Welcome to the Fine-Art Astrophotography group

Great idea, Gary!

A very inspiring mission statement Gary! I hope to bring some experiments to this group. Thanks for creating it!
Cs, Nico

Hi Gang,

Well this could be a fun place to hang out & play! Good initiative, Cheers Gary 
So let's see what everyone thinks of wacky images like this https://www.astrobin.com/42qmb4/0/ created using Starnet ++

PS: Seems Toshiya Arai liked the composition of that  particular image too lol   - https://www.astrobin.com/h9sdlq/

Min Xie:
Thank you Gary for creating this! I always have the attempt to use processing tools (Photoshop for example) to make an astro-image more like water paint, oil paint - make the image more abstract. I attempted a couple of times and love the result.But I always have the fear that this disobey the "true" astrophotography that requires all original tastes from the original data.

Yes, I too have been reluctant to post images that do not comply to the "unwritten rules" of traditional astrophotography. For the last couple of years I only display these departures from tradition at my website (www.garylopezphotography.com) or the gallery that represents my work. Like you, I too have experimented with making astroimages that are akin to abstracts, as well as interpretations that are more impressionistic, emphasizing shadow and light. As I have pursued this style I've found the resulting images often resemble a rendered water color. That is to say, the image retains the fundamental structures of the original, but it represented by more translucent colors and a broader range of values. What has been your experience, Min?

Sigga:
I think is excellent idea, I doubt my skills add much but I will enjoying looking at others work!Best wishes
-Sigga

On the contrary, Sigga, I think that your taste and deep experience with astrophotography imagery is exactly what we need in this group. If an image works for you, it is likely that it will be a positive experience for many astrophotographers and non-astrophotographers alike. For example, earlier today you mentioned in your comments about a recently posted starless image that you "missed the stars." I agreed with you. For me, the image lacked enough structure and movement when the stars were removed. I am hoping you can bring that same critical eye to this group. Takk, Sigga, for joining.

Yes great idea.  Recently I have been out on the edge and a few times over the edge using new tools.  I have started using 3D LUT (Look Up Table) and the color options are out of control.  This is what they use in cinema to give an image a particular "Look"…  In any case, will try out some images and send them over here.  Come to think of it, there is one I have been fooling with that I can start out presenting.

That would be terrific. I too have been experimenting with cinematic use of this imagery. In my work, I have been editing short videos using camera movement and evocative music to create an experience of traveling through the imagery. I posted a recent piece at my website (https://www.garylopezphotography.com/videos). I will post one of these video to AB sometime soon. I'm interested in the response.

Andy 01:

Gary Lopez:
That would be terrific. I too have been experimenting with cinematic use of this imagery. In my work, I have been editing short videos using camera movement and evocative music to create an experience of traveling through the imagery. I posted a recent piece at my website (https://www.garylopezphotography.com/videos). I will post one of these video to AB sometime soon. I'm interested in the response.

That's really nicely done Gary - What platform did you use to animate the stills?
Cheers

Andy

I used iMovie on a Mac desktop. Nothing fancy. It has all you need for basic video/audio editing and fundamental FX.

Wonderful idea!

Connor Matherne:
Thanks for the group Gary- finally gave me a reason to share a moon image myself and Andrew McCarthyhad made togetherhttps://www.astrobin.com/u011ft/?nc=user

I always loved the result- but never wanted to share it on this site since we blended our moon data together to achieve something a bit surreal.

Hope y'all like it as much as I do

Connor

Conner, this is a wonderful image. I don't mind it's surreal or not. It's just beautiful! It definitely deserves to be seen by more people!

Thank you Gary for this site
Best Regards Flo

Hi Gary,

This is a wonderful idea. It caught me in a moment when I w as really thinking about what we are doing as astrophotographers, our relation with the re ality we are trying to picture and how it relates to the scientific aspect. You helped in clarifying the question and probably showing us a way of concentrating our efforts. How many types of astrophotography are there? What are those types that are not fine-art or merely artistic? I'll try to picture how I see this and maybe you can tell if that overlaps at least partially with what you had in mind.

If I can find one criterion that can make an astrophotographic image fine art it would be emotion, aesthetical emotion if you like. If I can transmit something with my picture, if I can change something at least for a moment in the viewer, provoke an emotion, a feeling of something "different" I think it can qualify as fine art photography. Actually, I was trying to achieve that with some of my images. Not with the goal of doing fine-art photography (I just discovered the idea with your group). Probably you did too and I think there are lots of us who are already striving (consciously or not) to make artistic images and create a special atmosphere or impression. That's why I was arguing during all this backyard/remote IOTD debate that the final criterion should be aesthetical.  I have no idea how astrophotography viewed by the fine art photographic community at large or how does the public see us. It's sure we're not mainstream. Thanx for making the effort of bringing more visibility.

What's a bit unclear for me is that there seems to be some tacit implication that fine-art astrophotography should depart from our standard way of processing images or shooting them. My view is that this is not necessary (I mean your image and Min's image of the Pickering triangle are perfect examples of fine art photography without departing from what we call a standard approach). Personally I want to image the beauty of the Unvierse as it is. The stars and all : ). I think that composition, chromatism, the immersive aspect of the image can all be obtained without tweaking reality too much. It is not possible for all our cosmic targets to produce fine-art (globular clusters and a galaxy in the middle of the image are hard to be given an artistic perspective, but not impossible). That's a personal interpretation of course, not in opposition with anyone wanting to create more pictural images. I studied graphics and painting when I was younger, but medicine doesn't leave me much time to do that now. So astrophotography can indeed be a way of getting closer to fine art.

Sorry for my rantings, but if I can't talk this with you people, who I am going to talk to : ) ?

Clear skies,

Bogdan

Van H. McComas:
This is the best idea in a long while. May it Live Long and Prosper!Van

I am eager to see some of those legendary McComas time-lapse videos. So, so good.