkles darker pixels in with brighter ones to (theoretically) increase the dynamic range of the picture (but not individual pixel elements). (I said, "theoretically," because the increased dynamic range must be saved in the picture, then reproduced on some media capable of showing it.) There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach and it can actually aid in giving a photo film-like grain.\
 
Of course, there is another way to increase dynamic range: Take two photographs with different exposure settings and overlay them. That is the common "HDR" stuff you read about. Typical HDR photography increases dynamic range by using temporal dithering (in a very simplistic sense).
 
Shadow enhancement can be applied to any photograph, even photo's taken with "DR" enhancement. Those settings usually just re-map gray levels. For example, gray levels 1, 2, and 3 may be re-mapped to gray levels 2, 4, and 6 making them artificially brighter.

Why photo. Use nose.
Natural leather has the smell of natural leather.

Most shot with X-E1 and 27mm f2.8...
 

Hi folks, 
 
Before starting the trip driving my car up north in Spain, I obviously had to think about what gear I should take with me. My goal was clear: I wanted to shoot original landscapes in the north coast of Spain, specifically in the province of Asturias.   Nowadays I am a Fujifilm photographer, which means two things: firstly, I am highly proud of owning a Fujifilm gear, which is outstanding in terms of quality and shooting experience, and furthermore because I’m in love with the quality and design of my FUJIFILM XT-2 and my lenses too.   I knew I would mostly shoot landscapes, so before going up north to Asturias, I took a good decision: I sold my small and sweet pancake Samyang 12mm f/2 and then, I bought the legendary FUJI XF10-24MM F/4, and yes, it was a great. The XF10-24mm is more convenient for landscape photography; the focal range helps to reach far scenes where it’s impossible to get with a prime 12mm lens; for example shooting rocks in the water during a high tide.   Continue reading this article here: World's end: Spain's wild north edge. Shooting with Fuji XT-2 and XF10-24mm   Come check out my website too: www.josecarpin.com   Let me show you some pictures that you will find reading this article:              

Recently I had one evening in Vilnius. It's a beautiful city, where I easily could spend more time.
 
All taken with the 27mm on a X-E1 (Provia film simulation)
 
 

 

...
 

DSCF0002 by Enzio Harpaintner, auf Flickr

A beautiful and accessible national park near Quebec city. 3rd visit there.
 

 

 

 

DSCF8315

 

DSCF8265

 

DSCF8285

 

DSCF8300

 

DSCF8195

 

DSCF8238

Boat Harbour NSW, 100-400mm lens on XT1.

Vanilla sky by Licht Sluw, on Flickr