Technology Explained, Practice
Daniela Bowker
Resolution and pixels and image quality! Oh my! ...

When you hear the term 'high-res' thrown about with such abandon when it comes to images for web use, have you ever stopped to think just how big or how high quality and image meant for the web needs to be?

Resolution and pixels and image quality! Oh my! Saving images for the web
Feature Articles, Photography Theory
Haje Jan Kamps
Low-contrast photographs don't have to be boring

There's an assumption that high-contrast images are more dynamic, more compelling, more inviting. Have a go at some low-contrast photography. You might surprise yourself with the results.

Low-contrast photographs don't have to be boring
Feature Articles, Theory
Daniela Bowker
Seeking balance in your photos

Balance doesn't mean symmetry; it means an internal consistency and tension within your photos. And it's a vital element of composition. 

Seeking balance in your photos
Feature Articles, Photography Theory
Haje Jan Kamps
Training your photographic luck

Great photos might be down to a little bit of luck, but most of that 'luck' you make yourself. Don't believe us? Read on...

Training your photographic luck
Feature Articles, Practice
Daniela Bowker
The ups and downs and ins and outs of ...

Photographing buildings doesn't have to mean wide-angle lenses and fretting about correcting for the keystone effect. Any lens, and angle. Don't believe us? Let us show you!

The ups and downs and ins and outs of photographing buildings

herschel

The birth and death of stars

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As I walked in the door this evening, I was met with the effusive strains of my brother telling me that I just had to look at these pictures. He’d been watching Stargazing Live on the BBC, you see. The pictures in question are the rather excellent shots taken by the Herschel and XMM-Newton space telescopes, which show the birth and death of stars in the galaxy next door to ours, Andromeda.

Herschel captures images of all things cold, such as gas and dust, which gather when stars form. It’s an infrared sensor.

XMM-Newton, on the other hand, captures x-rays of things that are hot. So its shots are of stars as they meet their fiery ends.

Combine the two sets of images and you have a glorious composite picture of the life cycle of stars in a galaxy.

At 3.5 metres in diameter (that’s two-and-bit of me), the mirror in the Herschel observatory is the largest ever sent into space. And in this case, the resolution really is crucial. Without its monstrous size, it wouldn’t be able to capture long wavelength light, or far-infrared. The human eye alone can’t detect it. Without the mirror, we wouldn’t be able to see the infrared images of the galaxy so clearly.

And they’re pretty stunning.

(Pictures from European Space Agency via BBC, and headsup to my brother, of course.)