Widefield with a "non-slr" digicam

[hairymunky]

Tried the other night to do a widefield image with my canon powershot a40. It is a "non-dslr"

has no bulb feature. but I gave it a go. I imaged an area that contained M45, with the

camera on manual, rated at approx ISO100, and a exposure time of 10secs. I used the

self-timer function to prevent shake, and took 6 shots, which I then tried to stack in

registax4 (on the wife's PC, can't get it to work on Linux!)...

Pitiful results below.. any comments/advice much appreciated

Graham

[FLO]

Try setting the mode dial to S, the ISO to 200 then select 15 seconds (the A40's longest exposure time).

Should make quite a difference

[geppetto]

As Steve says Graham, more exposure time needed and the highest ISO.

I know for sure that you can get a lot more detail because I took an image of Orion

with my son's camera (similar to yours) a year or so back.

[Caz]

Hi Graham,

I hope you don't mind me tatting with your image, but I just brought out a little more detail.

Caz

[gsjag]

Wow Caz! Just shows how much information our pictures can contain without us realising !

Gary

[Caz]

Just shows how much information our pictures can contain without us realising !

This is very true, its amazing what a little bit of twiddling can do...

Caz

[gsjag]

[hairymunky]

Hi Graham,

I hope you don't mind me tatting with your image, but I just brought out a little more detail.

Now that looks more like it

What's the secret...? I just sacked my images in registax and tried to use the waveletts,

but it's awkward on a laptop screen

[Caz]

Hi Graham,

I hope you don't mind me tatting with your image, but I just brought out a little more detail.

Now that looks more like it

What's the secret...? I just sacked my images in registax and tried to use the waveletts,

but it's awkward on a laptop screen

I dread anyone asking how it was done, I have to pretend I know what I'm talking about! but I'm pleased you liked your image! :thumbleft:

If you have access to editting software such as Adobe Photoshop, its simply a case of enhancing the details in your image, usual tricks of the trade are to 'Unsharp mask - sharpen image - brightness and contrast, sometimes exposure etc., it all depends on the image, and its subject. Most of these filters have sliding adjustment bars, so you can enhance as much or as little as you see fit... I could go into it further, but to begin with those should stand you in good stead...

Caz

[hairymunky]

Don't have photoshop, but have a "clone" called "The Gimp" - strangest name

ever for an image processing package!!!!! Will give it a twirl

Thanks Caz

[Greg]

What you could do is take a load of images and stack them.......

Say 30 or so and stack them in Deepsky Stacker (Free).

I'll get my coat!

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

In Registax, after stacking and stuff, on the wavelets page there's a histogram option. Move the right hand slider to the left to lighten the image, or use the gamma button and move the red dot in the middle of the line up and left.

Captain Chaos

[hairymunky]

... just like the settings on a monitor? I just give it a wee "tweak" until it looks

right? Will try it soon, as I'm in the middle of a reinstall after both PCs crashed because of a nasty

power-cut. Damn this blasted Weather... Doh!!

Actually it might be a while, as I've just realised I've lost all the images I took, so I'll need

to wait until its clear again(..!!!) to get some more