Thanks for your video. I did this project and it turned out great. A few notes. Your print shop had a size minimum of 4 square feet. I instead ordered mine from posterprintshop which let me order a few 11x14 back-lit film prints for only $15 each plus shipping. The order arrived within a few days, and to my delight, their film has a white diffusion back, eliminating the need to make that layer. I ordered my 11x14 shadow boxes from Amazon for $18 each and chose ones with a removable spacer that holds the backlit film against the glass. For the 12v LED lighting, I installed it on the inside back board to shine directly towards the back of the picture. Finally, instead of using batteries which die quickly, I use a 12v 1a plug in power adapter. If one really wanted to do this for cheap, they can just buy a Deflecto back-lit frame for $20 to $40 and snap the appropriately sized backlit film right into it. So glad I watched your video. This is definitely the best way to display our art!

I am in the printing industry since the stone age. its nice but I am pretty much sure that I could beat that print after some tweaking. Try someone with at least a nine color solvent printer (maybe some of the latest latex could do it too) and tell them to not print uni directional. I think its doable with some elbow grease. Folks dont usually offer this kind of printing quality because its slow af and I am sure you need a couple of tries to get it good, but definetly doable.

@Bubbleboy19

Жыл бұрын

For someone with no printing knowledge, could you go a little deeper on the process? I’d like to print so of my shots and you seem to know a lot of the details needed to do so…

@BruceElliott

Жыл бұрын

What kind of ink would you suggest? I would think you'd want some kind of transparent substance, as opposed to the reflective one used on opaque media,e.g. paper.

@ColeRees

Жыл бұрын

You should make a video on this topic! You would get a lot of views.

This is fantastic, Nico! Thank you for showing the frame processing step-by-step; I can't wait to give it a try

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Awesome Nick! Let me know if you have any questions.

I'm glad to see you venturing into aspects of astrophotography other than just equipment to take the night sky with. Definitely a unique take compared to other channels

Absolutely amazing!!! The one thing that keeps me coming back to your videos is summed up in one word: relevance. You are consistently making videos that are answering questions and giving tips that everyone wants/needs. Keep up the great work! (No questions this time, LOL)

That looks phenomenal Nico! Now I want to get a few of my Aurora capture’s done that way. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Amazing process and result. Thank you for the great video

This is brilliant! Thanks for sharing!

Very neat! I’ve been looking around as well for an option that seems good, especially for big prints.

so cool!!! thanks for this idea!!! Will definitely try this!!! Keep up the good work and more power to your channel! Cheers!!!

Thanks for the video Nico!

Great Video Nico. Definitely a project to keep me busy during the cloudy nights. Thanks for sharing

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Yes, it's a fun little project and looks even better in person.

This is a great idea. Thanks for the info.

When I used to work for a former production company, we DIY’d some on stage light boxes for a series we put on. A very similar process just done with tons of DMX, wood, and chloroplast. I never would’ve considered the crossover to printing, nice Nico!

Nice project there Nico. Came out really well.

Just with the intro a well deserved like. Nicos work is always great.

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Pedro!

thats amazing. Ive slowly reached a point where I really think I could print some of my work. This looks excelent even on video.

This is really cool and will be great for some of the aurora photography.

Awesome video as usual. I can wait to make a print and display box.

@ 2:50 "... now this is where backlit prints with a transparency film as the print medium really SHINE (my emphasis) ..." You even had a small grin when saying that !

Awesome great idea! Thanks for sharing.

I think this is a great idea, but the price just kills me. Having said that, for less than the cost of five 5x7 prints, I can purchase a new 1440 27" monitor and an Amazon Firestick (and a lot less money if I want to go used) and build a display that is always on, and something that can create a slide show. It could be set up in a frame, if you wanted to go with a used monitor and you should be able to run all the cables, save one, in the frame itself (if you're creative). That way, you'd be able to show off ALL of your images on the same 'photo frame' and the cost would be significantly less. But, that's just me.

