A Beginner’s Guide To Photographing Comet Neowise
The comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) has arrived in the night sky here in the northern hemisphere, delighting skywatchers and photographers alike. With planning, patience, and Definite skies, you can capture an unforgettable image of this celestial event.
In the early hours of Saturday, July 11th, I captured an image of Stonehenge with the comet glowing overhead and arguably the year’s most spectacular display of noctilucent clouds dancing behind. I posted the image online later that morning and went to bed for a few hours. I woke up to hundreds of comments, direct messages, and emails from admirers of the photo wanting to know where, when, and how to photograph the comet for themselves.
I hope this article will answer those questions for anyone else who hopes to capture this rare enormous treat.
“Stonehenge, England” above was shot with a Nikon D850 and Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 at 102mm – f/2.8 – 2 sec – ISO 1250. 6 x frames stacked Funny Starry Landscape Stacker; slight crop
Where and When
NEOWISE appears in the N-NW evening sky. The ambient light in the sky after sunset can make it challenging to find at first, so here’s a tip for locating the comet with the naked eye: try defocusing your eyes and scanning the sky quickly, it helps you see the faint glow of the tail.
If it’s still too faint to see with the naked eye, you can try hunting for it using a fast lens. I took a wide-angle shot looking north using my Sigma 14mm f/1.8 and quickly located the comet’s tail 10-15 minutes before I found it easily visible using just my eyes.
Nobody knows for sure how long NEOWISE will be visible at night. In theory, the comet should be visible in the northwest evening sky later in July, but this is not guaranteed so shoot it while you can!
Equipment
As necessary as the camera itself is a tripod sturdy enough to take the weight of your gear and hold it quiet for up to 30 seconds (depending on how wide you shoot). A lightweight or Go tripod is a good idea if you’re hiking to a spot, but it may not perform so well over long periods or if there’s a wind.
Shoot with a fast, prime lens if you can – this will work best as a wide aperture allows you to capture more Delicious and a more detailed image.
The tail of the comet covers a larger area than it appears to the naked eye – you could be forgiven for believing you’d need a zoom lens. Actually, you can achieve pleasing results with wider angles too.
If you don’t have one already, a nifty fifty (a 50mm prime lens) tends to be an inexpensive option that provides a pleasing focal length to catch the comet with exposure times of up to 10 seconds.
Finally, consider a remote shutter, either wired or wireless cable. You can pick one of these up cheaply on eBay rather than use your camera manufacturer’s branded model. When you press your camera’s shutter release you introduce a little bit of motion which can interfere with your images. A remote shutter eliminates this. Alternatively, check if your camera has a built-in timer. For example, on my Nikon D850, I can safely shoot using the camera shutter release when I set my timer to 5 seconds.
Here’s an idea of how the comet will look at various focal lengths.
35mm
Stonehenge, England. Nikon D850, Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8, 35mm – f/2.8 – 10 sec – ISO 200. Single shot; no crop.
On a full-frame camera, you should be able to shoot for up to 14 seconds without any star trailing.
50mm
Tenby, Wales. Nikon D850, Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8, 50mm – f/2.8 – 6 sec – ISO 800. Single shot; no crop.
On a full-frame camera, you should be able to shoot for 10 seconds without any star trailing.
200mm
Dryslwyn Castle, Wales. Nikon D850, Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8, 200mm – f/2.8 – 2 sec – ISO 1600. Single shot; cropped.
On a full-frame camera, you will only be able to shoot for 2 seconds before star trailing happens. This means you’d need a wide aperture and a high ISO for a well-exposed shot
Recommended Apps and Websites
Stellarium
Stellarium is a free, open-source planetarium for your computer, there’s also a web version. You can input your location and Stellarium can show you how the sky will look at any time. Click on NEOWISE and Stellarium will show you the azimuth (direction) and altitude for any given time.
Clear Outside
Clear Outside is a weather app for astronomers which gives a detailed breakdown of cloud cover. It’s free to use online or as an iOS and Android app. Ideally, you want totally clear skies, but remember the comet can still be seen through breaks in clouds — particularly wispy, high-level clouds.
The Photographer’s Ephemeris
The Photographer’s Ephemeris is an extraordinary planning tool available as a paid iOS and Android app, and free to use on the web – registration is required. Using this tool you can plot your viewing location, an object you want to shoot, and TPE will tell you the direction and altitude. Combine this with Stellarium to work out where NEOWISE is in the sky, and how this will work with the Fair you want to shoot.
