Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I returned to the Pinnacles last Friday to have another go at Comet A6 Lemmon before it vanishes for over a thousand years. I was joined by @Youssef_Ismail. The goal for me on this excursion was to capture better images from which to extract more detail from the ion tail. This has been a real learning experience for me taking me into realms of astrophotography processing I hadn’t explored yet.
I actually made the trek again Saturday night, but that is a tale for another time. Let’s just say it didn’t go as planned.
Specific Feedback
Any critique is welcome. I am especially interested in hearing from some of the more experienced astro photographers out there. I found blending the comet into the sky after processing for the comet detail to be extremely challenging.
Technical Details
Canon R5 with RF 100mm/2.8 Macro, Ioptron Skytracker pro
Comet 10x 30 sec at f 4.0, ISO 1600
FG Moonlight 30 sec., f4, ISO 800
Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker , processed in Photoshop
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Vision and Purpose:
Conceptual:
Emotional Impact and Mood:
Composition:
Balance and Visual Weight:
Depth and Dimension:
Color:
Lighting:
Processing:
Technical:
Paul,
You got some good detail in the comet’s ion tail. It is amazing to me how much of a difference results in the perspective of the land that just about 15 fifteen feet makes.
Beautiful image, Paul. You did a great job making this one.
Here’s a NASA site called Astronomy Picture of the Day. A new pic is posted every day and there is a huge archive of images from ground-based and space-based telescopes.
-P
Wow!! You had clear skies! I love the landscape and the light on it. The color balance is very believable. It probably wasn’t until after processing that you could see how much length in the tail you could resolve. Would have been nice to have more on top but quite forgivable that you didn’t.
I think the 100mm lens was a good choice, to get more pixels on the comet. It wasn’t very big or bright.
We’ve had nothing but clouds here and concentrated low in the SW where the comet was. Too frustrating. The tracker came down ahead of yesterday’s rain.
And I still haven’t processed my one halfway decent night’s images. Got a couple of starts and ran into speed bumps and glitches. Comets are challenging. Detail in the tail needs excellent optics, extremely clear dark skies and excellent tracking with maybe an hour of acquisition. And it needs the right comet – they are all remarkably different but this one does have some detail.
Using the portable tracker and dedicated stacking software is a great advantage and has revealed some of the detail in the tail. Even with my astro rig (640mm equiv), tracking with guiding and processing in PixInsight, there was limited detail.
Here’s a video with a basic PI workflow using this comet (and a much bigger scope and very clear dark skies): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1An92ffVsI&t=2s Canon raw files can be converted to be used in PI, but the use of black frames can be problematic with regular camera bodies. Try with and without.
