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Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

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Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#22

> The silhouette of Brown is neatly demarcated against the bubbling surface of the Sun. His downward trajectory is perfectly framed between sunspots, active regions on the surface of the Sun that are slightly cooler than their surrounding areas. This is not just a pretty picture; it is truly a masterpiece Excuse me while I go wash off the stench of AI-generated descriptions. The picture is very nice, though.

> This is not just a ...

Dead giveaway

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#23

This is a classic example of a simple idea that no one had ever done before. The execution was complex, of course, and Andrew McCarthy is one of the most skilled astrophotographers. But once you get the idea, a number of people could have done it--but no one ever did. Makes you wonder what other similar ideas are out there! You can bet McCarthy is already thinking some. p.s.: My brush with celebrity is that I saw an…

Your advice there is really valuable. Thanks for providing it. I've always wondered how to post-process my night images, and this is a really good guide for that.

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#24
post #9
post #3

It’s a very cool picture. Andrew McCarthy sells prints of these and other astrophotography on his website[0] although they’re always limited run prints. I bought the one of the sun with a SpaceX rocket for a friend who is into astronomy. As a sales strategy, making his photos limited edition is a fantastic way to put the pressure on to actually buy instead of thinking about making a purchase indefinitely, even if fro…

I get the whole scarcity thing -- and I've even asked Andrew about this -- because if I'm willing to give him my money after saving up for it, but it sells out first, wouldn't he make more money if he took mine then? But, I guess we just have to have an art budget with some money already set aside if we want to jump on opportunities when artists do this. I respect it, but yes it's a bit inconvenient. PS. The full, un…

It's the same situation with $1000 theater tickets. You aren't the market.

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#26
post #13

Is the full-sun photo edited to remove the paramotor? I just realized it was in the video shot - the head-down dive “tracking” position of the skydiver in the video happens only a few frames after jumping, only for a few frames, and after that he’s tumbling a bit against the sun, with the paramotor still visible. I’m guessing even if the video and still were two different cameras, they wouldn’t have been far enough a…

In the behind the scenes video the photographer makes an offhand comment that yes, he was going to take the silhouette of the skydiver (and maybe some of the immediate surroundings) and composite it with a mosaic of sun images taken around the same time (but without the paramotor present).

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#27
post #22

> The silhouette of Brown is neatly demarcated against the bubbling surface of the Sun. His downward trajectory is perfectly framed between sunspots, active regions on the surface of the Sun that are slightly cooler than their surrounding areas. This is not just a pretty picture; it is truly a masterpiece Excuse me while I go wash off the stench of AI-generated descriptions. The picture is very nice, though.

> This is not just a ... Dead giveaway

Kagi just launched an AI flagging feature. This is something HN needs.

I don’t mind AI content. But I’m not going to read it carefully before commenting, and will double check it with real sources before changing my mind about anything.

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#28
post #23

This is a classic example of a simple idea that no one had ever done before. The execution was complex, of course, and Andrew McCarthy is one of the most skilled astrophotographers. But once you get the idea, a number of people could have done it--but no one ever did. Makes you wonder what other similar ideas are out there! You can bet McCarthy is already thinking some. p.s.: My brush with celebrity is that I saw an…

Your advice there is really valuable. Thanks for providing it. I've always wondered how to post-process my night images, and this is a really good guide for that.

Glad it helped! I definitely encourage you to continue practicing post-processing. There is a lot of magic there, and it's fun too.

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#29
post #16
post #13

Is the full-sun photo edited to remove the paramotor? I just realized it was in the video shot - the head-down dive “tracking” position of the skydiver in the video happens only a few frames after jumping, only for a few frames, and after that he’s tumbling a bit against the sun, with the paramotor still visible. I’m guessing even if the video and still were two different cameras, they wouldn’t have been far enough a…

Apparently it took multiple tries to get this right. It is possible that the video is from one of the earlier failed attempts.

On a Reddit thread somewhere, the OP mentioned the sun is taken as a mosaic, where the picture taken with just the person is a very small FOV which excludes the paramotor.

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#30
post #22

> The silhouette of Brown is neatly demarcated against the bubbling surface of the Sun. His downward trajectory is perfectly framed between sunspots, active regions on the surface of the Sun that are slightly cooler than their surrounding areas. This is not just a pretty picture; it is truly a masterpiece Excuse me while I go wash off the stench of AI-generated descriptions. The picture is very nice, though.

> This is not just a ... Dead giveaway

AI-diom (n.) - an idiom which, while not exclusive to AI, is so frequent in AI output as to strongly suggest its use
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