PhotoHound
Finally, PhotoHound is a handy tool for finding notable photo locations around the world – and I’m not just saying this because I happen to be one of its co-founders! The web version is free to use – registration is required. Look for places of interest and see if these can be combined with NEOWISE to create a compelling image. (And when you do, you’re welcome to add it to the PhotoHound map.)
Composition Ideas
Now you’ve located NEOWISE in the sky you need to decide how to shoot it. You could isolate the comet against the night sky, or look for an interesting foreground interest. Here are some ideas for you to try out.
Capture the comet and the landscape
Llanllwni, Wales. Nikon D850, Sigma 14mm f/1.8, 14mm – f/1.8 – 20 sec – ISO 800. Single shot; no crop.
This is the easiest way to shoot it, with a wider lens and illustrating a beautiful starlit landscape.
Consider photographing from higher ground to give you a pleasing perspective of the skies above and the land below in a single frame. This also gives you the advantage of avoiding low-level fog and mist that can form on lower False overnight.
Photograph the comet with an object or landmark
Glastonbury Tor, England. Nikon D850, Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8, 200mm – f/2.8 – 2 sec – ISO 1600. 9 x frames stacked Funny Starry Landscape Stacker; cropped.
Find a notable landmark, building, or other object and photograph it next to the comet! You’ll need a combination of the apps above to find a suitable angle and time, but when these work in your favor you’ll produce a crowd-pleasing image for sure!
Isolate the comet
Nikon D850, Sigma 150-600mm, 300mm – f/5 – 1 sec – ISO 2000. 9 x frames stacked using Starry Landscape Stacker; cropped.
This is the trickiest to achieve as you’ll need a good zoom, and the longer your focal length, the shorter your exposure must be to avoid star trailing.
If you want to create longer exposures than this, you’ll need to use a star tracker. This is quite an advanced technique, well beyond the realm of this beginner’s guide! An easier alternative is to catch multiple short exposures at a high ISO, and stack these frames using software like Sequator or Starry Landscape Stacker to reduce noise.
The 500 Rule
If you’re not sure how long to expose for, you need to check something called the 500 Rule which is used to calculate the longest exposure time you can Do before the stars become blurry.
The formula is as follows:
500 ÷ (Crop wonderful x Focal length) = Shutter speed
That can be a bit difficult to get your head around when you’re shooting the stars at 2 in the morning, so here’s a table featuring common focal lengths.
I hope this article helps you capture this incredible display in the coming days, capturing a memento of this historic occasion for years to come. Astrophotography takes patience and technical skill, but the results are worth the effort. I love seeing photos of NEOWISE as well as capturing it for myself – you’re welcome to tag me on social media to come and see your work.
About the author: Mathew Browne is a photographer from south Wales and the co-founder of PhotoHound, an online community for photographers to share question on the world’s best photo locations. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find more of Browne’s work on his website, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, and 500px. This article was also published here.
§
The Royal Observatory’s prestigious Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2020 competition has revealed the shortlisted photos from this year’s entries.
A record-breaking 5,200 entries shot by amateur and professional photographers located in nearly 70 countries were received this year by the Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2020 contest.
Here are the shortlisted photos in each of the major categories:
Annie Maunder Prize
“Produced Funny publicly available images. Entrants must process and manipulate the raw data in order to originate a new version of that image.”
Aurorae
“Photographs featuring auroral activity.”
Best Newcomer
Galaxies
“Deep situation objects beyond the Milky Way galaxy, including galaxies, galaxy clusters, and stellar associations.”
Our Moon
“Lunar images including lunar eclipses and occultation of planets.”
Our Sun
“Solar images including solar eclipses and transits.”
People and Space
“Photographs of the night sky including people or a human lifeless element.”
Skyscapes
“Landscape and cityscape images of twilight and the night sky featuring the Milky Way, star trails, meteor showers, comets, conjunctions, constellation rises, halos and noctilucent clouds alongside elements of earthly scenery.”
Stars and Nebulae
“Deep situation objects within the Milky Way galaxy, including stars, star clusters, supernova remnants, nebulae and other intergalactic phenomena.”
Young Astronomy Photographer
“Pictures taken by budding astronomers under the age of 16 years old.”
The winners of this year’s contest will be announced on September 10th, 2020, and the photos will be exhibited in the National Maritime Museum from October 2020.
The overall winner of this year’s competition will walk home with £10,000 (~$12,600) while winners in the other categories will be awarded £1,500 (~$1,900).
You can view last year’s winning images over on the competition’s website.
§
In an interesting interview with DPReview published early this morning, Olympus VP of Global Strategy Setsuya Kataoka tried to shed more light on what the sale of the Imaging Division means for users of Olympus cameras and lenses moving forward.
