Looking for feedback....

jedgar8585

I'm looking for feed back as to how and improve pictures like this one. I'm new to DSLR photography and I'm eager to learn! I'm using an Olympus Evolt E-300. The settings were 150mm, f22, 1/8 sec shutter and ISO 100. I cropped this image to 640 x 480.

XO-Studios

jedgar8585 wrote:

I'm looking for feed back as to how and improve pictures like this one. I'm new to DSLR photography and I'm eager to learn! I'm using an Olympus Evolt E-300. The settings were 150mm, f22, 1/8 sec shutter and ISO 100. I cropped this image to 640 x 480.

OK see attached I hope you do not mind.

I moved the white point in a little, and then added contrast by pulling the curve, qand steepening it as well.

I was going to sharpen as well, but noticed a BUNCH of JPEG artifacts in the center of the pic.

Still 30 seconds in Photoshop, and a lot more 'pop'.

FWIW,

XO,

Shay Stephens

You can avoid diffraction blurring by using a wider aperture. I don't know what the sweet spot is on your lens, but try f/8 and compare it with f/22, I think you will be pleased with the improvement in both shutter speed and sharpness.

Small apertures like f/22 give you a wider field of view, but many mistake that with sharper pictures, and that is not the case. It is a trade off between greater DOF and diffraction blurring. The sweet spot of the lens is the point where diffraction blurring (small aperture induced) is at it smallest and aberrations (wide aperture induced) are at their smallest.

Were you using a tripod? You should. Even with a fast shutter speed, you should use a tripod for low light photography

Did you auto focus or manual focus? Astro photography is notoriously difficult to autofocus on. So you may have to manually focus on infinity to get critical sharpness.

And finally, with all that addressed, using unsharp mask (USM) will get the last bit of sharpness in the image to finish it off.

jedgar8585 wrote:

The settings were 150mm, f22, 1/8 sec shutter and ISO 100. I cropped this image to 640 x 480.

jedgar8585

These are great tips. Thanks. I was using a tripod with a shutter release cable. I'm not quite sure if this photo was af or not. I did at some point while playing switch to mf. I'll give your suggestions a shot and let you know how they turn out on the next clear night. We're getting thunderstorms now!

Shay Stephens wrote:

You can avoid diffraction blurring by using a wider aperture. I don't know what the sweet spot is on your lens, but try f/8 and compare it with f/22, I think you will be pleased with the improvement in both shutter speed and sharpness.

Small apertures like f/22 give you a wider field of view, but many mistake that with sharper pictures, and that is not the case. It is a trade off between greater DOF and diffraction blurring. The sweet spot of the lens is the point where diffraction blurring (small aperture induced) is at it smallest and aberrations (wide aperture induced) are at their smallest.

Were you using a tripod? You should. Even with a fast shutter speed, you should use a tripod for low light photography

Did you auto focus or manual focus? Astro photography is notoriously difficult to autofocus on. So you may have to manually focus on infinity to get critical sharpness.

And finally, with all that addressed, using unsharp mask (USM) will get the last bit of sharpness in the image to finish it off.

XO-Studios

jedgar8585 wrote:

These are great tips. Thanks. I was using a tripod with a shutter release cable. I'm not quite sure if this photo was af or not. I did at some point while playing switch to mf. I'll give your suggestions a shot and let you know how they turn out on the next clear night. We're getting thunderstorms now!

Also take a look at how you are saving your files and processing them, below is a blow up of a portion, take a look at the artifacts. The square looking things are a result of the compression of the picture. They will make it hard to do a good USM, as USM is going to want to sharpen those artifacts as well.

FWIW,

XO,

jedgar8585

The file was originally in Raw format. I converted it to jpg so I could post it here. What is USM? Should I save in another format other than JPG?


Thanks for the feedback. Much to learn!

XO-Studios wrote:

Also take a look at how you are saving your files and processing them, below is a blow up of a portion, take a look at the artifacts. The square looking things are a result of the compression of the picture. They will make it hard to do a good USM, as USM is going to want to sharpen those artifacts as well.

FWIW,

XO,

ltdesignphoto

The best thing in the future is to open your apeture all the way and adjust your shutter speed accordingly. Also find your focus point. The edge of the moon is a little blurry. Focus on the rim of the moon and then compose your shot. It takes some practice but you'll get it. You can also use a larger apeture and a two stop slower shutter speed to get the moon brighter. It's a little dark. Great start though.

jedgar8585

Thanks, I'll try that as well, as soon as these storm clouds move out!

ltdesignphoto wrote:

The best thing in the future is to open your apeture all the way and adjust your shutter speed accordingly. Also find your focus point. The edge of the moon is a little blurry. Focus on the rim of the moon and then compose your shot. It takes some practice but you'll get it. You can also use a larger apeture and a two stop slower shutter speed to get the moon brighter. It's a little dark. Great start though.

Shay Stephens

USM stands for UnSharp Mask
It is a method of increasing the apparent sharpness of a photo. It takes a little time to get used to the settings, but the results are very pleasing when done right.

