AT Shot of the Day Thread

[Fenixgoon]

http://static1.squarespace.com/stat...9c1fa/1439268180210/DSC_9793.JPG?format=2500w

i was originally going to this location to take sunset photos for a photo competition put on by a restaurant. i'm much happier i got distracted by my own motorcycle though

 

[CuriousMike]

^-- Nice shot - the clean background *really* helps.

 

[EOM]

http://static1.squarespace.com/stat...9c1fa/1439268180210/DSC_9793.JPG?format=2500w

i was originally going to this location to take sunset photos for a photo competition put on by a restaurant. i'm much happier i got distracted by my own motorcycle though

I like how the lights are on on the bike, but not the headlight.... adds interest!

 

[Spoooon]

These fellas made it to my fridge today.

 

[CuriousMike]

My first try at andromeda... and my focus was off ! Goddamnit!
This is with my 85mm at f/1.8.
I also did a stack with my 200 @ f/4 that I'm hoping has better focus. Stay tuned.

 

[carlton_fritz]

 

[CuriousMike]

I also did a stack with my 200 @ f/4 that I'm hoping has better focus. Stay tuned.

Well, the 200 @f4 are focused better, but the stacking didn't come out as nice as the 85... I'm losing a lot of the dust-detail of the galaxy.

The 85 f1.8 on DX = 127mm = 3.93 = 3 second exposures.

The 200 f4 on DX = 300mm = (500/300) = 1.6 second exposures

So, the effective focal length was ~ 1/2, but the exposure time was ~ twice as long.

I'd love to have a 105 f2.8 = 157mm = (500/157) = 3 second exposures -- little more reach, little less light, same exposure time.

Renting a 105 f2.8 is on my mind, as well as a 300 f2.8...

Or... correctly focusing at infinity with my 85 will yield some improvements. Maybe ISO 12,000 for a few dozen shots just to see...

From the 200 f4

 

[carlton_fritz]

Well, the 200 @f4 are focused better, but the stacking didn't come out as nice as the 85... I'm losing a lot of the dust-detail of the galaxy.

The 85 f1.8 on DX = 127mm = 3.93 = 3 second exposures.

The 200 f4 on DX = 300mm = (500/300) = 1.6 second exposures

So, the effective focal length was ~ 1/2, but the exposure time was ~ twice as long.

I'd love to have a 105 f2.8 = 157mm = (500/157) = 3 second exposures -- little more reach, little less light, same exposure time.

Renting a 105 f2.8 is on my mind, as well as a 300 f2.8...

Or... correctly focusing at infinity with my 85 will yield some improvements. Maybe ISO 12,000 for a few dozen shots just to see...

From the 200 f4

I need to find me a nice dark place to try and get some shots like that.

 

[radhak]

Nice ones, this past week. Butterflies are my favorites insects to photograph, and this one is exceptionally good, Carlton. Would love to see it closer, maybe those whiskers in detail...

Spoon, those bottles look so close to a professional product pic that I wanted to call shens. Classic light-thru-the-bottle.

Mike, I liked your first pic above more. The dust detail makes it worth enlarge-and-print. Looks awfully close to the picture on my daughter's Cosmos dvds!
What's that little blue dot below that dust?

 

[carlton_fritz]

Nice ones, this past week. Butterflies are my favorites insects to photograph, and this one is exceptionally good, Carlton. Would love to see it closer, maybe those whiskers in detail...

Spoon, those bottles look so close to a professional product pic that I wanted to call shens. Classic light-thru-the-bottle.

Mike, I liked your first pic above more. The dust detail makes it worth enlarge-and-print. Looks awfully close to the picture on my daughter's Cosmos dvds!
What's that little blue dot below that dust?

Any time I got closer, he would flutter off.

 

[CuriousMike]

What's that little blue dot below that dust?

The success of the shot makes me want to give it another go, but this time have better focus !

Using Stellarium to verify, it appears the blue dot is hip 3881, which google defines as a "blue main sequence star in the andromeda galaxy."

 

[Nohr]

Nice Andromeda galaxy CuriousMike! I definitely prefer the 85mm one. It has better dust lane detail and more background stars. I think the white balance is a little too blue on both photos though.

How are you focusing? I use 10x zoom in live view on a star and that usually does the job for me. It can be finicky depending on the lens.

 

[CuriousMike]

I just manually focused - I took a few test shots around the infinity marker and then zoomed in on each shot, choosing the one that looked "most in focus." Obviously I failed.

I fought a little with the color on these... manipulating the WB ended up with green or blue with the smallest of tweaks, so I just left it in the middle.

My next excursion I'll definitely spend more time with focus and I'll stack more exposures.

 

[zCypher]

Love the star shot, really hope i get a chance to try something like that before summer is over.

From a walk a little earlier:

 

[brainhulk]

D23 convention, galaxy note 4

 

[CuriousMike]

D23 convention, galaxy note 4

Impressive !

 

[007ELmO]

Impressive !

Most impressive.

 

[Spoooon]

Nice ones, this past week. Butterflies are my favorites insects to photograph, and this one is exceptionally good, Carlton. Would love to see it closer, maybe those whiskers in detail...

Spoon, those bottles look so close to a professional product pic that I wanted to call shens. Classic light-thru-the-bottle.

Mike, I liked your first pic above more. The dust detail makes it worth enlarge-and-print. Looks awfully close to the picture on my daughter's Cosmos dvds!
What's that little blue dot below that dust?

LOL, thanks.

Here's the flat RAW converted to JPG:

 

[bigboxes]

Ghost town of Medicine Mound, Texas

My boy Pedey

 

[Red Squirrel]

Posted a similar shot in the perseids thread but figured I'd share here too, nothing to do with perseids but I thought it came out awesome. Had to expose for a long time to actually get those northern lights. They were not visible to the naked eye. Caught me by surprise while taking other pics before that.



Star time lapse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfqGZwQmFc0

I will have to try this in winter again when the nights are longer. I'd do it from inside the house like this one as I don't want to babysit the camera for 16 hours.

 

[007ELmO]

Edinburgh, Scotland

 

[CuriousMike]

Those images.... glow !

 

[007ELmO]

Clearwater Bay Golf Club, Hong Kong

Taken with DJI Phantom 3.

 

[CuriousMike]

 

[007ELmO]

UK. Taken with DJI Phantom 3.