Hello, World

[LunarOne]

The first photograph of the entire Earth from the Artemis II mission has been released. And it's surprisingly noisy! Looking at the EXIF metadata, I see that the exposure was 1/4s at f/4 with an ISO of 51200. I can see that the image has been converted in Lightroom, so it might have even been brightered significantly. And since it was take with the lens at 22mm, they must not have been very far away at the time. So I'm astonished by how dim the Earth must be to need that kind of esposure - still I doubt many of us could do better!



alex@macstudio ~ % exiftool -a /Users/alex/Downloads/art002e000192.jpg
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[GravelBen]

Not often you see the aurora australis and borealis in the same photo!

[Derek Smith]

It's a fascinating and interesting image.

I still prefer 'Earthrise'. Had the poster of that on my bedroom wall. It was awe-inspiring, even shocking.

[eltawater]

The official description is that this is the earth eclipsing the sun from the perspective of the Artemis, so that might go some way to explain the very high ISO and noise....

[geeks]

Superb shot considering how hard it is to get shots like that. This gives you an idea of what it likely would have looked like through the lens I expect. I am very pleased that they didn't denoise the brightened image too hard or through one of the denoise algorithms used in astrophotography. Looking forward to some lunar images as they come.

https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/amf-art002e00019...

[LunarOne]

Given that they could focus at infinity and depth of field wouldn't be an issue in this case, there could have been a case for shooting at f/1.4 or f/2 - any loss of sharpness from shooting wide open would be more than compensated by a better s/n ratio at ISO 12800 or 6400. Of course they would have needed the 24mm f/1.4 Nikkor prime lens for that which would not be as versatile as a zoom and I'm sure weight is a critical consideration! I wish NASA would release the raw file so that I could try out an AI denoising algorith on it.

Still, it's an incredible shot and as long as you don't view it at 1:1 then it serves its purpose.

[Simpo Two]

geeks said:

This gives you an idea of what it likely would have looked like through the lens I expect.

I think photographs in this context should either be 'as shot' or processed to look as they did at the time. Brightening an image in full shadow until it looks like it's in the sun is unhelpful and misleading IMHO.

[croyde]

I just hit 'Enhance'

[Fordo]

Simpo Two said:

I think photographs in this context should either be 'as shot' or processed to look as they did at the time. Brightening an image in full shadow until it looks like it's in the sun is unhelpful and misleading IMHO.

I agree - when it's scientific, I feel it should be kept within the realms of what is really looked like to the eye

- But can understand it. Because of where the moon is right now and their path to it, they'll only ever see the a dark side of earth, never a nicely lit daylight side. And I suppose they wanted a nice image of earth they could contrast against the photos taken on the Apollo mission.

But I did confuse me, until I watched a video about the various missions and their orbit comparisons.

Also made me realise, Apollo 11 got lucky - they got a half lit earth all way there and back. And how epic did that look for the photos?

[LunarOne]

If this is the dark side of the earth, then how is there any light at all? I would expect it to be pitch black and even a much longer exposure should show very little.

[Simpo Two]

LunarOne said:

If this is the dark side of the earth, then how is there any light at all? I would expect it to be pitch black and even a much longer exposure should show very little.

Moonlight.

[Fordo]

Yup, light bounced off the moon.

Exposure Time : 1/4
F Number : 4.0
Exposure Program : Manual
ISO : 51200

That's pretty extreme iso there. I'm pretty sure if you did the same shutter speed and iso, on a night with a full moon, you'd be able to achieve a similarly bright image.

If moon wasn't there yup it would be pretty dark, but since they're heading for it, it's behind camera and would be pretty much a full moon

[LunarOne]

Fordo said:

Yup, light bounced off the moon.

Exposure Time : 1/4
F Number : 4.0
Exposure Program : Manual
ISO : 51200

That's pretty extreme iso there. I'm pretty sure if you did the same shutter speed and iso, on a night with a full moon, you'd be able to achieve a similarly bright image.

If moon wasn't there yup it would be pretty dark, but since they're heading for it, it's behind camera and would be pretty much a full moon

Makes sense. I don't have a D5 but I do have a D850. I just took a photo out of my front door of the frontage illuminated only by a distant streetlight using the same exposure settings and then a separate photo exposed to show how the scene actually looks to my eye. I have left the metadata alone with the exception of removing my name from the copyright info using exiftool. Photos are JPEGs straight out of the camera. Lens is AF-S 24-120 f/4 at 24mm. Note that these are 45MP vs 20MP for the NASA photo and the noise profile won't be identical.

With the same exposure used for "Hello, World"


Exposed to show the scene as it actually looked

[Simpo Two]

That seems about right. More importantly, I used to own a BMW 7-Series in Calypso Red just like that one! Lovely comfortable thing.

[LunarOne]

Simpo Two said:

That seems about right. More importantly, I used to own a BMW 7-Series in Calypso Red just like that one! Lovely comfortable thing.

Thanks! Posted photos a few times but one more couldn't hurt. I may be moving abroad later this year, in which case she'll sadly have to find a new home.

[Fordo]

I'm glad we all agree on the important things. The moon and space are epic. NASA should keep photos realistic. And old BMW's are fantastic!

[ApOrbital]

Hello it's nice up here.

[Itsallicanafford]

IMHO, bracketing that ISO could give you more options in post, 51200 is a chunky number. Sensor tech hasn’t moved leaps and bounds since the D5 but a set-up with VR in lens or body could have helped with a slower speed to again reduce ISO , although the Earth is not totally static.
Personally, if you could have managed a far lower ISO, you could have resisted the temptation to over lighten the Earth and have a really nice ‘Dark’ Earth, but with lots of detail still present in the shadows.

[V8LM]

Hello World indeed:



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[paulguitar]

V8LM said:

Hello World indeed:



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Stunning.