Film image of Orion and part of Taurus (colourful)

[EA2007]

Hey kids,

Entering an image in for you all to see. Taken with a Canon EOS Film SLR @ ISO 400 over 30 seconds, mounted simply on a tripod. Image looks slightly grainy when at full size but this may be due to my scanner. Image taken in Autumn 2006, South Wales.

[Wedge]

There is LOADS of detail there for 30 seconds!

That's fantastic!

[Andrew*]

It's a great capture for just 30 seconds. For I hope you don't mind, but I had a little (okay, pretty big!) play with it

(click to enlarge)

I've been pretty harsh about it and unfortunately lost quite a lot of the Hyades in favour of Orion :?. I used focus magic to reduce the stars a bit, then photoshop curves, contrast and levels tweaking to blacken the sky but retain the fainter stars.

Andrew

[EA2007]

I don't mind at all-mess on as much as you like

I tweaked it a bit myself and got similar results to yourself, it came out darker and the stars were not as prominent. It looked more digitalised, but I prefer the original film image as its so different from the 'sharp' dark results you can get from using a DSLR and processing on a computer.

Anyway, enjoy! Thanks for your coments. I have another one of Taurus I took a few seconds after, but I like the trees being in this shot.

[The Warthog]

I like your original, EA. It's nice to see film once in a while.

[Cloudwatcher]

I agree with EA and WH, there is a certain something missing in a digital version of this type of picture. Perhaps it is the grain that adds 'atmosphere'.

I suppose you have to ask yourself "Do I want brighter stars at the expense of a beautifully composed image?

To darken or not to darken. That is the question. :? I had a try at a compromise,not entirely successful but then compromises rarely are. I hope that at least some of the original intent is still there EA.

Anyway,thanks for providing the subject for a very interesting tea-break!

Cheers

CW

(click as usual)

[EA2007]

Thanks for your comments.

Its probably the best film image I have.

Currently a third year student of Astronomy and Space at uni in wales and I have about 20 film images posted all over my walls, I took some at home (North Yorkshire) in Winter 2006/7 hoping to get great images of Ursa Major + Orion etc, but they came out fairly blurry and the sky was a faded blue/grey colour-something I need to work on I guess, but then again I was out in -2 degrees wearing a shirt after being for a meal with my family (goes to show-astronomy at anytime!).

Probably get some higher quality film and try some prime focus stuff when I am home next.