All Things Photographic
My Astrophotography Journey: Dew Prevention
One of my main goals in starting out in astrophotography is to avoid the need to spend all night outside in the cold watching the telescope. In this post I cover fitting the Dew Heaters to the telescope and ASIair Plus.
My Astrophotography Journey: The ZWO Electronic Autofocuser
One of my main goals in starting out in astrophotography is to avoid the need to spend all night outside in the cold watching the telescope. In this post I cover fitting the ZWO EAF to the ASIair Plus mini computer system.
My Astrophotography Journey: Switching to a Refractor
One of my main goals in starting out in astrophotography is to avoid the need to spend all night outside in the cold watching the telescope. In this post I cover the switch to a dedicated refractor telescope.
My Astrophotography Journey: First Steps in Autoguiding
One of my main goals in starting out in astrophotography is to avoid the need to spend all night outside in the cold watching the telescope. In this post I cover auto guiding with the ASIair and a separate guide scope and camera.
My Astrophotography Journey: The ZWO ASIAir Plus
One of my main goals in starting out in astrophotography is to avoid the need to spend all night outside in the cold watching the telescope. In this post I cover setting up an ASIair Plus mini computer.
Setting the Home position of the Star Adventurer GTi
I have noticed quite a number of forum posts regarding the accuracy of the Sky Watcher Star Adventurer GTi initial GOTO operation and thought I would give my method of setting up the Star Adventurer to produce the best GOTO operation.
Sky Watcher Star Adventurer GTi
A few months ago, I placed an order for the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi, the latest in their Star Adventurer series of star trackers. After using the Star Adventurer 2i Pro package let’s see if upgrade to the GTi has met my expectations.
Manual GOTO for the Star Adventurer 2i
Programs like Sky Guide, Sky Safari or Stellarium can help you find objects but with a manual star tracker and DSLR or Mirrorless camera how can you be sure you’re pointing at the correct part of space, especially with long focal length lenses?
Star Tracking
I have always been fascinated by the night sky. As far back as I can remember I have been interested in the stars,. In this post I detail how I have started combining my love of astronomy with photography..
Which Shooting Mode do I use most ?
There are always questions asked about which is the best mode to use your camera, should you use Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual or Program mode. In this post I detail my favourite mode.
A Matter of Colour Pt 2: Camera Calibration
In the last blog post I discussed the calibration of my workflow from computer monitor to printing in order to get consistent and predictable colours for my final images. In this post I have looked further at the camera calibration part of this process using a number of commercially available colour checker charts and software profilers.
A Matter of Colour
When I started out in photography I relied upon film laboratories to process negative or slide film to get the appropriate output, either prints or mounted slides. Once the image was taken in the camera the actual processing was beyond my control but in general there was good agreement between my memories of the scene and the actual image. Step forward in time to digital image capture and home printing. Like many people the images coming from my printer weren’t showing the same as the images on my computer screen. They were dark, lacking in vibrancy and quite often disappointing.
Use a Teleconverter or Crop the Image ?
Many photographers dream have having the perfect collection of lenses that will enable them to get the perfect shot. When it comes to telephoto lenses, however, you never seem to be able to get in tight enough to your subject and always crave that extra reach. The wealth of internet wisdom currently suggests that post capture cropping provides superior results to using teleconverters. While I can see the logic behind these claims I did wonder whether there was any limit to how much cropping would be acceptable so decided to test it for myself
Video Heads for Stills Shooters
The Search for the Perfect Tripod Head - Tripods are very personal things and what suits one person may not suit another. With that in mind though there are some general considerations that apply to all photographers, whether beginner or advanced. In this article I talk through how I believe I have finally created the perfect combination of tripod legs and head that allows me to get the majority of images I take.
Auto Capture with the Nikon Z9
Firmware 4.0 for the Nikon Z9 was released on 13th June 2023 and brought a new Auto Capture menu that effectively allows the camera to start taking photographs once a preset series of conditions have been met - it effectively turns the camera into one of the most expensive and most advanced trail cameras available.
Up Close and Personal - when old meets new
For this post I thought I’d combine old and new to see how well old technology works when combined with a modern high megapixel camera like the Nikon Z7ii. The Nikon PB-6 bellows unit was released in 1983, 37 years before the introduction of the Z7ii, so I thought it would be interesting to see how the two can be used together.
High ISO Noise Reduction Tests
Adobe has released an update to Lightroom Classic and Adobe Camera Raw that introduces a new AI based noise reduction system. In this article I have performed a quick test of the new Lightroom Denoise and compared it with the previous manual noise reduction, alongside Topaz Photo AI and DXO PureRaw 3/ PhotoLab 6.
Nikon Z9 Eyecup Hack
The Nikon Z9 DK-33 eyepiece is a flat rubber disc that doesn’t extend back from the camera to enable a comfortable shooting position. This hack shows how to replace the eyepiece with the DK-19 eyecup from previous DSLRs.