Unpopular opinion: Those $3,000 telescope shots just arent that impressive anymore

I used to think astrophotography was this magical art form that only geniuses could do. Then I watched a guy in Tucson process a 4 hour deep sky stack in about 15 minutes using free software. He barely touched the sliders and the nebula practically jumped out of the screen. Now every time I see a perfect Orion nebula shot on here I just wonder how much of it was the camera doing the work. Has anyone else started losing interest in these hyper processed images?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_matthew12d ago

Is anyone really losing sleep over whether astrophotography is art or just button pushing? It's a hobby, not a test of who has the most soulful approach to stacking images. If the picture looks cool and someone enjoyed making it, that's pretty much all that matters in the end.

briancarter12d ago

Yeah that part about the guy in Tucson processing a 4 hour stack in 15 minutes really got me... I always thought those perfect nebula shots took weeks of careful editing. Now I realize most of the heavy lifting is just software doing its thing with enough exposure time. Makes you wonder how much is actually the photographer's eye versus just having the right gear and following a recipe.

gavin_hill2712d ago

@briancarter I get where you're coming from but I see it a little different. The software can stack and stretch data all day long but it can't decide what to point at or when to stop gathering data. There's a guy in my group who has a $10k rig and his shots look like trash because he rushes the capture part. The real craft is knowing which targets need 2 hours versus 8 hours and when the moon ruins your signal.