@eliasali9383

11 ай бұрын

that's actually a pretty good idea

Great tutorial. Flat white paint works better than foil in terms of evening out the light. It can also help to add 'light bumpers' . I used thin white plastic sheet to create low profile angled pieces that were placed as need. For blending colored lights, corrugated white plastic works great for making light dams to segregate the colors. One other thing I used to do with every light box I built was to use a thin sheet of frosted film to back the image with. The backlight panels I created were for tower sized PCs so they had to be no deeper than 3/4" and had to perfect illumination. I can't believe I never thought of this.

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the tips David!

I have been watch you videos for sometime now, and after this I thought this would be so cool to try. So I went to Amazon found a roll of 24" * 100' of Transparency Film so I could play with it to see what I could do. I have 4 wide format printers to work with, after working on it for a about 3 day now the results look incredible. I have my own little wood shop so next I will be make a few various sizes of shadow boxes, Thanks for sharing the idea.

I think that's what we used to call Cebachrome or Duratrans back in my film lab days. We would take a positive chrome shot and blow it up to be lit. If it was shot on what was called C41 colorprint we would convert thr C41 Negative to an E6 positive or wats called a Duratrans, and blow it up to be lit from behind. Great video. Ahh the good ole days of film processing!

Good stuff, Nico! I've done this with regular landscape photography in the past. I had my prints done on thin Canvas and I used a small WS2812b LED panel powered by a battery pack (and controlled by a Raspberry Pi Zero W). I was able to transition colors which was cool when looking at the blue/white sky in the photo, probably won't be as good on astrophotography but I think this video gave me motivation to give it a try one day. Maybe I'll get something printed in Mono so that way the color transitions are evenly done.

Was diving into which print styles benefit Astro (since im newish to AP). And thissss is CRAZY awesome. Definitely gonna give this a run🙏🏻🌌

Awesome! Thank you for sharing!

Very cool.. looks awesome.

Oh man, this is brilliant!

Can’t wait want to print a couple

You're such a lovely person. Thanks for sharing so much :)

Definitely going to use this when my image quality gets better

You rock man!!! One day we will do that collab. Weather is slowly getting better here.

Thank you!

You solved the problem we all have been struggling with! The extra money spent here saves on trying other methods with not so good results.

That is pretty flippin RAD!! Cool ingenuity as well..

Hi Nico. I have been doing the same, only using normal prints. The LED strip was surprisingly enough to shine through..anotherr tip try it on full moon with simple annular cardboard maski of the sky so it only shines through the moon, looks amazing.

Wow amazing. I remember my first videos were yours I watched to process my very first images with gimp . Fast forward to today . Showing my pictures to friends I was often asked do you sell them and my reply was when I think they’re good enough. Recently my work was shown to a curator of a art gallery in town. After meeting with her my image’s , maybe 15 of them , will be on display for all of May June and July. The hard part was getting metal prints to look acceptable to me. Nearly impossible. Your video sums it up perfectly. It’s not going to be perfect. Yes those dark areas can look terrible. Like the inside of the Dolphin head nebula as an example. So being that I have time I’ll have one image displayed backlit. All of it will be for sale and another option is good. 3 years later good to watch you again. Oh you had my lagoon nebula to critique way back over 2 years ago.

Thank you 🙏

I think there's a really good opportunity to mix this idea with a project done by DIY Perks here on KZread, the video was called "Turning Smashed TVs into Realistic Artificial Daylight" but my thought is that one of your prints placed as the top layer would look amazing and uses a similar amount of LEDs/power but would give you a much larger lit area. As a bonus, it would be much thinner than a shadowbox too.

@themining_pickaxe4355

Жыл бұрын

This is what I am doing with my pictures! Works perfectly.

@AxR558

Жыл бұрын

@@themining_pickaxe4355 I assume for smaller prints broken computer monitors would work just as well?

