Astronomy photographer of the year
September 18, 2017 8:12 PM Subscribe
Universe is so beautiful...
posted by Windopaene at 8:45 PM on September 18, 2017
posted by Windopaene at 8:45 PM on September 18, 2017
These are gorgeous, thank you for posting. I need to go camping away from city lights post haste.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:29 PM on September 18, 2017
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:29 PM on September 18, 2017
International Dark-Sky Association has got your back, ActingTheGoat.
posted by Harald74 at 11:41 PM on September 18, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Harald74 at 11:41 PM on September 18, 2017 [1 favorite]
Unbelievable beauty. I love to see images such as these, puts everything into a perspective that makes sense. We aren't even dust mites. Yet, wonderfully, we have consciousness, and can see that while yeah, we are not even dust mites, but still we can see how beautiful this thing is. I think I'm trying to talk about awe here.
Thx so much for posting. Great find.
posted by dancestoblue at 12:09 AM on September 19, 2017
Thx so much for posting. Great find.
posted by dancestoblue at 12:09 AM on September 19, 2017
There's an exhibition of the photographs at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich until next June. It's free. I saw the exhibition from the 2014 competition, and based on that I'm sure the photographs will be even more impressive in person and will probably have fascinating extra commentary from the photographers.
posted by kelper at 12:44 AM on September 19, 2017
posted by kelper at 12:44 AM on September 19, 2017
I love all of this, but minor technical and genre quibble: Most of these are astrolandscape or pure landscape photography. Pure astronomy photography is a whole different technical game than astrolandscape, involving (generally) a lot more gear and technical astronomy skills.
There's a few pure astro shots in there, like the surface of the sun one. Holy moly that's an incredible shot for a ground-based amatuer.
There's been a huge boom and resurgence in astro/night sky photography in general these days, especially with the advent of extremely high ISO, low noise mirrorless cameras and sensors like Sony's A series, especially the a6500 and a7, along with a lot more affordable wide angle and fast glass, some of it pushing 11-14mm wide at fast sub f/2 speeds.
Which, when combined with a sensor that can easily push 6400-128,000 ISO while maintaining high dynamic range means that just about anyone (yes, you!) can try this kind of photography out themselves with incredible results and a little know how.
Like the 500 rule, which tells you how long you can keep a shutter open pointed at the night sky with a given angle of lens without getting star trails, without using a sky tracker.
(I have to run, but I'll post a simple recipe and expand on this later when I get time for it.)
posted by loquacious at 8:58 AM on September 19, 2017 [5 favorites]
There's a few pure astro shots in there, like the surface of the sun one. Holy moly that's an incredible shot for a ground-based amatuer.
There's been a huge boom and resurgence in astro/night sky photography in general these days, especially with the advent of extremely high ISO, low noise mirrorless cameras and sensors like Sony's A series, especially the a6500 and a7, along with a lot more affordable wide angle and fast glass, some of it pushing 11-14mm wide at fast sub f/2 speeds.
Which, when combined with a sensor that can easily push 6400-128,000 ISO while maintaining high dynamic range means that just about anyone (yes, you!) can try this kind of photography out themselves with incredible results and a little know how.
Like the 500 rule, which tells you how long you can keep a shutter open pointed at the night sky with a given angle of lens without getting star trails, without using a sky tracker.
(I have to run, but I'll post a simple recipe and expand on this later when I get time for it.)
posted by loquacious at 8:58 AM on September 19, 2017 [5 favorites]
Ok, quick and dirty night sky photography for noobs:
For starfields with clean points of light - consult the "rule of 600" or "rule of 500" as linked above and depending on who you listen to.
You're going to want to compare that info or the table in the link above to your lens width. This is marked on the barrel of your lens, or on the lens face or camera itself if it's a fixed lens like a Fuji X100 or similar.
For around 35 mm - give or take for full frame vs APS-c and crop frames - 30 seconds is going to be your upper end for how long you can keep your shutter open without trails.
It also depends on what part of the sky you're pointing at. The closer to the poles, the less movement there is, and vice versa for the equators or solar plane.
First, open up the aperture on the lens to it's widest (smallest) number for the most light.
