M97 and M108

[RMcCallum]

Hello,

This is my first ever attempt at cosmic sketching, any tips or tricks would be much appreciated.

I have no scanner, so had to photograph and then invert as a result my skies are grey

[RikM]

That is a very nice sketch, and a cracking field of view. Did you need a filter for M97?

[RMcCallum]

Nope, no filter.

Just a moment perfect of conditions, no wind, dark skies and good seeing.

[DonRemus]

Nice sketch mate. A scanner really helps though. I just started sketching too and had loads of tips on here in my first sketches thread - really helped me

Looking forward to more

Gary

[RMcCallum]

Thank you, at the moment my sketches are a bit sparce. Hopefully the clock/spider method will help me add the fainter stars and some depth.

[Mike73]

Thats two very good first sketches, well done!

I usually just take a few different exposures of my sketch and pick the best one which I then open up in Photoshop, give it a quick tweak with Curves to try and get the contrast and object brightness looking correct, then its resized for the web and saved.

When I first started I used a scanner but found the auto settings on the scanner software way to harsh with the contrast, you could play around with the scanner exposure settings but I find it quicker to use a camera.

[RMcCallum]

Thank you.

Just had a mess around with the curves, much easier and better that previous touch up attempts thanks.