Some info on USM can be had here:
http://www.sonycams.com/more.php?id=38_0_1_0_M

jedgar8585 wrote:

The file was originally in Raw format. I converted it to jpg so I could post it here. What is USM? Should I save in another format other than JPG?


Thanks for the feedback. Much to learn!

photodoug

ltdesignphoto wrote:

The best thing in the future is to open your apeture all the way and adjust your shutter speed accordingly. Also find your focus point. The edge of the moon is a little blurry. Focus on the rim of the moon and then compose your shot. It takes some practice but you'll get it. You can also use a larger apeture and a two stop slower shutter speed to get the moon brighter. It's a little dark. Great start though.

I'm confused: you adjust your focus between the edge or center of an object 385,000km away? Wouldn't you set all camera lenses to focus on infinity?

Allen

photodoug wrote:

I'm confused: you adjust your focus between the edge or center of an object 385,000km away? Wouldn't you set all camera lenses to focus on infinity?

I think cameras with auto focus are designed to go slightly beyond infinty. This enables them to
oscillate back and forth for best contrast/focus. If not, the lens would just slam against the stops
at infinity. So if in manual turn to infinity and back off some till best focus.

jedgar8585

Thanks, I'll read up on it. I'm going to have to post some other (Down to earth) pics also to get feedback on those. From what I understand, astrophotography is rather difficult.

Shay Stephens wrote:

It is a method of increasing the apparent sharpness of a photo. It takes a little time to get used to the settings, but the results are very pleasing when done right.

Some info on USM can be had here:
http://www.sonycams.com/more.php?id=38_0_1_0_M

XO-Studios

jedgar8585 wrote:

The file was originally in Raw format. I converted it to jpg so I could post it here. What is USM? Should I save in another format other than JPG?


Thanks for the feedback. Much to learn!

On your conversions and your saving avoid JPG with low quality settings (lower than 10) or doing work and saving to JPG multiple times. Best method is to go from RAW => TIFF or PSD (Photoshop) and dont save to JPG until you are done processing.

FWIW,


XO,

pathfinder

jedgar8585 wrote:

I'm looking for feed back as to how and improve pictures like this one. I'm new to DSLR photography and I'm eager to learn! I'm using an Olympus Evolt E-300. The settings were 150mm, f22, 1/8 sec shutter and ISO 100. I cropped this image to 640 x 480.

How much was this image cropped?? A 150mm lens is a very short focal length to hope to capture lunar detail with. I am not sure of the exact comparison between 35mm and the Evolt system, but this must be a significant crop. What percentage of the camera's sensor was covered by the Moons surface area? And what was your ISO?

The moon is a sunlit object and needs to be exposed manually at appropriate f stop and shutter speeds for daylight lit subjects. The following moon image was shot with a 1DMkll at f16 1/200th sec ISO 200. Note those settings - sunny 16 rule - f16 1/ISO

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800mm lens ( 400mm+2x) slightly cropped - tripod mounted AF point actuated on moons image edge

jedgar8585

150mm is the best lens I have right now. Someone at my office was trying to explain the ISO rule to me. Your explaination made the light bulb over my head turn on! Thanks.

This is a very confusing but enjoyable hobby. Everyone here has many good recommendations. I will be trying them all out. - John

pathfinder wrote:

How much was this image cropped?? A 150mm lens is a very short focal length to hope to capture lunar detail with. I am not sure of the exact comparison between 35mm and the Evolt system, but this must be a significant crop. What percentage of the camera's sensor was covered by the Moons surface area? And what was your ISO?

The moon is a sunlit object and needs to be exposed manually at appropriate f stop and shutter speeds for daylight lit subjects. The following moon image was shot with a 1DMkll at f16 1/200th sec ISO 200. Note those settings - sunny 16 rule - f16 1/ISO

---

800mm lens ( 400mm+2x) slightly cropped - tripod mounted AF point actuated on moons image edge

ScottMcLeod

pathfinder wrote:

How much was this image cropped?? A 150mm lens is a very short focal length to hope to capture lunar detail with. I am not sure of the exact comparison between 35mm and the Evolt system, but this must be a significant crop. What percentage of the camera's sensor was covered by the Moons surface area? And what was your ISO?

The moon is a sunlit object and needs to be exposed manually at appropriate f stop and shutter speeds for daylight lit subjects. The following moon image was shot with a 1DMkll at f16 1/200th sec ISO 200. Note those settings - sunny 16 rule - f16 1/ISO

---

800mm lens ( 400mm+2x) slightly cropped - tripod mounted AF point actuated on moons image edge

150mm on an E-Volt is the equivalent of 300mm on a regular camera. (2x Crop factor)

pathfinder

ScottMcLeod wrote:

150mm on an E-Volt is the equivalent of 300mm on a regular camera. (2x Crop factor)

Thanks - that's very good to know. Do all of the 4/3s system lenses keep this same relationship to standard 35mm lenses then? Effectively 2x as long??