@themining_pickaxe4355

Жыл бұрын

@@AxR558 yeah, or some really old small TVs. I regularly check classifieds for smaller TVs or monitors. Beware that the panel needs to be thick enough or you will have a hard time replacing the LED strip with a fitting one... finding slim LED strips with acceptable color and pricing is not easy.

I've been thinking of making a similar display for some color positive film I've shot. thanks for the guide might actually work for your use case too. up to a 5x7" at least. it would certainly would be more kludge though.

Good video, Nico! I settled on backlit transparency after looking at a very dark image of the Elephant Trunk on line. To see it I had to turn off the room lights, but then it kind of glowed on my monitor screen and looked great. It was the first time that looking at an astrophotograph actually felt like looking at the night sky. I'm curious, though - what do you think of using one of those digital photo frames that are essentially dedicated computer monitors? Might that work as well?

great video! :)

Nick Carver has a few splendid choices for framing that would look stellar (yes, yes, pun intended) with your system incorporated! And I'd love to see the dude from DIY Perks make one :D

Great Job Nico, showing how you made the backlit print! Question: When you are doing photoshop of the stacked images in post production, do you make sure that your final master Raw file, has a large enough dynamic range, that will fit the contrast and tonal ranges of your normal paper(s)?? Because if you can make a more dynamic print on your own system there would be some advantages to that as well. Of course there is nothing as beautiful as a back lit transparency of a dynamic night sky. But I think there are some advantages as well to making full contrast paper prints that can dazzle the eyes of the viewer, with detail in the rich dark tones as well as dramatic highlights that preserve their brightness and true colors.Thanks for your input in advance.

I love DIY

Nice! I looked into this in the past and saw the costs... and so I was scared away. Those solutions included the backlit framing and I think that's where most of the cost was coming from. Your DYI solution looks real good. How warm does it get inside that box frame?

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! Not that warm, the LEDs don't produce much heat at all.

Needed this video to gift some of my photos to some friends 👍🏽 Thank you Nico with the insightful work.

backlighting - good idea.

Quality content

This postcast is really good, I was wondering how to print my images, tried printing on paper but nothing impressive, tried the digital frames but lost resolution, I’ll try the transparent technology, super!

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Ricardo!

Great video! one quick question, did you test a compact camera, like the common point and shoot camera (like the RX100)? Thanks!

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

I haven't in a video. Something that is on my list.

Out of the non-backlit prints, which would you say is the best? Also have you looked at using like a window as the backlight for these pieces?

Fantastic idea! I also experimented with different kind of papers and mounts. So far I put down my vote to the metallic paper mounted on aluminium. I got so excited to this new method that I already found a print shop which works with duratrans. Actually my biggest project a 54hr Cygnus loop mosaic is waiting to be hanged on the wall, the perfect image for that. Could you recommend a black point at which space won't be either too dark or pale. I usually use a less contrasty background at 20-30 black value, but I don't know how bright will that be on a duratrans. What do you recommend?

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

You don't have to prepare the image for print nearly as much as you do for printing on opaque media. If it looks good on the screen, it should look good on duratrans with backlight. Atleast that was my experience.

@TheDicsolovag

Жыл бұрын

@@NebulaPhotos Thank you!

Bold of you to assume I produced any print worthy images lol. Hopefully in the future tho

Which paper do you think would look best for a full moon picture. I'd want to see it on paper before I'd try a back lit version.

For the Duratrans print from Blue River Digital did you get it with the LoGlare Satin UV Laminate or without the laminate? And how did you make that choice? Thanks!

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

That is something I still have to experiment with. I did not get the laminate simply because this was still an experiment, and so I didn't want to add an extra cost. My understanding is the UV laminate does extend the life of the print, so when I next order from them, I will get it.

Would this work with a regular print from wallmart? Im dont think they focus on transparency and the contrast wont be great but do you think this might work with an 8 by 10 from wallmart?

