Astrophotography workshop - 26th July 2014

jfSDAS

hi all,

Hope you had a nice weekend.

Apologies to the moderators for posting this notice here and not as part of the Events thread ... just wanted to alert people to an upcoming workshop which may book out quickly.

Scopes and Space are holding a FREE astrophotography workshop with Irish astrophotographer Tom O’Donoghue on Saturday, July 26th. Please book your seat by sending Carl O'Beirnes an email at sales@scopesandspace.ie to guarantee your booking. I believe the class is limited to 30 people so get in touch with Carl asap if interesting in attending.

Tom has been an astrophotographer for 9 years. He began imaging with an 8 inch SCT and DSLR from the suburbs of Dublin in 2005. These days he uses 4 inch Takahashi refractors coupled with full frame CCD cameras from the South of France, and shortly again from the Wicklow mountains. Tom spent 3 years imaging from the Almanzorra valley in the south of Spain, where the weather allowed for the many nights of data needed to build up the large scale mosaics that is favoured style, wide field imaging.

In 2013 Tom was the Runner up in the deep sky category at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, Astronomy Photographer of the Year. He was also the Overall Runner up in Spain's Las Palmas Observatory Spain Imaging Competition 2013.

Tom held 2 exhibitions in Dublin in 2010 and 2012. He has also given various talks to camera clubs, and has exhibited his large size framed prints at Star Parties in Ireland.

This will be an intensive one day astrophotography course. Please feel free to bring along your own images and we will show you the best way of processing them.

The workshop includes:

DSLR Settings:

• RAW Mod
• Manual Focusing with Live View / Auto focusing with Live view
• Set ISO / F ratio
• Set Exposure lengths
• Using a Cable release.
• PC / Laptop control
• Downloading your images from the camera
  CCD Settings:

• Cool the camera if the settings allow
• Select a region of a sub frame for focusing.
• Focusing live view.
• Setting a sequence in the software.

Calibration Frames:

• What is a dark frame? DSLR and Long Exposure NR.
• Taking dark frames. Same exposure and same temperature.
• What is a flat frame? Flat box and Luminescence screens.
• Taking flats at the same focus.
• Keep the ADU to approx. 30-50%
• Bias Frames.

Pre-Processing:

• Different types of software available.
• Stacking the Darks with Median settings- Master.
• Stacking the Flats with Average settings- Master Flat.
• Making the L, R, G, B stacks. FIT - Dark / Flat.
• Delayering CCD / DSLR Colour images
• Aligning RGB to Luminance in Astroart

Processing:

• Screen settings in pixinsite and Photoshop. Adobe RGB
• STF in pixinsite. Linear verses Non Linear mode.
• Crop both images to match pixinsite.
• DBE / ABE in pixinsite. Gradient Xterminator in Photoshop.
• Histogram in pixinsite. Masked stretch in pixinsite.
• Levels Curves Photoshop. Flat to finish, Dim, Mid, and Bright zones.
• Contrast boosts Luminance. Micro curve adjustments.
• Masked sharpness for Luminance. Object masks to blend in bright areas that were sharpened.
• Noise Reduction and Smoothing. Pixinsite and Photoshop.
• HDR pixinsite and Photoshop with masks.
• RGB Background Neutralisation, Colour calibration pixinsite verses Colour Balance Levels and Curves Photoshop.
• Masked Saturation pixinsite and Photoshop.
• LRGB combination. Pixinsite and layering in Photoshop.


Processing Tips:

• Stacking Star Trail images in Photoshop to show through each layer.
• Star Minimising pixinsite morphical Transformation v Star Min in Photoshop. Star minimum for Blue channel if your scope isn't an APO.
• Correcting non round stars in Photoshop.
• Image Clean up. Pixels and colour range select and remove.
• Purple Halo removal. Noels Actions, or colour range select.
• Shadows/ Highlights.

And much more tips and tricks on the day.

So please join us on Saturday the 26th of July,

Time 12.00 – 17.00.

Venue – Scopes and Space Retail Store, Airside Business Park, Swords, Co. Dublin.