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Smartphone photography settings

Dannomiss
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Dannomiss

Dannomiss

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Hi all

I wonder if anyone can help. I have been trying to take pictures of Saturn and Jupiter the last few nights which has failed. I have a huwai mate p30 phone so has manual settings for photography, but I can't seem to get it focused, or even the planets, recognizable. They are just white, blurred etc. Is this just a practice thing... or will light pollution effect it etc?

How do people go about taking photos. I have an adapter that attaches to eyepiece, so I am not hand holding, but I am getting pretty frustrated. Any help would be amazing!

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DaveL59

DaveL59

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in the manual controls are you able to set the focus one the phone? Ideally you want this set to infinity, then its a case of aligning to the eyepiece so the image is centred and at the right distance to account for eye relief of the EP and tweaking the exposure settings to suit. Can be quite fiddly especially if the mount doesn't track the object as you then have limited time to fiddle with settings before having to recapture the target by adjusting the mount aim.

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Dannomiss

Dannomiss

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56 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

in the manual controls are you able to set the focus one the phone? Ideally you want this set to infinity,

Yes I can get infinity on the MF. I aligned eye piece up and tested in the day, which I know is very different (photo below) but when it comes to night time, I really don't know what I am doing wrong... FB_IMG_1592615944584.thumb.jpg.b6e7d8a0a2656d9ce78b8131b5ddc0ad.jpg

Screenshot_20200622_124801_com.huawei.camera.jpg

IMG_20200621_205219.jpg

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Dannomiss

Dannomiss

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53 minutes ago, MarkAR said:

The blurring could be atmospheric distortion. Take a short video to see if at some point it clears. If it doesn't then I think your focus is out, try a Bhatinov mask.

Even on video it doesn't seem to capture correctly. the planet is just a white fuzzy ball

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Stu

Stu

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I would play around with the focus to see where it ends up sharpest. With my iPhone it is not necessarily at infinity, I guess depending on how the scope is focussed.

Also, your ISO looks high and shutter speed too long so it is over exposed. Try reducing these down and you should start to see some detail.

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DaveL59

DaveL59

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as Stu says, worth playing with focus and exposure settings. Your image does seem a bit overexposed so tuning down the ISO or increasing shutter speed may help, perhaps try exposure bracketting to see if that returns a better shot and work from there.

I struggle to set focus well enough since I don't wear my reading glasses normally when using the scope or binos. Hence when I try taking pics I find focus a little off, took me a while to twig to the fact that I'm actually setting the scope slightly off focus for the camera/phone so I'll hopefully make up a bhatinov mask at some stage to try improve things. I doubt wearing my glasses I'll get any more accuracy so that seems the best way to go really.

 

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Stu

Stu

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22 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

I struggle to set focus well enough since I don't wear my reading glasses normally when using the scope or binos. Hence when I try taking pics I find focus a little off, took me a while to twig to the fact that I'm actually setting the scope slightly off focus for the camera/phone so I'll hopefully make up a bhatinov mask at some stage to try improve things. I doubt wearing my glasses I'll get any more accuracy so that seems the best way to go really.

That’s a very good point. I always try to focus the scope wearing my glasses (I’m short sighted), so that it is correct before putting the phone in place.

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Dannomiss

Dannomiss

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1 hour ago, Stu said:

I would play around with the focus to see where it ends up sharpest. With my iPhone it is not necessarily at infinity, I guess depending on how the scope is focussed.

Also, your ISO looks high and shutter speed too long so it is over exposed. Try reducing these down and you should start to see some detail.

I have just downloaded a much better video app which has more ISO and EV settings for video, so will try that. 

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Dannomiss

Dannomiss

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12 minutes ago, Stu said:

That’s a very good point. I always try to focus the scope wearing my glasses (I’m short sighted), so that it is correct before putting the phone in place.

Yeah I am short sighted as well and wear glasses, so this maybe an issue too. Time and practice will tell

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DaveL59

DaveL59

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i'm the opposite, long sighted. Yet to remember to put the glasses on to focus, one day... when I'm up to late night observing again, these days its way too light and I just toddle off to bed instead ;) 

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dd999

dd999

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Don't know if this helps but here's Jupiter using a P30 (although the Pro model) - I'll try and find the settings I used

I just grabbed a screenshot to upload, so the quality isn't as good (just a 12kb screenshot) - but gives you an idea

 

 

jupiter.jpg

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dd999

dd999

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Try experimenting with these settings:

  • ISO = 320
  • Shutter speed = 1/17s
  • EV = 0

You can't set to infinity on the standard camera app (that I'm aware off) but you want to lower down the ISO with a reasonably fast shutter speed. You won't capture Jupiter's main four moons, as you've reduced the light intake, so you'll need two photos (one at a higher ISO's to capture the moons) and then post process.

I think this was just holding the phone to the telescope's eyepiece, as I was playing around with the settings, but gives you an idea 

 

Edited by dd999
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AstroNebulee

AstroNebulee

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On 22/06/2020 at 14:23, Stu said:

I would play around with the focus to see where it ends up sharpest. With my iPhone it is not necessarily at infinity, I guess depending on how the scope is focussed.

Also, your ISO looks high and shutter speed too long so it is over exposed. Try reducing these down and you should start to see some detail.

Agree here the iso and exposure look quite high just alter them a bit and should clear it up but Jupiter is low down so lots of atmospheric soup to get through 

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