For a certain contest.

[BF Hammer]

This image is only a proof-of-concept at this stage. I'm hoping to get pictures of the sun on another day with even more active sunspots.

My idea here was to just do a sky replacement. Sun shot with a dark solar filter. And I did this manually with a photo I took of the sky at the same 600mm zoom just a short distance away from the solar disk. Only natural intelligence used here (NI).

The subject of the contest is solar system objects. Instead of trying to compete with the dozens of astrophotographers who will submit ultra-detailed photos of Saturn or Jupiter with their giant telescopes and dedicated astro-cams, I am looking at a way to come in with something different enough to be noticed above the noise and I hope good. But I don't want this to look like it's fully artificial either.

I don't know. Tighter crop with less clouds? Different sky with more clouds and attempt to overlap the sun a little maybe? I keep having more ideas.

 

[BF Hammer]

I will take the silence as meaning there is nothing to complain about.

Second draft. My final vision is becoming clearer. This time I layer-stacked 100 photos of the sun to bring out more surface detail. Using a different cloudy sky photo for background and foreground. These are the same batch of photos I took last weekend.

 

[Dawg Pics]

I think you are moving in the right direction. The problem with spherical subjects in the middle of the composition is the negative space and a lonely object.

 

[BF Hammer]

I did not bother showing the final draft, but I did submit the photo over 2 weeks ago. I mostly cropped in a bit tighter and fixed the stacking blend better.

This is the final week for entries and the winner notified on the 20th.

 

[blackstar]

Wish you the winner of the contest.

 

[floridafan2023]

Very Nice!

 

[Esteila]

That's a seriously clever approach for the contest! Using the sky replacement and stacking to make the Sun stand out looks fantastic. The final image really pops with the sunspot detail and the cloudy sky—great execution!

 

[BF Hammer]

That's a seriously clever approach for the contest! Using the sky replacement and stacking to make the Sun stand out looks fantastic. The final image really pops with the sunspot detail and the cloudy sky—great execution!

Thanks! Of course it did not win, but this is one of my favorite images of the sun now.