Deep space with a dslr
Co-hosted with the deep space imager Bray Falls (@astrofalls), the focus of this workshop will teach you everything there is to know about tracking, stacking, and equatorial mounts (polar aligning ughhhhhh) so you can capture and process clean images full of that juicy deep space goodness with your typical night photography DSLR set up! Taking place under the starry skies of Kofa National Wildlife Refuge-we will be providing the Star Adventurer Equatorial Mounts courtesy of our sponsor Sky Watcher USA, but if you have your own set up (eqm, CCD, software, etc) we are happy to teach you using your equipment. This workshop is geared towards beginners and experienced astrophotographers looking to take their astrophotography teachnical skills to the next level, whether that be with deep space imaging like Bray OR cleaner landscape astro images like Derek this workshop is the only of it's kind offered in the industry. We will shoot everywhere between the 14mm-600mm+ range, so bring all your lenses or telescope gear, especially the deep focal lengths!
Full itinerary is available for workshop participants and serious inquirers! Email us: inquiries@blazingheavens.com
FURTHER DETAILS:
Date:
Saturday night 4/14. Full itinerary will be released to participants and serious inquirers.
PRICE:
$400 per person total.
A $100 deposit to reserve one of six spots in advance, the remaining balance can be payed online any date before 4/14 or cash upon arrival.
Location:
Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, Arizona. The exact coordinates of our spot will be provided to participants once signed up.
What You Need TO BRING:
Required
- a DSLR with long exposure capabilities
- Various Lenses (14-600mm)
- an Intervalometer
- a headlamp with red light capabilities
- Memory cards and batteries
- Proper clothing, food/water, and sleeping arrangements (we are both car camping and you're welcome to join us) There are nearby hotels in Mesa Verde and Yuma.
Recommended
- All focal lengths are great, but longer focal lengths <50mm are ideal!
- Your own telescope or tracker, but this workshop is perfect for those with just a DSLR to expand their astrophotography knowledge and capabilities
What You Get:
A full night of hands on instruction with both Bray and Derek, and over 2 hours of post processing video lessons so you know how to process and edit the images we capture at the workshop! This workshop will teach you a comprehensive workflow from image acquisition to editing, so you can create extremely clean and detailed astrophotos, both for landscape astro purposes and deep space with a DSLR, with a standard night photography DSLR set up.
A FEW of the CONCEPTS WE WILL cover:
- Both Bray and Derek's personal artistic theories with composition, astrophotography, and color pallete.
- Polar aligning. Manual and automated. Because, ya know, everyone loves polar aligning...
- ISO, Aperture, and Exposure time.
- Frames and integration time: Light, Darks, Bias, and Flats.
- CCDs, DSLRs, Telescopes, Trackers, and all peripheral equipment used!
- Planning your Milky Way shots around the Milky Way core schedule, moon cycles, light pollution and locations.
Autoguiding, tracking accuracy, and softwares like backyard Nikon, Sequence Generator Pro, and PHD2.
Proper gear selection for deep sky, your objectives with deep space astrophotography, and how to get there.
Wide field mosaics, optimizing your acquisition time, target selection.
Pixel sampling, how to combat stars overwhelming your images, star reduction- Over 2+ hours of post processing/editing videos using the images you take at the workshop
CCDs vs DSLRs. Concepts like broadband, narrowband, filters, practicality for mono vs OSC, and much more...
How to embrace sleep deprivation.