(This isn't always best practice for the sharpest photos due to a process of optical distortion that happens through wide apertures, and almost all lenses have a sweet spot of clarity that's usually closer to the middle or completely closed down, but we're going for quick and dirty maximum light gathering, here.)
Next set your focus to manual. Set focus to infinity and leave it there. Note that on almost all lenses, true infinity isn't necessarily at the end of the travel, because lenses need a bit of mechanical slack to account for temperature changes. "Full stop" would be different values if the lens was cold or hot.
Infinity should be near the infinity mark, obviously. If in doubt, pull the focus back closer than infinity and edge it forward until it just touches the mark. This should set it close enough for your first attempts that it won't matter. (Additional homework: Hyperfocus and controlling the focal plane with aperture values. )
Now find how to adjust your ISO. This may be in your shooting menu, it may be on a dedicated dial. Crank that way up to 5000-6400. You may be able to get away with less - less ISO sensitivity generally means less noise - but longer required exposures.
You also want to turn off any weirdness like high dynamic range (at least for now) or auto ISO or auto dynamic range. Set your dynamic range (if available) to standard, or 200, whichever is closer.
You can, if you wish, turn on noise reduction if available, but at the correct ISO and exposure you shouldn't need it for quick and dirty.
You can also adjust your white balance to try to cut out light pollution. This does tint the sky an artificial color that can be noticed by a good eye, but I've had good luck cutting nasty yellow/orange sodium street glare by using white balances in the 2600-3200k range.
And if you care about these shots, you should shoot to RAW or RAW+jpeg.
Now, you need to figure out how to set your camera to bulb mode. Some cameras have an "automatic" bulb mode that's 30 seconds without holding down the shutter release button. Some cameras only have a fully manual bulb, meaning you need to keep the button pressed to keep the shutter open. And some have two-way bulb modes where one click opens it and another closes it.
This is where a shutter release cable or bulb comes in to play and pays for itself, as you'll see next - because the number one goal despite all of the above is to reduce and completely eliminate vibration and camera shake.
If you have a decent tripod, great. If you have a shutter release cable, that's great too. Use them. Learn how to use the latch/lock on the cable release or bulb so that it catches and holds the shutter for you, and practice unlocking it without disturbing the camera or tripod.
If you don't, here are some tricks you can do to create a stable open shutter shot without them:
Sandbags, heavy pillows and more can be propped on a picnic table, the ground, a bench or other surface to get the camera pointed at the sky or landscape in a suitable and stable way. A heavy book like an old dictionary or phone book opened half or part way makes a pretty good camera pillow, for example. You can also temporarily zip-tie your camera to something sturdy, like a fence post or rail, a saw horse or easel. The crooks of trees or tree stumps work well, too. It just limits your composition and framing.
If your camera has an "auto" bulb mode where it follows through with a full 30 seconds after you release the button, great, we're going to use that in combination with the self timer.
Set up your camera to bulb mode, set the self timer to 3 or more seconds, set the camera up on whatever sturdy, vibration free arrangement you've set up and fire it and walk away. Do not bump the camera, the structure or the ground until it closes the shutter.
Too bright of an image? Reduce ISO and/or exposure time. Too dark? Increase same. Too much light pollution? Try messing with the white balance, and/or aiming the camera elsewhere.
Now, how to do vibration-free astros without a tripod or an autobulb... or a cable? Need more manual control of your shutter?
You *can* manage to manually shoot starfield stuff like the above just gripping and holding the shutter button for a long, open shutter exposure and bracing the camera very well, but you're talking about very tense zen breath-holding exercises or something. You may have good luck with a sturdy park bench, or the hood or roof of your car.
But one old school technique to remember with long exposures and night skies is that your lens cap or even the palm of your hand is a shutter when the exposure times are 10+ seconds. You can set up shots, get the shutter open under a lightly-fitted lens cap or a piece of cardboard or even some kitchen foil and then open up the shutter by hand and then close it again however many seconds/minutes later for minimal camera shake before interacting with any actual buttons or touching/moving the camera.
So if your camera only has a fully manual bulb mode, you can try something like this:
Wrap a rubber band or hair tie around the grip of the camera in such a way that it will keep the shutter pressed down. Note that you may need a bit of tightly rolled paper or a pencil eraser or something to wedge in there to keep it depressed.
