That talk with my dad about star photos hit me hard

He mentioned how the Hubble deep field image is just a tiny empty patch of sky. Said there are more galaxies in that photo than grains of sand on earth. Then he asked why I only take pictures of bright, easy stuff like the moon. It made me realize I was barely scratching the surface. Anyone else feel stuck taking the same basic photos?

3 comments

3 Comments

shane_bell6d ago

Damn, that conversation with your dad sounds like it really stuck with you. I've been there too, honestly. For me, it clicked when I realized I was just pointing my camera at whatever was brightest and easiest, like the moon or a streetlight. What helped me break out of that was forcing myself to shoot one "hard" thing each week. Like, pick a dim galaxy or a faint nebula you can barely see, and just try to capture it. Don't worry if it comes out bad at first. The whole point is getting used to the challenge. Another thing I did was watch a bunch of tutorials on stacking images. That was the game changer for me. You can take a bunch of shaky, noisy photos and combine them into something way better. It's not as hard as it sounds, I promise. Have you ever tried shooting something like Andromeda? It's actually pretty bright, but it's not the moon. It might be a good next step without jumping into the super faint stuff right away.

robinp896d ago

Yeah that "pointing at whatever was brightest" part hit close to home... my first attempt at astrophotography was basically just a blurry photo of a streetlight, thought I was Ansel Adams or something. @shane_bell Andromeda sounds like a good idea though, maybe I'll try that instead of my usual strategy of aiming at the brightest light pollution I can find.

phoenix_grant6d ago

Kinda funny you mention @shane_bell's point about the streetlight because honestly that was basically my first attempt too except it was a security light at a gas station. Actually I think you're mixing up who said what about Andromeda though, pretty sure shane_bell was the one suggesting it and robinp89 was the one laughing about the streetlight. But yeah the stacking thing sounds way less intimidating than I thought.