Really impressive. When you used your printer, did you calibrate it to the paper, and did you adjust the picture in Photoshop after changing the profile to CMYK?

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Yes, and yes. I realize the colors look very different in the video which would suggest I didn't color calibrate, but there is less difference in color in person. I think the issue was the color temperature of my lights (shining on the prints) compared to the color temperature of the backlight.

@paulwood6729

Жыл бұрын

@@NebulaPhotos cool, that makes the back lightning method even more impressive

How does this method compare to using a digital photo frame?

how much time does it last with those batteries?

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Only about 1 day if turned on continually. If it is a permanent installation, you may want to go for a corded version and just find a way to hide the cord.

Do you know if PPA Insurance covers AP specific cameras? Gear?

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Yes, the definition of photography equipment is broad in the policy "Cameras and Photographic Equipment." The only thing specifically excluded are drones / UAVs. The also have a 'Plus' version (additional charge) for up to $100,000 where you can schedule out specific items. I might try that.

Where do you send your digital images to get them printed on a transparency, PPA?

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Blue River Digital. Link is in the Parts List in the description.

Out of curiosity what was the best result for a non-powered or backlit print?

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Personally, I liked the high gloss aluminum print from BayPhoto second best, but it does need to be lit correctly to really get the most out of it (as shown in the video, glare can be an issue).

👍👍

What would be the difference between this and a quality digital photo frame that displays jpegs on a screen? Some benefits of a digital display is it's not much deeper than a regular photo frame vs a deep shadow box, no printing costs, and you can create slideshows. So I guess the big question is if a back lit photo frame has better viewing quality, and if that better quality justifies the high printing costs.

@stevenneaves8079

Жыл бұрын

If I had to guess it’s probably more scalable and higher quality at larger sizes. Plus most screens are gonna be 72dpi image optimized whereas printing at common viewing sizes will be 300dpi or greater.

@uhohDavinci

Жыл бұрын

I'm guessing resolution and contrast. Unless you're getting an OLED display, you'd have a significant amount of light bleed from a photo frame(monitor), which would be terrible for astrophotography as the predominant color is black.

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Some good answers already, but yes the main problem is cost. This is already an expensive way to display astrophotography, but a digital display that will match this in terms of image quality will be 5-10x the price. That said, you can then display whatever photo you want on it. So it is something I have considered.

Have you tried electroluminescent (EL) panels for backlighting? Just curious how they look, could make the frame a lot thinner.

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

I haven't because I haven't found one that does a neutral white light. I have seen backlit frames where it is just one strip of LEDs right on the edge of the frosted plexi-glass. Those can be a lot thinner, and are probably what I'd try for my next experiment. I went with this method for the first tutorial because I was trying to make it super easy- no power tools.

@jBurn_

Жыл бұрын

@@NebulaPhotos you can find super narrow LED Strips online. Down to just 3 mm width.

@Nareimooncatt

Жыл бұрын

@@NebulaPhotos have you looked at a called Luma Media? They do a lot of EL based signage in what looks to be most any color. Maybe they could offer something usable?

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

@@Nareimooncatt No, I'll check them out. Thanks!

@Nareimooncatt

Жыл бұрын

@@NebulaPhotos good luck with them.

Hey Nico. So how many MP's does it take to get good resolution on a 10x13, or whatever size that big one behind you is? Most of my prints, I will put in an 8x10, but there are some that I will want in large frames with the pixelation that happens when you go too big.

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Around 200 to 300 dpi is good. More integration will also help for bigger prints because if you are blowing up an image, it needs to be pretty noise free

@kevinashley478

Жыл бұрын

@@NebulaPhotos is that the print quality or the Megapixel of the camera?

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

@@kevinashley478 Resolution for the print. For example, your image is 5000 pixels across, you could print it at 200dpi and make a print that is 25 inches wide.

@kevinashley478

Жыл бұрын

@@NebulaPhotos oh ok. I thought the megapixels determine how big of a print you can make. Like, a 2MP camera will not make very good quality 10x13's. I always thought the MP of your camera determined the size of print you can make. Thank you for informing me.

