Steve versus NASA/SDO 18th May 2024.

[steveward53]

I thought my data looked rather nice today , so I did a cheeky comparison.

NASA/SDO with its million dollar hardware and a prime shooting location versus little old me with 34 frames from a 150mm frac , Baader Solar filter and a Canon EOS 6D ...

Click on image for full size and full resolution.

[rsfoto]

Hi Steve,

Excellent comparison and if you would have made the whites in your image really white (and a lot of people here miss this and leave their whites in a dull grey tone) with a simple Histogramm stretch you are much better then SDO because you have a lot more details in the surface aka rice grain.

Just that simple

Q0_YtDsJGVyj_2560x0_9-rfUmCi.jpg (1.66 MiB) Viewed 1105 times

[steveward53]

Hi Steve,

Excellent comparison and if you would have made the whites in your image really white (and a lot of people here miss this and leave their whites in a dull grey tone) with a simple Histogramm stretch you are much better then SDO because you have a lot more details in the surface aka rice grain.

Just that simple



Q0_YtDsJGVyj_2560x0_9-rfUmCi.jpg

Thank you Rainer ,

I do try to get my whites as white as I dare but I'm always mindful of trying not to overcook the centre too much.

I think it varies if I'm processing outside in the brighter conditions of the summerhouse as opposed to a darkened room , as well as my general rush to get that side of things over and the images posted everywhere ...

[rsfoto]

Hi Steve,

Excellent comparison and if you would have made the whites in your image really white (and a lot of people here miss this and leave their whites in a dull grey tone) with a simple Histogramm stretch you are much better then SDO because you have a lot more details in the surface aka rice grain.

Just that simple



Q0_YtDsJGVyj_2560x0_9-rfUmCi.jpg

Thank you Rainer ,

I do try to get my whites as white as I dare but I'm always mindful of trying not to overcook the centre too much.

I think it varies if I'm processing outside in the brighter conditions of the summerhouse as opposed to a darkened room , as well as my general rush to get that side of things over and the images posted everywhere ...

Hi,

I do not know with which software you process your images but in any Histogramm viewer you can clearly see where your whites start and up to this point you can stretch without overcooking them.

Of course if you do not have a histogram viewer then this is a Poker game.

[rsfoto]

Hi Steve,

Look at your original image

Steve_HT_1.JPG (262.57 KiB) Viewed 1070 times

Stretching the right side to make the whites white goes down in your image from 255 to 175 (huge)

Steve_HT_2.JPG (317.38 KiB) Viewed 1070 times

Adn if you want a bit more details on the limb just stretch a bit the middle tones.

Steve_HT_3.JPG (301.81 KiB) Viewed 1070 times

The black tones leave them untouched unless you want to get more contrast, but in all cases most of us we hace blacks which are more then balck as you can see on the left side of the Histogramm when there the bottom line goes up on the left wall.

Look what happens if I exaggerate the White stretch

Steve_HT_4.JPG (345.11 KiB) Viewed 1070 times

OK, this is just an idea and everybody can process their images as they please but this is just a simple way to get details and that is why most highly experienced terrestrial photographers say "Expose to the right" and this already starts with the image acquisition process.

OK, software can pull out details in the shadows but the price you pay for it is the dreaded Noise...

[rsfoto]

...as well as my general rush to get that side of things over and the images posted everywhere ...

I understand but who said SolarChatForum is a race?

[steveward53]

Hi Steve,

Look at your original image


Steve_HT_1.JPG


Stretching the right side to make the whites white goes down in your image from 255 to 175 (huge)


Steve_HT_2.JPG


Adn if you want a bit more details on the limb just stretch a bit the middle tones.


Steve_HT_3.JPG


The black tones leave them untouched unless you want to get more contrast, but in all cases most of us we hace blacks which are more then balck as you can see on the left side of the Histogramm when there the bottom line goes up on the left wall.

Look what happens if I exaggerate the White stretch


Steve_HT_4.JPG


OK, this is just an idea and everybody can process their images as they please but this is just a simple way to get details and that is why most highly experienced terrestrial photographers say "Expose to the right" and this already starts with the image acquisition process.

OK, software can pull out details in the shadows but the price you pay for it is the dreaded Noise...

Thank you again sir ,

I will give my processing a rejig next time and leave my Levels adjustments until I get into Gimp which does have the histogram viewer etc.

I think the problem might be that I've always tended to adjust the histogram on the AS!3 stack in Registax before I apply any sharpening , it lets me see better whether I'm over-cooking things by the 'rind' that appears if I go too far.

Tomorrow I will leave that part until I get to Gimp and see how that works out.

Here's the stack from AS!3 with just Wavelets applied and saved as a .PNG as I can't load .tiff on here.

Levels-wise it's just how the shots come off the camera should you wish to play ...

AS3 Stack Best set 3 Std REG 5 Wavelets only .png (27.77 MiB) Viewed 1053 times

[steveward53]

...as well as my general rush to get that side of things over and the images posted everywhere ...

I understand but who said SolarChatForum is a race?

Oh it's not a race , but I can't abide posting an image a day or more late as it changes so much in 24 hours ...

[rsfoto]

Hi Steve,

I would like to see the raw video if possible

Thanks

[rsfoto]

BTW, Saving in PNG ist just waisting disk space. There is absolutely no difference in the view between 100% JPG and PNG

IMHO

[steveward53]

Hi Steve,

I would like to see the raw video if possible

Thanks

No RAW video , just 34 full frame jpegs from a Canon EOS 6D ...