Take a square of foil a bit larger than your lens and just kind of loosely mush it on there, leaving a corner turned up as a handle to make a handy, ultralight lens cap and manual shutter control. (You can use your palm, but the problem with this is if you're doing night photography, there's definitely going to be a fogged lens for a few seconds when you take your hand away.)
Find a stable/solid place to set the camera up pointed at your desired piece of sky. Put the cap on. Open the shutter and prop it open with your rubberband. Carefully, carefully slip the foil off and pull it away, no hurry - but avoid getting light on it or lingering if it's light around you and the camera to avoid reflections/blurs.
Wait xx seconds. slip the foil back over it. Once the lens is covered you're free to move it and touch it, the shutter is now effectively closed. If your foil cap is long enough, you can pretty much slip it on, grip it by the lens and then pick it up by the body with your hand holding the cap to the lens until you close the camera's shutter and release the bulb. (I've done this thing many times, and it's always reminded me a little of trying to sneak up on and pounce on and safely grab a slightly dangerous animal, like a snake or perhaps a bird loose in ones house.)
Experiment. The newer cameras and sensors are putting this kind of photography within reach of almost anyone. If you get the basic concepts of "Camera has to stay very still + high ISO sensitivity + long exposures within a limit" that's all you really need to get started with any decent manual DSLR or mirrorless camera sold in the last 8-10 years.
Oh, and startrail shots. It's basically the same as above, except with 10, 20, 60 minute exposures and more. With the same need to avoid camera shake, except for however long your shot is. If your tripod is wobbing in the wind or breeze, every wobble shows up in the star trails.
ISOs can be much less, generally in the 200-800 range. If you live in the northern hemisphere and you want the iconic swirly star trail shot, you have to point your camera at Polaris. Find the Little Dipper or Ursa Minor. It points right at Polaris.
There are also frame stacking apps for creating startrails or static starfields out of many shots, which is especially useful for people who have noisy sensors at high ISOs or they have built in intervelometers that lets them automatically take many shots in sequence.
I personally think this is cheating, along with things like exaggerated composite works or excessive HDR, but a lot of my stinky old opinions about shooting on-camera are unpopular and verging on puritanical these days.
Your first results won't look like the ones in the post, obviously. Some of these photographers are using advance tools like skytracking mounts, which enables them to shoot with tighter apertures for longer time frames and at lower ISOs. Not to mention being able to afford really nice glass in the ultra-wide 10mm range.
There's an entire technological arms race and ecology here trying to maximize this balance between lens/optics clarity, sensor sensitivity and range and many other factors.
posted by loquacious at 9:01 PM on September 19, 2017 [6 favorites]
For starfields with clean points of light - consult the "rule of 600" or "rule of 500" as linked above and depending on who you listen to.
You're going to want to compare that info or the table in the link above to your lens width. This is marked on the barrel of your lens, or on the lens face or camera itself if it's a fixed lens like a Fuji X100 or similar.
For around 35 mm - give or take for full frame vs APS-c and crop frames - 30 seconds is going to be your upper end for how long you can keep your shutter open without trails.
It also depends on what part of the sky you're pointing at. The closer to the poles, the less movement there is, and vice versa for the equators or solar plane.
First, open up the aperture on the lens to it's widest (smallest) number for the most light.
(This isn't always best practice for the sharpest photos due to a process of optical distortion that happens through wide apertures, and almost all lenses have a sweet spot of clarity that's usually closer to the middle or completely closed down, but we're going for quick and dirty maximum light gathering, here.)
Next set your focus to manual. Set focus to infinity and leave it there. Note that on almost all lenses, true infinity isn't necessarily at the end of the travel, because lenses need a bit of mechanical slack to account for temperature changes. "Full stop" would be different values if the lens was cold or hot.
Infinity should be near the infinity mark, obviously. If in doubt, pull the focus back closer than infinity and edge it forward until it just touches the mark. This should set it close enough for your first attempts that it won't matter. (Additional homework: Hyperfocus and controlling the focal plane with aperture values. )
Now find how to adjust your ISO. This may be in your shooting menu, it may be on a dedicated dial. Crank that way up to 5000-6400. You may be able to get away with less - less ISO sensitivity generally means less noise - but longer required exposures.
