Current Users of Aurora HDR Pro Upgrade Price: $59 $49
Current Users of Aurora HDR Upgrade Price: $79$69
Continue reading to get more into the nuts and bolts of the program including system requirements, and comparison of the different versions of Aurora are below.
So you are thinking about night photography and not sure if your camera can do it or what the settings you might use.
Most modern DSLR’s and Mirrorless cameras can take great pictures at night and of the stars, but I would recommend doing some testing before you go out on your first night of night photography shooting. The intent is to
Let you know if your camera is suitable for night photography and
To give you a starting point on the settings to use to get the best shot of the night sky or other night shot.
The steps used do not only apply to taking pictures of the sky but any night photography situation you are thinking about such as taking pictures of the city at night.
Night sky photography (AKA Astrophotography) is something that I’ve always wanted to and I needed to find out if my current camera was up to the job. On a recent night where there were no clouds in the sky I decided it was time to test my old trusty Nikon D80 to see if it was up to the job. So I headed outside with my tripod (A must if you are doing any low light photography), my Nikon D80 with the Nikkor 18-135 lens, and my wireless remote. The remote is not required, but it does make things a little faster to do. If you don’t have a remote trigger device be it wired or wireless, you can still get your night shots, but you will have to use the camera’s built-in timer function or you will get camera shake when you press down the shutter release button.
For my testing, I put my camera in manual mode, set the aperture (f-stop) as wide as my lens would let me at f3.5 with the lens at its widest setting of 18mm and set the exposure time to 30 secs, which is the longest my camera will go before switching to bulb mode. For the testing, you want the exposure time and f-stop fixed as you will be only adjusting the ISO setting for each shot. You will need to focus your camera to near infinity in order for the stars/night sky to be in focus. Do this manually by turning your focus ring all the way until it stops at infinity and turning it back just a little, or find a distant light and let your autofocus focus on that. After you have set your focus, you must turn off the autofocus feature of your lens or as soon as you go to click your shutter release your camera will just get stuck trying to focus and most likely never focus. On my Nikkor lens, I can turn off the autofocus on the lens. Your camera/lens will vary on how you turn auto focus off. It is your option whether or not to use the long exposure noise reduction option that your camera has. For my testing, I did use my camera’s long exposure noise reduction option. If you are not sure, take a series of pictures with it off, then another series with it on and compare.
Start out at the lowest ISO your camera has, in my case that was 100 and with each picture you take, increase the ISO by one setting stop until you get to the highest your camera can do. For my old trusty Nikon D80 that meant ISO’s of: 100, 125, 160, 200 250 320, 400, 500, 640, 800, 1000, 1250, 1600, HI 0.3, HI 0.7, HI 1.0. When it is all said and done, you should have a range of shots that vary just by the ISO. So I ended up with 16 shots.
This 5 of the images spread across the full 16 image range of images that I got during this test.
Click on each image to see the full version
At ISO 100
At ISO 250
At ISO 640
At ISO 1600
At ISO Hi 1.0 Equivalent to 3200
After looking at my test shots it tells me a few things
Due to light pollution and the low sensitivity of my sensor I”m not able to get the Milky Way with this camera. By today’s camera standards, my Nikon D80 has a very low sensitivity as its highest native setting was 1600. Most camera’s today got to at least 25,600.
To get a decent amount of stars I need to use the higher ISO’s of my camera. At least 1600 if not the digitally enhanced HI settings.
Even at the higher ISO’s my camera still cannot capture enough light for the faint stars. And even with noise reduction turned on, the pictures are still too noisy.
Just because I cannot capture the stars with my camera I did not give up on night photography as you may have seen in my previous posts from Light City Baltimore.
I’ve been able to get some great night shots in the city with my Nikon D80. This is because the light it much brighter than the faint stars and my camera’s sensor is sensitive enough to get the light at this level.
Just keep in mind that you are doing this testing just as a starting point and to determine what is possible at the max aperture and timed exposure. Once you know this base, if it worked out for you, you can make adjustments when you change the exposure time and aperture. I won’t go into the formula here, but I’m sure you can find it on the internet.
For now, get out there and try some night photography shooting, I’m sure you will get some great pictures.
Recently found a free online 11-week Digital Photography course by Former Standford Professor Marc Levoy
I’ll admit the I did take at least one college-level course when I was at Towson back in the film days as I was primarily interested in Black and White photography darkroom techniques. But these days there are so many resources available on the internet to learn photography I have not taken a course since.
I’m all about free, so I”m always on the lookout for good resources and this is one of them.
This course is not for everyone, but for those who like the lecture format of a college-level course and are looking for something that covers the science, artistic, and computing aspects of photography, then this might be for you.
According to the site, this is the public version of the course that he use to teach at Standford. It does seem to be a very popular online course and please read the RED text section on the home page with regard to the video lectures that go along with this course.
The site contains video lectures, lecture materials, and course assignments if you so choose to do the assignment for fun.
Rather than rehashing the details you can read on his site I’ll just say go check it out and see if it is for you at
Fro Knows Photo gives away Red River Paper to first 300 responders
Jared Polin, aka the I Shoot RAW man, of Fro Knows Photo is one of the folks that I follow. He has a unique perspective on photography that I like as I think it just tells it like it is.
