Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey — Firefly Trails.
I repeated the firefly trails image shoot from last night. The moon was still out (waxing crescent) and it was pretty bright. This time I set up my night time camera Nikon D810a with a 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 400, 105 mm, f/16, 240 sec) to take a series of 40 images. Note that I changed ISO, aperture, and exposure time. I also pre-focused the camera while it was still light outside. As before the raw images were processed with Capture One Pro and the composite image generated using Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum). This time the focus was better and I didn’t need to use and post processing focusing tools. I’ve also provided a slide show with enlarged images where the original image was separated into a (6 x 6 ) 36 image grid. Next time I will try with a camera that doesn’t have as high a resolution sensor.
Firefly Trails. Composite of 40 mages taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 400, 105 mm, f/16, 240 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, Photoshop CC, NIK Color Efex Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Daily Power Use (est 52 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (85.94 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. The power use is an estimate since there have been a number of data dropouts since Friday about noon. I am waiting on a response from Sense regarding the problem.
Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey — Firefly Trails.
I noticed that the fireflies are out. I haven’t done a firefly trails image since last year. It wasn’t be best conditions since the moon was out (waxing crescent) and it was pretty bright. I set up my night time camera Nikon D810a with a 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 1600, 105 mm, f/8, 120 sec) to take a series of 174 images. Even though I tried to manually focus the lens, I didn’t get it right. The images were processed with Capture One Pro and a composite created using Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum). There was a lot of out of focus blur. I tried both Focus Magic and the “Out of Focus Blur” tool within Photoshop. This helped but I still wasn’t happy. I then tried the new Topaz Sharpen-AI tool. This did a much better job than I expected. Still it would be better if I got the focus correct to begin with. Tomorrow nights project.
Firefly Trails. Composite of 174 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 1600, 105 mm, f/8, 120 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and the composite generated with Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum). (DAVID J MATHRE)Firefly Trails. Composite of 174 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 1600, 105 mm, f/8, 120 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and the composite generated with Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum). Focus correction with Focus Magic (20). (DAVID J MATHRE)Firefly Trails. Composite of 174 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 1600, 105 mm, f/8, 120 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and the composite generated with Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum). Focus correction using PhotoShop Fix Out of Focus Blur. (DAVID J MATHRE)Firefly Trails. Composite of 174 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 1600, 105 mm, f/8, 120 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and the composite generated with Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum). Focus correction using Topaz Sharpen-AI (focus, max). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Best to view the images in full screen mode.
Daily Power Use (est 51 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (80.63 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. The power use is an estimate since there have been a number of data dropouts since Friday about noon. I am waiting on a response from Sense regarding the problem.
Gone to See Central America and the Panama Canal. Semester at Sea Spring 2011 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop II with Michael Mariant. Day 4: At Sea.
Comparison of Digital Noise Reduction Programs. Pre-dawn view of the Moon, Venus (and Mercury) over the Pacific Ocean. Professor Ian Campbell had us look for the moon and several planets in close proximity. Here are a couple of images taken with a Nikon D3x and 85 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 1600, 85 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). I needed the high ISO to even get a 1/30 sec exposure since it was still dark and the ship was moving. For each image I processed with no digital noise reduction, then with either NIK Define 2.0 or Topaz DeNoise 5.0.
Pre-Dawn View of the Moon, Venus, and Mercury. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 85 mm f/1.4G (ISO 1600, 85 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and converted to jpg/sRGB with Photoshop CS5.Pre-Dawn View of the Moon, Venus, and Mercury. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 85 mm f/1.4G (ISO 1600, 85 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and converted to jpg/sRGB with Photoshop CS5. Noise Reduction with NIK Define 2.0.Pre-Dawn View of the Moon, Venus, and Mercury. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 85 mm f/1.4G (ISO 1600, 85 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and converted to jpg/sRGB with Photoshop CS5. Noise Reduction with Topaz DeNoise 5.0.Pre-Dawn View of the Moon, Venus, and Mercury. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 85 mm f/1.4G (ISO 1600, 85 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and converted to jpg/sRGB with Photoshop CS5.Pre-Dawn View of the Moon, Venus, and Mercury. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 85 mm f/1.4G (ISO 1600, 85 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and converted to jpg/sRGB with Photoshop CS5. Noise Reduction with NIK Define 2.0.
