ZapperZ's Great Outdoors Photo Contest

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The discussion centers around sharing and appreciating outdoor photography, particularly highlighting scenic locations like Moxie Falls and Bash Bish Falls. Participants share personal experiences and memories associated with these places, noting the increase in visitors and the beauty of nature. Photographers showcase their work, including stunning images of waterfalls, autumn landscapes, and foggy scenes, sparking admiration and encouraging others to contribute their own photos. Technical discussions arise regarding photography techniques, such as bracketing for exposure and scanning slides to digital formats. The thread fosters a sense of community among nature lovers and photographers, with a focus on the beauty of outdoor environments and the joy of capturing them through photography.
  • #331
Managed to get this just as the clouds started rolling in:

[PLAIN]http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/4392/dsc8390.jpg

The contrast is much higher than usual: the lunar surface is nearly Lambertian, which is why it does not look like a round sphere but a flat disk. Put another way, the brightness is very 'flat', resulting in a low-contrast image. However, since during a full moon there's no terminus to worry about, I can stretch the contrast out a lot more than usual, and this image is the result.

This one's going in the portfolio...
 
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  • #332
Andy Resnick said:
Managed to get this just as the clouds started rolling in:

[PLAIN]http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/4392/dsc8390.jpg

The contrast is much higher than usual: the lunar surface is nearly Lambertian, which is why it does not look like a round sphere but a flat disk. Put another way, the brightness is very 'flat', resulting in a low-contrast image. However, since during a full moon there's no terminus to worry about, I can stretch the contrast out a lot more than usual, and this image is the result.

This one's going in the portfolio...

Andy, tears flow everytime I have looked at the image. It's as if I have escaped to gaze adrift
in a captured moment of time. I will sleep as a reflection in the shadow of this moon.

Thank you.:smile: So very kind of you to share it.
 
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  • #333
ViewsofMars said:
Andy, tears flow everytime I have looked at the image. It's as if I have escaped to gaze adrift
in a captured moment of time. I will sleep as a reflection in the shadow of this moon.

Thank you.:smile: So very kind of you to share it.

Those are very kind words- thank you.
 
  • #334
Couldn't sleep last night- too hot.

Fortunately, even though there was light haze and clouds, I was still able to take a nice shot of the moon (at 3am...):

[PLAIN]http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/8360/48313414.jpg

A lot of cameras and image processing programs have 'sharpen' filters which are based on something called an 'unsharp mask'- basically, the image is slightly blurred, and then the blurred image is kinda-sorta subtracted from the original, which has the effect of amplifying regions of high contrast (edges, for example).

An alternate method of processing is 'deconvolution', which essentially divides the (blurry) image by the point spread function. Here's the results I got deconvolving the above image. I took a small region and blew it up 400% to more clearly see the improvement. Here's the original-

[PLAIN]http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/5696/22crop.jpg

And the same region after deconvolving:

[PLAIN]http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/3834/deconvoluted22crop.jpg

There's a clear increase in contrast, even through the two small craters on the upper left seem to be slightly more 'rounded'. That small isolated projection is about 5 miles across and 1 mile high (according to google's moon map), which also gives an idea of the angle of sunlight-I estimate 10 degrees, the sun is very low on the moon's horizon.

Edit: Here's the effect of 'sharpen'/unsharp mask

[PLAIN]http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/236/22sharpen.jpg

This looks awful- the jpg compression artifacts are amplified, resulting in a harsh, blocky image (IMO).
 
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  • #335
Spent a few days backpacking and peakbagging in the beautiful Wind River Mountains of Wyoming. This is sunset from camp #2 by Island Lake:

35cq0oy.jpg
 
  • #336
Beautiful!
 
  • #337
I'd love to camp there! It might be hard to get me to leave.
 
  • #338
This is the result after a full lunar cycle:

[PLAIN]http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/1682/topyp.jpg

There are still a few gaps, but I have to wait until the sun sets earlier and rises later in order to fill them in- hopefully October and November will have decent weather.

This image is about 50 MP, and the 5 x 5 and 6 x 6 montages (I haven't decided which will look better) will be 80+ MP, large enough for a 4' x 4' 300 dpi print.

http://www.largeformatposters.com/

Stay tuned...
 
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  • #339
Wow! I love it! :biggrin: Andy, I've got to buy a camera like you have.
Everytime I look at those moon images . . . I feel like I'm drifting in
space. There's a wave of "Ah, I'm at peace in the world" ~ something
like that. Perhaps it's the black and white that is calming with the
unfolding of the moon. This series of yours is spectacular! Thanks.
 
  • #340
Thanks! As for the camera, the secret is the *lens*- there's lots of people here who can help you pick a lens that most suits your needs/desires.

One thing I've learned is that 80% of the cost of equipment is driven by the final 20% of performance. The converse is true as well- if you are willing to give up 20% of performance (for this lens it was autofocusing, very-high-order aberration correction, and some vignetting), you can save 80% of the cost.

