B&W RGB?

[Alienfox]

I am just about now getting myself sorted with my new EQ5 Synscan and I will be trying to get some images as soon as the clouds disappear.

My question is this, I have both video & DSLR cameras, Can I shoot video and break it down to B&W? Do I need to? If I shoot with my DSLR in colour (its not modded yet to remove the IR filter) can I break that down to RGB? or. Do i just shoot in B&W?

I know there are a lot of questions but I am getting a little confused when reading so many forum posts and YouTube videos.

Thanks

[xtreemchaos]

hi mate,its really down to you,all what you have mentioned is possable,i shoot in colour and then if needed convert to bnw, it all boils down to how you want to do it and what your happy with. clear skys charl.

[swag72]

Not sure why you would want to shoot in B&W with your DSLR? Do you have a reason for this? I ask as they are colour cameras and so you shoot as per normal, but do use a RAW setting and not jpeg.

[Alienfox]

Not sure why you would want to shoot in B&W with your DSLR? Do you have a reason for this? I ask as they are colour cameras and so you shoot as per normal, but do use a RAW setting and not jpeg.

I read somewhere that shooting b&w then break down the channels into RGB, or have I got that wrong? Not sure how that works?

[swag72]

I think you may have confused that with what you do with a mono CCD that only shoots in mono (with filters) and then you combine the channels.

Shoot as per normal with your DSLR

[ollypenrice]

Even if you choose B and W mode your camera shoots as a colour camera. You cannot compare this with the luminance shot with a mono cam because a mono cam is capturing all colours at once on all its pixels in luminance. (It just can't differentiate between them.) The colour filter on each of your OSC camera's pixels will still block 2/3 of the light (ie the two colours they exclude.)

You may also be thinking of a processing technique (a good one) in which you process the image in two different ways then combine them. You process the RGB as a colour image, going for low colour noise, low other noise, low resolution of detail and high colour saturation. You then take a 'synthetic lum' out of the original colour image. This will be greyscale image which you process for sharp detail, high contrast and on which you may use noise reduction only on the fainter parts. You would then apply this as a luminance layer to the processed colour layer. (This is how it's done in mono cam LRGB processing too.)

Olly

[Alienfox]

OK, that makes sense Olly. Got so much to learn, considering i have been a photographer for over 40 years. (bring back film all is forgiven)

[Robp]

That is one of the things I love about this hobby, I'm always learning new things.

It also helps having a great resource to turn to such as this.

Keep it simple. Shoot in RAW and in colour with your DSLR and learn to take calibration frames correctly would be my suggestions for a start.

Use the data you collect to learn some basic processing skills and voila, welcome to the time and money pit of Astrophotography (the darker side? ). Most importantly though, have fun!

Out of interest, what sort of targets do you intend to image?

[Scott]

OK, that makes sense Olly. Got so much to learn, considering i have been a photographer for over 40 years. (bring back film all is forgiven)

Film hasn't gone anywhere. the option is there if you want it but I'm struggling to see why you'd want to . 

I always assumed that my knowledge of terrestial photography might put me in good stead for AP. I soon learned I basically needed to unlearn so much. Theres soooo much to learn but hey, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it

[Alienfox]

Film hasn't gone anywhere. the option is there if you want it but I'm struggling to see why you'd want to . 

I always assumed that my knowledge of terrestial photography might put me in good stead for AP. I soon learned I basically needed to unlearn so much. Theres soooo much to learn but hey, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it

Scott, I still shoot all my film stuff in B&W, I use the college darkroom for processing and prints etc, I would not attempt film for astro, first scope purchased in October last year, now have 5, may get rid of 3 after new year, but although it does seem a money pit I am really enjoying this new challenge.

Buy the way, thanks to everyone else who came back with suggestions.

[Zakalwe]

I always assumed that my knowledge of terrestial photography might put me in good stead for AP. I soon learned I basically needed to unlearn so much. Theres soooo much to learn but hey, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it

One of my mantras is that knowledge of terrestrial photography actually hinders learning AP. The techniques are so different, in places counterintuitive, that I feel you are better off knowing nothing about photography.

[ollypenrice]

One of my mantras is that knowledge of terrestrial photography actually hinders learning AP. The techniques are so different, in places counterintuitive, that I feel you are better off knowing nothing about photography.

I know next to nothing about terrestrial photography and nothing about digital terrestrial.  I don't think it has been a disadvantage in trying to learn AP. A few things, like depth of field, are worth understanding for problem solving but, like the others, I think AP is AP. F ratio, for instance, is a poisoned chalice in AP. Is it faster? 'Yes' is not the right answer. The right answer is, 'it depends...'

Olly