An in-depth advanced course about wide-field night sky photography with digital SLR or mirrorless cameras and ordinary lenses…not employing telescopes. How to shoot well-composed and exposed starscapes, night sky landscapes, eclipses, the moon, the sun, astronomical phenomena.
Pre-requisites: Previous enrollment in AAA Night Sky Photography class (any date) or skill level at intermediate and above. Some night sky photography experience helpful. This is not a beginning class.
Requirements: Digital camera with interchangeable lenses (point and shoot cameras won’t work), tripod, image processing software (Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom recommended). Intermediate-level knowledge of photography and workings of camera. Knowledge of image processing software.
June 3: Composition
Good/bad, visualization, storytelling. Looking vs seeing in evaluating photos. Determining best focal length for picture.
June 10: Equipment, planning
Detailed review of cameras, lenses, accessories. How to plan an image with apps. How to read star charts. Review proper exposure. Prepare for field trip.
June 17: Field Trip
First quarter moon. Demonstration of different lenses, small tracking mounts. Location: Central Park (weather will alter date and location may change. See details in syllabus for those outside of NYC).
June 24: Critique from field trip, start image processing
Review class images from field trip. Discuss organizing files, editing, processing.
July 1: Image Processing II
Advanced techniques. Detailed demo in Adobe Camera RAW + Photoshop.Selection tools, layers. How proper camera exposure influences processing.
July 8: Putting it all together
Review of procedures. More critiques, processing – panoramas, preparing for printing.
Location: Classes will be online using Zoom. Sign-in with an ID code given to you the weekend before the first day of class. Class recordings available during the course and for 4 weeks after. There will be at least one field trip. Date of the field trip may change due to weather.
Time: 7-9 PM, Thursdays
Cost: $60, AAA Members only. Not a Member? Join for $35.
Instructor: Stan Honda is a New York-based photographer and worked as a photojournalist for over 38 years. His photographs for Agence France-Presse from the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center were widely published and three images are on display in the 9/11 Memorial Museum. Currently working independently, a documentary book and film, Moving Walls: The Barracks of America’s Concentration Camps, was recently published with author Sharon Yamato. A continuing project involves night sky landscapes and he has worked as an artist-in-residence at seven national parks. Stan has had 8 images selected for NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day website. He is a previous Board Member of the AAA and coordinates the Astrophotography Google Group. See Stan’s pictures at his website or follow him on Instagram or Facebook.