Here's one of them straight from the camera ...

I save things as PNG as Facebook has a tendency to scrunch up jpegs I find.

IMG_0188.JPG (1.99 MiB) Viewed 1036 times

[DeepSolar64]

Steve,
If yours is the second image in the comparison I think you have the SDO beat!

James

P.S. I need to take Rainer's advice too. I often have my white light disks to grey. Too dark and not white enough.

[rsfoto]

Hi Steve,

I would like to see the raw video if possible

Thanks

No RAW video , just 34 full frame jpegs from a Canon EOS 6D ...

Here's one of them straight from the camera ...

I save things as PNG as Facebook has a tendency to scrunch up jpegs I find.


IMG_0188.JPG

Hi,

I save things as PNG as Facebook has a tendency to scrunch up jpegs I find.

We are here in SoalrChatForum and not Facebook

OK, DSLR OSC shots are always problematic due to the Bayer Matrix but even so you can see the histogram in the DSLR screen before taking the shots and adjust the exposure time or Aperture accordingly...

"Expose to the right"

... and you should be shooting *.CR2 fiels and not *.JPGs with an DSLT as you get 16 bits colour depth and far much better to stretch the histogram. It is a huge difference 256 shades of grey compared to 65536 shades of Grey.

and start saving money and get a Good Monochrome camera for shooting *.AVI or *.SER files... IMHO

[steveward53]

Hi Steve,

I would like to see the raw video if possible

Thanks

No RAW video , just 34 full frame jpegs from a Canon EOS 6D ...

Here's one of them straight from the camera ...

I save things as PNG as Facebook has a tendency to scrunch up jpegs I find.


IMG_0188.JPG

Hi,

I save things as PNG as Facebook has a tendency to scrunch up jpegs I find.

We are here in SoalrChatForum and not Facebook

OK, DSLR OSC shots are always problematic due to the Bayer Matrix but even so you can see the histogram in the DSLR screen before taking the shots and adjust the exposure time or Aperture accordingly...

"Expose to the right"

... and you should be shooting *.CR2 fiels and not *.JPGs with an DSLT as you get 16 bits colour depth and far much better to stretch the histogram. It is a huge difference 256 shades of grey compared to 65536 shades of Grey.

and start saving money and get a Good Monochrome camera for shooting *.AVI or *.SER files... IMHO

1. Some of use Facebook as well as our other astronomy forums , life's too short to be saving a multitude of formats for different platforms ...

2. I've been doing this with a DSLR since I started this "hobby" about 12 years ago and don't find it particularly problematic ... the only 'problem' I've ever had is people telling me that "you can't use a DSLR" for solar imaging , you need to be shooting at 100fps to stand any chance of success" clearly not the case ...

3. It is all too easy to over-expose the centre of the disc when trying to perfectly expose the Sun , a mistake I see everywhere , it's much easier to under-expose to a degree as darker images can be adjusted up but anything blown out is unrecoverable , as in any photography when an area is oversaturated it is ruined , it's a fine line to walk I admit.

3. In theory yes I should shoot in RAW and in general that is what I capture in , but as I various pieces of software in my imaging that do not like or accept .cr2 or .cr3 RAW files and my main photo editing software is Gimp ( an 8 bit platform) then it means converting to .TIFF first which is just time consuming and tedious and apart from the colour range is no different quality-wise.

I generally shoot about 500 frames and then pick about 20-40 to stack , I have stacked a lot more in the past but the benefits are largely unnoticable , I quality assess by my own eye , actually using Registax as a quick and easy preview program , software has never proven to be as reliable in the selection process ...

I refuse to use PS as it's now a subscription only service and I don't do photography to the levels that require it , Gimp does everything I've ever needed.

I was just about to make the jump to Affinity Photo for its superb focus stacking application for my macro-photography , it also handles both Canon RAW formats so two birds with one stone you would think , sadly not though as it reqires Windows 10/11 and as I'm still running W8.1 then that means a new laptop , not happening ...

4. I have here the Altair Hypercam 174MM Camera , I use it for all my close-up captures and it works very well thank you , but for full disc imaging it would require either a multi-panel mosaic or a large loss of resolution , 1920x1200 as opposed to the EOS 6D at 5472x3648.

I could no doubt spend hours messing about with mosaics but I am interested more in capturing the Sun's appearance on a daily basis where possible , I see no point in shooting Saturday's disc and publishing the image on the following Monday , it's too late then , the Sun's moved on and showing something new by then. It's why I do this , to capture its ever changing face , I'm not one who salivates the the prospect of imaging the 'never-changing' Andromeda galaxy every year , or even the Moon to that extent.

Anyway , the Sun has just started to illuminate my summerhouse roof so it'll be in full view in 25 minutes so I'm off outside to point my ineffective , primitive imaging rig its way once more to see what delights await me today.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend , I hope the sky is clear blue for you.

Regards ,

Steve.

[DeepSolar64]

I refuse to use PS as it's now a subscription only service and I don't do photography to the levels that require it , Gimp does everything I've ever needed._steveward53

GIMP is awesome considering it is a free program and does most of what photoshop can do. I am surprised it is not more popular than what it is.

James

[marktownley]

Great images and great thread chaps!