This weekend, 270 avid astroimagers from around the world are converging in San Jose, California, for the 2008 Advanced Imaging Conference (AIC). And guess what? I’ll be there, too.
AIC’s board of directors invited me to speak at the conference because of the buzz Astronomy generates among astroimagers. Our magazine represents the largest audience available to photographers who target celestial objects. What’s more, many comments from imagers tell us we’re doing a great job of reproducing images. That doesn’t mean just getting the focus right. Mainly, it’s the effort we put into color correction — so the printed image represents what the photographer produced.
I can’t overstate this point. Astroimagers are among the most finicky photographers out there. Not only do they spend hours at the telescope acquiring the images, but they also spend hours at the computer processing exposures so the intensity and color balance are correct.
My talk will be “What Astronomy’s Photo Editor Wants.” For some in the audience who have submitted images to the magazine for years, what they hear will be a review. Other listeners, however, will learn what information they should include when sending images, what happens to images after they arrive, and, most importantly, what objects I’m looking for.
I’m looking forward to seeing some friends, meeting imagers I know only by name, and enticing the rest of the 270 attendees to begin contributing their fabulous celestial shots to Astronomy magazine.