The Big Dipper

naiku · Apr 17, 2017

A few days ago I picked up a Tokina ATX-PRO 11-16mm. The goal being to try my hand at astrophotography, image stacking etc. I am having some odd issue with Lightroom and Photoshop (it keeps telling me I need to update the camera raw plug in, even though according to creative cloud it is up to date, additionally for some reason when I merge from Lightroom into Photoshop, it is not aligning the images, but making a huge weird looking mess........ subject for another day). I am also not sure if it is having a hard time because the pictures are pretty dark.

So, for now, I just want to get some critique on the pictures I am taking. I attached a single image, but can provide a Google Drive link if someone wants to download the entire set (35 photos) and help explain how to get the images looking good. These were taken at 16mm, f/2.8, ISO200 and an exposure of 8 seconds.

Looks like the image size is too large to upload, here is a link to the image:

001.NEF

Hopefully that works, Thanks for any feedback.

KmH · Apr 17, 2017

It isn't the image size that's to large, it's the FILE size that's to large.
For electronic display you can reduce the file size without a loss of image quality.
Don't change the image resolution (pixel dimensions).
The print resolution (ppi or pixels per inch) has no meaning for electronic display and can be any number.

naiku · Apr 21, 2017

Yes, sorry file size.....

Anyways, I uploaded a jpg version of the image linked in my OP. Thanks for any pointers, critique, ways to get the most out of the lens etc.

BananaRepublic · Apr 22, 2017

For astro shoot in raw as you have done, Re: original post, I assume you have the basics down tripod etc. Depending on what the image contains you might try bringing down the temperature to around 3000 K in editing software. Do this and see what you notice about the image, are stars in focus etc, you should have this done before you take the image/ images on the night.

As for the image you posted I cant tell you anything as its just a black photo, this is why you need to edit afterward. If you are having difficulties with lightroom/photoshop not working correctly get on to adobe straight away and hound them till the fix it as your paying for as you describe a faulty service

naiku · Apr 23, 2017

Yep, using a tripod and an intervalometer to take the photos. I uploaded an edited version here, I had to increase the exposure in Lightroom along with making some edits to noise reduction and highlights.

Waiting on a reply from Adobe about the Camera RAW plug-in, not sure if that is what is causing me issues importing to Photoshop or not, but figure I should rule it out first.

BananaRepublic · Apr 24, 2017

naiku said:
Yep, using a tripod and an intervalometer to take the photos. I uploaded an edited version here, I had to increase the exposure in Lightroom along with making some edits to noise reduction and highlights.

Waiting on a reply from Adobe about the Camera RAW plug-in, not sure if that is what is causing me issues importing to Photoshop or not, but figure I should rule it out first.

What you've done is better but by incising the exposure you lose the edges to to light pollution that was present on the night,yooou may not have seen it but the camera picked it up. Instead try lowering the temperature in lightroom which might lesson this and perhaps make the stars stand out more.

Ideally you should go to a place where there is no light solution to start with.

having dealt with Adobe support in the past, the only way to get them to fix something is hound them everyday until they do it, go onto there chat facility and describe your problem. I my case I did that over aa three month period and it took me posting on their Facebook page daily before they resolved my problem, resolved it by giving me a full refund.

naiku · Apr 24, 2017

I actually did try to lower the temperature at first, but it makes no real difference to making the stars stand out any more than they already did. The only way I could get the additional detail was by increasing the exposure, which did seem somewhat backward to me as I was doing it! There is not that much light pollution out here, at least after my neighbors turn off their outside light.... Once the weather clears up I may try again, but change some settings on the camera to see if that gives me any improvement. An earlier set of photos I took had a longer exposure, but a little too long as I ended up with small trails. It also picked up an orange glow from a town 8 miles away which was a little disappointing.

Figured out the Adobe issue, it is a known bug, so fairly straight forward. The image stacking is not working because there is not enough detail for Photoshop to grab onto and align the images.

Thanks for the replies.