You also want to turn off any weirdness like high dynamic range (at least for now) or auto ISO or auto dynamic range. Set your dynamic range (if available) to standard, or 200, whichever is closer.
You can, if you wish, turn on noise reduction if available, but at the correct ISO and exposure you shouldn't need it for quick and dirty.
You can also adjust your white balance to try to cut out light pollution. This does tint the sky an artificial color that can be noticed by a good eye, but I've had good luck cutting nasty yellow/orange sodium street glare by using white balances in the 2600-3200k range.
And if you care about these shots, you should shoot to RAW or RAW+jpeg.
Now, you need to figure out how to set your camera to bulb mode. Some cameras have an "automatic" bulb mode that's 30 seconds without holding down the shutter release button. Some cameras only have a fully manual bulb, meaning you need to keep the button pressed to keep the shutter open. And some have two-way bulb modes where one click opens it and another closes it.
This is where a shutter release cable or bulb comes in to play and pays for itself, as you'll see next - because the number one goal despite all of the above is to reduce and completely eliminate vibration and camera shake.
If you have a decent tripod, great. If you have a shutter release cable, that's great too. Use them. Learn how to use the latch/lock on the cable release or bulb so that it catches and holds the shutter for you, and practice unlocking it without disturbing the camera or tripod.
If you don't, here are some tricks you can do to create a stable open shutter shot without them:
Sandbags, heavy pillows and more can be propped on a picnic table, the ground, a bench or other surface to get the camera pointed at the sky or landscape in a suitable and stable way. A heavy book like an old dictionary or phone book opened half or part way makes a pretty good camera pillow, for example. You can also temporarily zip-tie your camera to something sturdy, like a fence post or rail, a saw horse or easel. The crooks of trees or tree stumps work well, too. It just limits your composition and framing.
If your camera has an "auto" bulb mode where it follows through with a full 30 seconds after you release the button, great, we're going to use that in combination with the self timer.
Set up your camera to bulb mode, set the self timer to 3 or more seconds, set the camera up on whatever sturdy, vibration free arrangement you've set up and fire it and walk away. Do not bump the camera, the structure or the ground until it closes the shutter.
Too bright of an image? Reduce ISO and/or exposure time. Too dark? Increase same. Too much light pollution? Try messing with the white balance, and/or aiming the camera elsewhere.
Now, how to do vibration-free astros without a tripod or an autobulb... or a cable? Need more manual control of your shutter?
You *can* manage to manually shoot starfield stuff like the above just gripping and holding the shutter button for a long, open shutter exposure and bracing the camera very well, but you're talking about very tense zen breath-holding exercises or something. You may have good luck with a sturdy park bench, or the hood or roof of your car.
But one old school technique to remember with long exposures and night skies is that your lens cap or even the palm of your hand is a shutter when the exposure times are 10+ seconds. You can set up shots, get the shutter open under a lightly-fitted lens cap or a piece of cardboard or even some kitchen foil and then open up the shutter by hand and then close it again however many seconds/minutes later for minimal camera shake before interacting with any actual buttons or touching/moving the camera.
So if your camera only has a fully manual bulb mode, you can try something like this:
Wrap a rubber band or hair tie around the grip of the camera in such a way that it will keep the shutter pressed down. Note that you may need a bit of tightly rolled paper or a pencil eraser or something to wedge in there to keep it depressed.
Take a square of foil a bit larger than your lens and just kind of loosely mush it on there, leaving a corner turned up as a handle to make a handy, ultralight lens cap and manual shutter control. (You can use your palm, but the problem with this is if you're doing night photography, there's definitely going to be a fogged lens for a few seconds when you take your hand away.)
Find a stable/solid place to set the camera up pointed at your desired piece of sky. Put the cap on. Open the shutter and prop it open with your rubberband. Carefully, carefully slip the foil off and pull it away, no hurry - but avoid getting light on it or lingering if it's light around you and the camera to avoid reflections/blurs.
Wait xx seconds. slip the foil back over it. Once the lens is covered you're free to move it and touch it, the shutter is now effectively closed. If your foil cap is long enough, you can pretty much slip it on, grip it by the lens and then pick it up by the body with your hand holding the cap to the lens until you close the camera's shutter and release the bulb. (I've done this thing many times, and it's always reminded me a little of trying to sneak up on and pounce on and safely grab a slightly dangerous animal, like a snake or perhaps a bird loose in ones house.)
