AT Shot of the Day Thread

[Nohr]

Crescent Moon & Rain Clouds


Crescent Moon 250mm

 

[Spoooon]

Feed me.

 

[Nohr]

My best attempt at stacking moon photos so far.


Daytime Crescent Moon 1250mm

 

[CuriousMike]

^--- Nohr - really nice. /thumbsup

 

[zCypher]

love the moon pic. have not been able to match my brother's superzoom for moon pics, since i only have kit lens still, but may play with a decent telescope soon.

I was able to get some cool pics last night though:

 

[Nohr]

Thanks! I took another stab at it this evening. Darkness + bigger stack of photos = more detail!


Waxing Crescent Moon 1250mm

 

[CuriousMike]

Thanks! I took another stab at it this evening. Darkness + bigger stack of photos = more detail!

Yeah... that's ballin'.
Great job.

What is your technique for "stacking"/ what does it mean?

 

[Nohr]

Yeah... that's ballin'.
Great job.

What is your technique for "stacking"/ what does it mean?

Thanks again.

Stacking is taking many photos or video frames of the same object and combining them together with software in to a single composite photo. The software does a sort of averaging of all the photos. This helps to remove noise and artifacts caused by the atmosphere, hot camera sensors, etc. It also boosts faint details and improves sharpness. The end result is a much better image than any individual photo used in the stack.

I hope that helps. It's a commonly used practice in astrophotography.

 

[007ELmO]

Can you tell us which software you use to stack

 

[Nohr]

Can you tell us which software you use to stack

I start with PIPP to crop the photos and convert them from RAW to TIF. Then AutoStakkert does the actual stacking which outputs a single photo. Final processing happens in RegiStax. Sometimes I'll do a little extra tweaking in Lightroom afterwards.

I've only been doing image stacking for a few weeks now. Here's a couple guides that helped me get started:
Beginner's guide to stacking planetary images with AutoStakkert!2
Moon image processing tutorial

 

[Spoooon]

@nohr Awesome!

Stacking can make a huge difference. My shots are only at 300 or 600mm (can't remember which).

Single exposure:

Stacked (probably 10 to 15 exposures):

 

[Nohr]

Cool Spoooon! It really is worth the effort.


Daytime Crescent Moon


Scissor-tailed Flycatcher


Scissor-tailed Flycatcher


Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

 

[Lithium381]

Moon rise with Mars & Spica

what lighting /settings did you use to achieve this shot?

 

[Lithium381]

I just got the camera last week and my 85mm lens arrived in the mail yesterday. . . first shot i took.

 

[Nohr]

what lighting /settings did you use to achieve this shot?

You can see the EXIF info on Flickr if you click the photo and look at the info tab at the lower right. It was taken at 18mm, 8sec, F4.0, ISO 1600 and was processed in Lightroom. The foreground lighting was provided by a farm yard light.

 

[zCypher]

beautiful shot Nohr. where is this?

 

[Lithium381]

You can see the EXIF info on Flickr if you click the photo and look at the info tab at the lower right. It was taken at 18mm, 8sec, F4.0, ISO 1600 and was processed in Lightroom. The foreground lighting was provided by a farm yard light.

Yeah, i found the exif shortly after i posted this; didn't realize you had provided a link. :whiste:
but i was more curious about your lighting setup. farm yard light huh, i don't see those at B&H or at Adorama. I looked under both constant lighting and strobe . . . do you have a link?

 

[Spoooon]

A7, Vivitar 20/3.8

Huge front element

Super close minimum focus distance

 

[Nohr]

beautiful shot Nohr. where is this?

Thanks! It was taken near Nacogdoches, TX at a friend's place. They live a few miles outside of town next to a cow pasture, hence the barbed wire fence.

Yeah, i found the exif shortly after i posted this; didn't realize you had provided a link. :whiste:
but i was more curious about your lighting setup. farm yard light huh, i don't see those at B&H or at Adorama. I looked under both constant lighting and strobe . . . do you have a link?

You get one free with every farm you purchase.

 

[fralexandr]

A7, Vivitar 20/3.8

Huge front element

http://beardedspoooon.smugmug.com/Vivitar-2038/i-qggHTFV/0/L/DSC05104-L.jpg

Super close minimum focus distance

http://beardedspoooon.smugmug.com/Vivitar-2038/i-Nzhq78r/0/L/DSC01694-L.jpg
http://beardedspoooon.smugmug.com/Vivitar-2038/i-ng4PQW7/0/L/DSC01732-L.jpg

what kind of magnification does that lens get?
The lens doesn't even label itself as a macro!

 

[007ELmO]

can i use that lens with my nikon

 

[Spoooon]

what kind of magnification does that lens get?
The lens doesn't even label itself as a macro!

I'm not sure. I'll do a Lego comparison between it and a lens where I know the magnification.

@007ElmO: I'm sure you can, just a matter of finding it in the appropriate mount. I'm sure they did in an AI or AI-S mount at some point.

Another old Vivitar, the 28mm 2.8 Close Focus:

 

[MongGrel]

Thanks! It was taken near Nacogdoches, TX at a friend's place. They live a few miles outside of town next to a cow pasture, hence the barbed wire fence.



You get one free with every farm you purchase.

Nice pics!

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[Spoooon]

For fun, some minfig shots to demonstrate the "macro" abilities of some of the lenses I have.

Vivitar 28/2.8 Close Focus

This lets you get fairly close, opens up some fun possibilities due to the wide angle.

Vivitar 20/3.8

This one has a pretty crazy minimum focus distance. Same as the above, can be fun because of the wide angle, but it doesn't really come close to magnifying anything.

Baseline Tamron 17-50 2.8 (1:4.8 magnification) on the A37 at 50mm. In retrospect, I should have done a 20mm and 28mm.

And to show just how close the minimum focus distance is on the 20mm:

 

[007ELmO]

spoon can you quickly recommend me a macro lens for the Nikon D40 that I have, since I like to take pictures of flowers, I would enjoy the best macro I can purchase.

Thanks,
007