"Blood Moon" Eclipse Photos

Some of our members' best lunar eclipse shots

By PF Staff in Articles and Tips on Apr 19, 2014

The "Blood Moon" lunar eclipse was a breathtaking sight which dozens of our members watched and photographed just a few days ago.  Now it's time for us to enjoy some of the great moon photos that have been posted on the forum!  Below are some of our favorites prior to the total eclipse; click on any thumbnail to enlarge:

Next up, the "Blood Moon" itself.

Photograph a Red Moon: Total Eclipse Tonight

The moon will enter a total eclipse on April 15th, 2014

By PF Staff in Articles and Tips on Apr 14, 2014

In the early morning of April 15th the moon will acquire a reddish hue as we observe a total lunar eclipse lasting several hours.  This rare event will make it a great night to go out and capture stunning moon photos with those telephoto lenses, and possibly moonscapes, if you get lucky!

According to NASA, the the moon will start changing color at 1:58 a.m. Eastern Time (GMT-4), as it enters the Earth's Umbra, or shadow.  It will become the so-called "blood moon" by the 3:07 a.m., once it is fully engulfed by the shadow, and this will continue until approximately 4:24 a.m., when the process will begin undoing itself. 

Although one would normally expect the moon to become invisible while it's in Earth's shadow, our atmosphere refracts some sunlight into the shadow, which is then scattered, ultimately resulting in a perceptible red hue.  A similar effect reddens the sky during sunsets.

While lunar eclipses are quite common, total eclipses featuring a red moon are rare, as we need to be lucky to get the Sun, Earth, and Moon to line up properly.  This time around we're super lucky, as similar eclipses will take place on October 8th of this year and April 4th and September 28th of 2015.

Read on for some lunar photography tips to help you get the best moon photos tonight.

Extreme Macro: "Boy and Girl"

The making of a stacked macro photo

By Nass in Articles and Tips on Apr 5, 2014

Have you ever wondered how to capture extreme macro images with greater than life-size magnification?  In this article, we'll be taking look at the technique that'll get the job done by walking you through an example image shot with a Pentax K-7 rig.

When my wife decided she'd had enough and went on one of her ballistic flyswatting rampages, I took this as too good an opportunity to miss out on for some extreme macro photography. And whilst one fly is good, two flies is even better, and her anti-fly mission was so devastating that I soon had a collection ready to give this challenging shot a go! Focus stacking is a niche branch of macro that actually only became possible with the advent of digital photography. Stacking is an attractive digital option because the laws of physics dictate that depth the of field at magnification will be very narrow before diffraction limits kick in, and this technique overcomes that problem. Stacking requires digital stills taken at many different focus points - because they have to be blended electronically in order to create one master "all in focus" image. Shooting the stack and combining the images are both slow processes - a typical finished stack would combine several hundred stills with subsequent overnight processing on a reasonably beefy PC.

The completed stack, after postprocessing with Noise Ninja and Topaz Detail (click to enlarge)

The challenges in this sort of photography start at the outset. Arranging and cleaning the small arthropods so that they photograph well is by itself a whole branch of entomology, the skills for which are usually the preserve of professional museum curators and college entomologists. This is a world filled with curious terms such as 'spreading' and 'relaxing' insects; a craft requiring deep reserves of patience and complete attention to detail. Preparing one specimen is itself a challenge but doing two together, trust me, made for some colourful language.

Snap Tutorial - 'Rule of Thirds'

A Pentax Forums quick look at a photographic topic

By Heie in Articles and Tips on Dec 21, 2013

Artists of any medium, whether it's photography, painting, cinematography, or otherwise, spend a great deal of time composing their images, often adhering to strict guidelines that have proven to enhance the power of a photograph and make it more naturally appealing to the viewer's eye. Arguably the most basic and fundamental of these compositional standards, and thus usually the first learned by aspiring photographers and artists, is the "Rule of Thirds."

In the above image, it's clear that both the horizon line and the center of the tree are placed very deliberately in certain parts of the photo. Read on to discover exactly why that is!

Editorial Note: In conjunction with the recently announced December Monthly Photography Contest, we thought it would be the perfect time to debut the second installment of the Pentax Forums Snap Tutorials! Aptly named (at least we think so), because the name is in fact a double entendre. In a photographic context, 'snap' is obvious. The other meaning refers to simplicity, brevity, etc., and that's just what these are - quick informative little guides to introduce you to a topic of photography that you may not have been previously aware of. Our first tutorial focused on 'Negative Space,' exploring how best to capitalize on not just the subject, but the contrasting void around it as well.

Snap Tutorial - 'Negative Space'

A quick look at a photographic theme

By Heie in Articles and Tips on Nov 11, 2013

As photographers, we spend quite a bit of time finding image-worthy subjects and composing them in such a manner as to highlight them. Some might argue that that would be the crux of photography, and at the end of the day, that's why whatever it is happens to be the subject, after all. And whether we do it purposefully or subconsciously, the void around the subject is (hopefully) carefully considered as part of that overall composition, given the same amount of deliberation as the subject itself. In fact, it can be the deciding factor between a so-so snapshot and a gallery worthy photograph!

In the above image, it's clear that there are only two distinct 'things' in the photograph - the lonely dancer on the edge of a chair and her world of grey. Read on to discover what the interaction between the two of them really means from a photographic point of view!

Editorial Note: In conjunction with the recently announced November Monthly Photography Contest, we thought it would be the perfect time to debut the Pentax Forums Snap Tutorials! Aptly named (at least we think so), because the name is in fact a double entendre. In a photographic context, 'snap' is obvious. The other meaning refers to simplicity, brevity, etc., and that's just what these are - quick informative little guides to introduce you to a topic of photography that you may not have been previously aware of.