Experiment. The newer cameras and sensors are putting this kind of photography within reach of almost anyone. If you get the basic concepts of "Camera has to stay very still + high ISO sensitivity + long exposures within a limit" that's all you really need to get started with any decent manual DSLR or mirrorless camera sold in the last 8-10 years.
Oh, and startrail shots. It's basically the same as above, except with 10, 20, 60 minute exposures and more. With the same need to avoid camera shake, except for however long your shot is. If your tripod is wobbing in the wind or breeze, every wobble shows up in the star trails.
ISOs can be much less, generally in the 200-800 range. If you live in the northern hemisphere and you want the iconic swirly star trail shot, you have to point your camera at Polaris. Find the Little Dipper or Ursa Minor. It points right at Polaris.
There are also frame stacking apps for creating startrails or static starfields out of many shots, which is especially useful for people who have noisy sensors at high ISOs or they have built in intervelometers that lets them automatically take many shots in sequence.
I personally think this is cheating, along with things like exaggerated composite works or excessive HDR, but a lot of my stinky old opinions about shooting on-camera are unpopular and verging on puritanical these days.
Your first results won't look like the ones in the post, obviously. Some of these photographers are using advance tools like skytracking mounts, which enables them to shoot with tighter apertures for longer time frames and at lower ISOs. Not to mention being able to afford really nice glass in the ultra-wide 10mm range.
There's an entire technological arms race and ecology here trying to maximize this balance between lens/optics clarity, sensor sensitivity and range and many other factors.
posted by loquacious at 9:01 PM on September 19, 2017 [6 favorites]
Oh, and bonus round for astrolandscape shots:
So, those award-winning National Geographic style astrolandscape photos where something cool like a rock feature or a forest is nicely lit up under a starry sky?
They're not always hiking in dozens of lights. Sometimes it's just one light, and sometimes it's a cheap one.
It doesn't have to be any more complicated than walking around to a couple of places in the dark while your shutter is open with a flashlight and flicking the light on and painting a little light on whatever you want to show up in the picture.
You can also use any old camera flash with a manual trigger button, or even another camera or camera phone with a built in flash.
If your exposure is long enough there's no reason why you couldn't light up every individual tree trunk in a stand of trees with just one penlight or headlamp, if you had enough time to walk from tree to tree stumbling around in the dark.
You can also stand off at a distance and just paint and light up whole scenes with a simple LED flashlight. Since you're shooting high ISOs and long exposures, a little light goes a long way and you have a lot of exposure time to control and play with the lighting.
Granted, you end up looking like a lunatic with a camera in some dark field waving a flashlight around and not using, say, the flash built into your sweet camera, which would seem logical and commonsense to someone who didn't understand what you were doing.
posted by loquacious at 9:15 PM on September 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
So, those award-winning National Geographic style astrolandscape photos where something cool like a rock feature or a forest is nicely lit up under a starry sky?
They're not always hiking in dozens of lights. Sometimes it's just one light, and sometimes it's a cheap one.
It doesn't have to be any more complicated than walking around to a couple of places in the dark while your shutter is open with a flashlight and flicking the light on and painting a little light on whatever you want to show up in the picture.
You can also use any old camera flash with a manual trigger button, or even another camera or camera phone with a built in flash.
If your exposure is long enough there's no reason why you couldn't light up every individual tree trunk in a stand of trees with just one penlight or headlamp, if you had enough time to walk from tree to tree stumbling around in the dark.
You can also stand off at a distance and just paint and light up whole scenes with a simple LED flashlight. Since you're shooting high ISOs and long exposures, a little light goes a long way and you have a lot of exposure time to control and play with the lighting.
Granted, you end up looking like a lunatic with a camera in some dark field waving a flashlight around and not using, say, the flash built into your sweet camera, which would seem logical and commonsense to someone who didn't understand what you were doing.
posted by loquacious at 9:15 PM on September 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
loquacious, why couldn't you have posted this advice two weeks ago before I camped all over the dark sky areas of Wyoming and Colorado? :)
posted by AFABulous at 8:24 AM on September 20, 2017
posted by AFABulous at 8:24 AM on September 20, 2017
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