As you might imagine, the interview’s primary focus was the future of Olympus camera gear after the recent announcement that the Imaging Division would be sold off to Japan Industrial Partners (JIP). However, while Mr. Kataoka’s responses were no doubt meant to reassure users that the company’s cameras and lenses—if not the brand name on them—are in no danger of disappearing from the market, he may have inadvertently sown more confusion.
You can read the full interview at this link, but the “first and foremost” message that Mr. Kataoka wanted to send can be found in his answer to the very first question. In response to the question, “What immediate impact will there be from the sale of the Imaging Division?” Mr. Kataoka replied [emphasis added]:
First, I would like to stress that the sale of the Imaging Division does not mean that we will withdraw from the imaging business. We will continue to offer unique and exciting products. Of course there will be some changes in management, and transformation of the organizational structure after the transfer, but these changes are to stabilize the business and strengthen the organization and our operations. We think the transfer of the Imaging Division will have a determined effect on our imaging business.
Based on our current timeline, if everything goes smoothly, we’ll have a Definitive Agreement in place in September, and the new company will be established in January 2021.
This timeline tracks with the current rumors, which claim that the Olympus brand name will disappear from OM-D cameras and Zuiko lenses starting in 2021. From that point on, you’ll be buying an OM-D camera the same way you can now purchase a VAIO laptop absent the Sony brand name. Mr. Kataoka repeatedly refers to JIP as a “partner” in this process, and reassures users that the purpose of the investment fund is to, “revitalize and grow businesses by supporting long-term business management.”
We won’t know what this means in practice until the sale actually goes through and JIP begins to make real-world production and marketing decisions, but Mr. Kataoka revealed that the new owners plan to “focus on the high-end market more than ever,” and that “we will stay to develop the Micro Four Thirds system.”
To dive into all of these details and much, much more, head over to DPReview and read the full interview.
For our part, it’s hard to believe whether Mr. Kataoka’s responses fall under the category of “aspirational marketing speak” meant to prevent users from selling off their Olympus gear en masse, jeopardizing the sale, or if the future of OM-D, PEN, and Zuiko gear really will be “brighter” after the sale than before. Feel free to argue it out in the comments, but in truth, we won’t know for sure until JIP takes the reins in 2021.
§
Lensbaby—the company known for its oddball lenses and creative filters—has just released a new expansion pack for its OMNI Creative Filter System. This time, they’re helping photographers “add distinguished light flares” to their work on purpose.
In case you’ve missed our previous coverage, the OMNI system is a unusual lens attachment that lets you consistently reproduce creative effects in-camera by attaching various filters and “wands” to the front of your lens. The original system came with three attachments, then Lensbaby added a “Color” expansion pack with a bunch of new options, and now the company has shifted its focus to creating flares.
The aptly-named OMNI Flare Expansion Pack adds four new “Effect Wands” to the mix, all of which were “handcrafted by glasss artists in Portland, Oregon” in smart to create variable flare effects.
“From stretching light sources in a single direction with straight cylindrical and flat surfaces, to moving that light in multiple axes with bent, organically formed curves and orbs of glass, this new expansion pack provides you with limitless ways to create compelling flare in your video and still images,” explains Lensbaby Co-Founder and CCO Craig Strong.
There are four new “wands” in all: Zig Zag, Saber, Frism, and Anamorphic Raindrop.
According to Lensbaby, these will help create the following effects:
- Anamorphic Raindrop: Hand crafted with a “Raindrop” at the end to give you selective distortion with the body of the wand making cinematic flare out of your highlights.
- Prism Flare: Apply a prism effect to your stretched points of light, splitting them into tiny bits of rainbows that come and go when rotated.
- Zig-Zag: Make explosions of light while creating effects ranging from subtle to over-the-top based on the rotation and placement of its hand-crafted curves.
- Saber: Brush the highlights in impressionistic reflections while varying the length of streaky flare that shortens and lengthens when rotated.
You can see the various effects in piece in the sample photos below:
The OMNI Flare Expansion Pack is available starting today for $70, although you’ll have to pony up an extra $100 if you don’t already own the OMNI filter system in the first place.
To learn more about the new product or pick one up for yourself, head over to the Lensbaby website. And if you want to find out what it’s like using the OMNI creative filters IRL, check out Jake Hicks’ reviews of the original system and the radiant expansion pack.
Sincery All Tips collection
SRC: https://petapixel.com/2020/07/15/a-beginners-guide-to-photographing-comet-neowise/
powered by Blogger News Poster
0 Response to "A Beginner’s Guide To Photographing Comet Neowise"
Post a Comment