Shuttle Launch Photos

[sawdust_128]

After all the tracking around that we did before and after the shuttle launch, I have finally figured out that we are trying to process nearly 4000 still frames of the launch. About 3000 of these are from the defragmentation of an HD video shot by someone we met at the launch. Abuout 200 are froma Cannon 40D mounted on a telescope, and about 400 are what Cindy and I shot with 40D's. We do not yet have the files from others we are sharing with. I wanted to get some of these posted asap however, I have run into some issues. Maybe some of the photographers out there can help.

We shot everything in RAW format. The files are huge (12-13 meg each?) . Any advise on how to get them down to something that could be loaded to POG (a few good ones) without smashing the quality would be helpful.

Are there any suggestions on a site that they could be loaded to for sharing?

In the mean time, here is a a link to the official NASA site containing pictures of the launch that are just spectacular p61 - 65. I beleive they were shot from the wildlife refuge accessible via Biolab Rd. It is closed to the public 24 hours before a launch. It is about 6-8 miles out.

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-119/ndxpage1.html

We were set up at Veteren's Park where the Spacewalk is located. We were apporx. 12 miles out with direct line of sight to the launch pad.

Here is one of the shots we took. I think the image is at about 40% of it's size. I will try to post a few more of the shuttle and the vapor trail rainbow that so many people have talked about.

Again, much thanks to Andre and Anne for helping us accomplish a life long goal.

[Ray Davis]

If the photos are shot in RAW format, then you're going to have to use software, generally from the camera maker, which will process them, and save them as a jpeg file, so that you can share.

Once you have a set of jpegs, any photo sharing service would be fine. I use picassa from google, it's free and works well. But there are several others.

IF you have a recent version of Photoshop, there is a raw conversion filter in there as well, and you can batch process the whole bunch pretty easily as well.

There are other software programs at not too high of price that will do raw processing. I used one in the past which I think was called "Babel", which did a fair job on my Nikon raw files.

When processing for sharing, resize them down to something reasonable, somewhere between 1280 and 1600 pixels on the longest side. That will give a picture that has plenty of data to provide a stunning view, but won't completely overload you while uploading, or us while downloading.

Ray

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Very nice image Ed.
Can you adjust your camera to work in jpg?

Here is a link to some RAW conversion sites.

http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?client=ca-pub-5923391647546055&dt=1238628708735&lmt=1199512002&prev_fmts=180x90_0ads_al_s&format=fp_al_lp&output=html&correlator=1238628708461&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pcdon.com%2Fpage2006.html&ea=0&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fcse%3Fcx%3D01315 8327042001083789%253Atqrrd3nmypq%26q%3DRAW%2Bforma t%26sa%3DSearch%26cof%3DFORID%253A0&frm=0&ga_vid=1767811384.1238628709&ga_sid=1238628709&ga_hid=1351443406&flash=10.0.12&u_h=800&u_w=1280&u_ah=770&u_aw=1280&u_cd=32&u_tz=-240&u_his=4&u_nplug=14&u_nmime=61&dtd=15&kw_type=radlink&rt=ChBJ0_llAANqlgrGgAHMkTnGEhBSYXcgSW1hZ2UgRWRpdG9 yGghwJdwEJOc9wSgBUhMIqJbiwevQmQIVAuTGCh0yAn03&hl=en&kw0=Raw+Image+Editor&kw1=PC+Accessory&kw2=Photos&kw3=PC+to+Phone&kw4=Download+PC+Games&okw=Raw+Image+Editor

JIM

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Here is a link to the best free resizing site I have found.

Use 600 pixels for general posting, and 350 pixels for an avatar.

You need only change the pixels to set up to resize. All other settings are OK as is.

http://www.shrinkpictures.com/

The main site that this is contained in and which is a great resource tool for the non computer minded individual follows.

http://www.pcdon.com/

JIM

[phorner]

Great shot, Ed!

Another launch is scheduled in May and we may try to make that one.

Glad you were able to experience it up close.....