To be sure, I personally didn't pay for my imaging equipment. I'm fortunate that this is part of my job, and I've been able to assemble a first-rate imaging lab primarily with startup funds, donated/scavenged components, and patience. Hopefully by the Spring everything will be in place for students to start working with these tools.
 
  • #341
Alternately, you might want to explore what digiscoping is.
 
  • #342
Andy Resnick said:
Thanks- for the praise and the links!
Equipment: Sony a850 camera, Nikon 400mm f/2.8 w/ 2x teleconverter. Image was acquired at full aperture (that is, 800mm f/5.6), 1/60 s exposure ISO 100.

and

Andre said:
Alternately, you might want to explore what digiscoping is.

Thanks Andy and Andre for a wealth of information.
I’m thinking about participating in
“The International Observe the Moon Night!”
The 2011 event is on October 8th.:biggrin:
http://observethemoonnight.org/

I often frequent a local observatory to take a peek at that old moon.:wink:

I thought I'd share this with you and other members:
Why the Moon is important for Solar System Science
Submitted to
The Inner Planets Panel, NRC Decadal Survey for the Planetary Sciences Division,
Science Mission Directorate, NASA.
http://lunarscience.arc.nasa.gov/pdf/WhytheMoon.pdf
 
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  • #343
uvala.jpg


Having a great time :smile:
 
  • #344
Nice Borek, good to see you back. Croatia?
 
  • #345
Yes, Croatia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vrboska) - but we are not back yet :smile: We should be in Warsaw around mid August. I may be able to post some pictures in a few days, on our way back we are spending three days in Budapest and we should have WiFi in the room.
 
  • #346
Borek said:
Having a great time :smile:

Nice!
 
  • #347
Borek said:
Yes, Croatia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vrboska) - but we are not back yet :smile: We should be in Warsaw around mid August. I may be able to post some pictures in a few days, on our way back we are spending three days in Budapest and we should have WiFi in the room.

Lovely! Where St Mary's is? ( an old landmark)

I really like the lunar cycle and the building in the other thread, too, Andy.
 
  • #348
fuzzyfelt said:
I really like the lunar cycle and the building in the other thread, too, Andy.

Thanks! When the lunar cycle montage is complete, I'll make the full-size image available (somehow...)
 
  • #349
[PLAIN]http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/3907/ocean1b.jpg
 
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  • #350
[PLAIN]http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/8480/dsc9246y.jpg
 
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  • #351
For Andre- cheers!
[PLAIN]http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/7487/montagegj.jpg (1/3 size, nasty jpeg compression artifacts, no green flash here, either)
 
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  • #354
Andy Resnick said:
For Andre- cheers!

(1/3 size, nasty jpeg compression artifacts, no green flash here, either)

oops- I meant 1/30 scale. Here's a 1:1 crop of the final frame-

[PLAIN]http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/9158/dsc93001.jpg
 
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  • #355
Milky Way:
[PLAIN]http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/9995/resultofdsc9559.jpg

I took 6 or so 10 minute exposures with the 15mm, wide open ISO 100, and added them together. A couple Air Force fellows have been flying all night; you can see them here (50% scale) as the red dots:

[PLAIN]http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/464/resultofdsc95592.jpg
 
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  • #356
Another great night- the clouds moved off right after sunset, and a thunderstorm stayed right off the coast:

Milky Way:
[PLAIN]http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/9127/dsc9867y.jpg

Thunderstorm (thanks to KrisOhn for the idea)

[PLAIN]http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/1363/dsc9883x.jpg

[PLAIN]http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/6933/dsc9884x.jpg
 
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  • #357
Hey, c'mon.

I'm a science nerd.

What does the term "outdoors" mean?
 
  • #358
Since there a few of us trying astrophotography, I thought I'd share how I turned this image:

[PLAIN]http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8072/beforehy.jpg

into this:

[PLAIN]http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/4625/afterja.jpg

The original image is a jpg straight off the camera, and was taken at ISO 1600 for 3 s (IIRC, I don't have the EXIF handy)- there's some contrast, but there's also a high background and a lot of noise from the ISO setting.

First, I split the colors into individual images, giving me 3 8-bit greyscale images, which I then converted to 16-bit images. This means I now have access to an additional 65280 grey levels by amplifying the signal. To maximize the new dynamic range, I squared the grey values of all the pixels. As opposed to simply multiplying by a constant, squaring the values increases the contrast. The next step is to reassemble the color image, but the images must first be converted back to an 8-bit image. My program (ImageJ) simply uses whatever 8-bits are being displayed, and provides a control window to allow me to adjust the brightness and contrast of the displayed image. Then, when I convert the image to 8 bits, the program replaces the actual 16-bit value with the displayed 8-bit value. Simply color combine the images and you're done.
 
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  • #359
WOW, Andy! That's fantastic!
 
  • #360
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