Right now he has an offer for the first 300 responders for sample paper from Red River Paper. Red River Paper is one paper source I have used and would recommend. I”m just not big enough yet to get these types of offers for my readers so I wanted to share Fro Knows Photo’s post.
Click on the link in his video to see if you can still get the free sample kit from Red River Paper and give their paper a try. I’m sure you will like it.
Don’t forget to check out Fro Knows Photo as well as I’m sure you will like his content as well.
You can also click on the “F” logo in the bottom right to go to the post on his page.
During the ON1 Photo Raw Pre-Sale and Sweepstakes period enter the ON1 Photo RAW sweepstakes and/or get ON1 Photo Raw on Sale with Bonus items.
ON1 Software is gearing up for the release ON1 Photo RAW, a major upgrade to their ON1 Photo suite. As part of the ramp up promotions, they have weekly sweepstakes that you can win awesome prizes and you can Pre-Order ON1 Photo RAW at the PRE-Order discount prices during the Pre-Sale Sale.
Click Learn More above to enter the sweepstakes. Make sure to come back and enter each week. The breakdown of the time periods for each week and the prizes they are offering that week shown below.
ON1 Photo RAW Sweepstakes contest periods and prizes for that week.
Sept. 18-24: ON1 Photo RAW and a Wacom Cintiq 13 HD Interactive Pen and Touch
Sept. 25-Oct 1: ON1 Photo RAW and a 12.9-inch Silver 128GB Apple iPad Pro
Oct. 2-8: ON1 Photo RAW and a $1000 B&H Photo Gift Card
Oct. 9-15: ON1 Photo RAW and a Sony Alpha α6300 Mirrorless Digital Camera with 16-50mm Lens
Oct. 16-22: ON1 Photo RAW and a Wacom Cintiq 13 HD Interactive Pen and Touch
Oct. 23-29: ON1 Photo RAW and a Sony Alpha α6300 Mirrorless Digital Camera with 16-50mm Lens
Oct. 30-Nov. 5: ON1 Photo RAW and a $1000 Amazon Gift Card
Nov. 6-12: ON1 Photo RAW and a DJI Phantom 4 Quadcopter with 4K/12MP Camera
After you have entered the sweepstakes, be sure to check out the new features of ON1 Photo Raw.
If you like what you see and I’m sure you will, you can pre-order your upgrade or pre-order ON1 Photo RAW and get the current version ON1 Photo 10.5 now so you can start making great photos now and get ON1 Photo RAW November free.
Don’t forget the Pre-Sale includes the following extras.
4 ON1 Photo RAW Master Courses
Monthly Loyalty Rewards
If you are unfamiliar with the ON1 suite of photo editing products for Mac and Windows
Aurora HDR 2017 Pre-ordering has begun with a $10 New Customer Pre-Order Discount, Upgrade Discounts, and Bonus items for all.
So what is it going to cost me and how long is the promotion:
Pre-order pricing is available from September 14 – September 29.
New Customers can Pre-Order for $89 that is a $10 savings off of the regular price of $99 and is only available during pre-order, Includes Pre-Order Bonuses!
Current Users of Aurora HDR Pro can Upgrade for $49 and get the Pre-Order Bonuses.
Current Users of Aurora HDR can Upgrade for $69 and get the Pre-Order Bonuses.
So what are the Pre-Order Bonus Items:
Everyone who pre-orders Aurora HDR 2017 will get these bonus items.
You get the Deep Dive video from Trey Ratcliff. Trey will go in Deep into Aurora HDR 2107 and I’m sure will point out all the new features.
A 1 Year basic subscription to SmugMug for hosting the great Aurora HDR images you are going to create
A 60-day KelbyOne membership so you can take advantage of some great photography courses from KelbyOne
And 25 Square Prints from Parabo.press (free global shipping). So you can show off your Aurora HDR 2017 created photos
Aurora HDR 2017 Key Features:
NEW: Polarize Filter
NEW: Powerful Zone System for Luminosity masks
NEW: Defringing Tool to remove chromatic aberration
NEW: Batch Processing
NEW: Radial Masking
IMPROVED: Tone-mapping technology with reduced HDR noise, improved realism of initial result and faster performance
IMPROVED: User Interface with a cleaner more modern style
The total package with bonus items is worth up to $300 if sold separately. So don’t miss out on this great pre-order special.
Continue reading to get more into the nuts and bolts of the program including system requirements, and comparison of the different versions of Aurora are below.
Serge Ramelli’s Complete Training for Adobe Lightroom CC! Join one of the most respected educators in the photography industry for a set of high-quality video tutorials which cover all aspects of Lightroom CC. This course will take you from novice or intermediate user to expert in less time than it takes to fly from London to New York!
A Necessity for All Photographers! When looking to take your art to the next level, a few key processes are critical to enhancing the impact your images create. In this tutorial, renowned photographer and educator Serge Ramelli walks you through aspects of Photoshop which will take you towards this goal.
Bring Out your Inner Black and White Artist! When it is done right, images processed in black and white can have a fantastic impact on the viewer. In this course, Serge Ramelli and Kelvin Pimont take us through a massive range of tips and techniques to bring the best out of those images.
I’m posting this limited time offer from one of the companies I am an affiliate of and I didn’t want you to miss out. I have not used any of Serge’s products, but from what I have seen of his work and from what I’ve seen on the internet I would expect this is a top quality product. That and I don’t think Stuck in Customs would have it on their site if they didn’t think it was a great product.
