Shooting “Color” in the Blackness of Space

universetoday.com ^ | on December 2, 2014 | Morgan Rehnberg

[BenLurkin]

If NASA is so advanced, why are their pictures in black and white? The answer, it turns out, brings us to the intersection of science and the laws of nature.

[Mr. Blond]

Not enough light in space? Put a flash bulb on the cameras.

[CodeToad]

I’m thinking a Nikon D5300. Good price plus performance.

[BenLurkin]

Pic of the reporter:

[ExGeeEye]

Yup, I especially love the “continuous shooting” feature on mine. Group picture I might have expended 5 frames of film on, I shot close to 30 in the same amount of time and got 4 or 5 with no blinks or kid-fidgets to choose from :)

[Antoninus II]

I use an older Pentax K100D. Works for me.

[mikrofon]

If NASA is so advanced, why are their pictures in black and white?

Because they still have plenty of 50's & 60's-era faux film footage of space "achievements" to recycle…

[NorthMountain]

One thing I would be curious about is the color response profile of the greyscale imager itself.

Determining Quantum Efficiency (as a function of wavelength) is part of characterizing the instrument. The process of selecting a detector (or detector technology) is an engineering trade study, and includes (among other things) selecting a favorable QE function for the wavelengths of interest.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin, extra to APoD.

[RansomOttawa]

I remember reading something ansel adams said about the onset of digital technology and scanning . He was pretty excited about it’s future.

That must be an interesting read. What little digital photography existed in his day must have been powered by steam.

[MeshugeMikey]

the scanner was the point of interest. scanning images for further processing.

[MeshugeMikey]

Photographers are, in a sense, composers and the negatives are their scores. …In the electronic age, I am sure that scanning techniques will be developed to achieve prints of extraordinary subtlety from the original negative scores. If I could return in twenty years or so I would hope to see astounding interpretations of my most expressive images. It is true no one could print my negatives as I did, but they might well get more out of them by electronic means. Image quality is not the product of a machine, but of the person who directs the machine, and there are no limits to imagination and expression.” - Ansel Adams

[RansomOttawa]

Thanks!

If Adams was that optimistic about the promise of electronic scanning (which in his day was analogue rather than digital), we can only imagine how he might have felt about the possibilities of, say, HDR photography with a professional-level digital camera.

[MeshugeMikey]

Imagine his panoramic images using a camera with a 120 megapixel sensor...

my my my