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

@@kevinashley478 Sure, a 2MP camera would only give around 1600 pixels/dots on the wide side. So at 200 dpi that would be 8 inches, so the biggest good quality print from a 2MP sensor without mosaicing would be 8" by 6". The caveat to that is the deeper the integration with deep sky astro, the more it will tolerate being 'blown up', so I think a 20 hour 2MP image would look better at 10x13" than a 2 minute 100MP image. Resolution isn't everything in terms of image IQ.

If you don't mind the wires, or you don't mind having to charge it, you can buy a cheap Samsung table for $200. It will be bigger than that print, and you could have a rotating slideshow of many images, including new ones you've only just made. Just don't try to nail it to the wall.

Nice but how about a long term update? Did the film colors degrade over time?

@NebulaPhotos

8 ай бұрын

They have not at all, but it’s only been about a year. I have another video in the works about displaying astrophotography that will probably come out in the next year so I’ll drop in a quick update in that one.

Big fan sir. Please bless me success

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

I wish you much success in your astrophotography! Clear skies, Nico

When we have affordable flights to the moon, it'll be great for AP

Can one sign up with PPA if one is a Canadian?

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Hi Tony, It looks like they do allow people outside the USA to sign up, but I'm not sure I'd advise it, as some of the important benefits don't look like they would work outside of the USA. For example, the equipment insurance policy states that a claim must be filed in the USA - I assume that means from a US mailing address. Cheers, Nico

@Astropaesan

Жыл бұрын

Nico, I can’t tell you how nice it is to get a response. I was a subscriber to Astro backyard, (who lives about two hours from me), but I never once received a response!

On my monitor, my milky way photos look great. Unfortunately printing them on acrylic has been disappointing.

Very nice. Seeing the Milky Way is truly something inspiring. Next time, try to take multiple images and stack them using free software (DeepSkyStacker or Sequator). It would be best to use a DSLR and tripod. Your lens should be wide open, however you might want to stop it down depending on the glass quality. If your stars in the corners look horrible, stop it down and see if there’s improvement. If you can avoid it, don’t go above ~f/5 because then you won‘t have enough light reaching the sensor. For lens and exposure time, try using the widest lens. Divide 450 with your focal length and the number you get should be the max exposure time you can do without star trails. (Multiply your focal length by 1.6 if you’re using an APS-C sized sensor)

maybe try tracing board / light pad and power bank, should be easier than this

End product is fantastic however, the last thing this hobby needs is another expensive process, I just use an active picture frame, $30

Education through experience, nice. I have a project to discuss with you if you would be interested. What means of contact do you suggest, other then here?

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Hi William, email is best: nicocarver at gmail dot com

I’m from the future Wou, prepare for glory.

A pretty expensive way but probably the best is getting a netgear meural canvas 2. This allows you to put any picture you want on it. I think you can even have it cycle through images.

I just send them to WalMart for 1 hour photos. LOL

Here I thought for sure you were going to say 3d printed lithograph.

They look great but aren’t really practical IMO. It’s okay for individual display photos or a personal project

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Not sure what you mean by practical. Cost?

@uhohDavinci

Жыл бұрын

@@NebulaPhotos In you research for this project did you ever come across a more cost effective printing(commercial) that offered similar results? $50 for a single 6x8 is very high.

@StarlancerAstro

Жыл бұрын

@@NebulaPhotos I think he means most people aren't going to keep the backlight on 24/7 and having to move a picture and flip a switch, or when the batteries it will eventually sit there dark with no backlight which at that point might be worse then a regular print, don't underestimate the laziness of people. If it's for yourself then yes I'd imagine people will turn on it, but as a gift after a few times it will be off especially if one has to keep feeding it batteries. At that point a digital photo frame might be the best answer since it can sit on a desk plugged in and rotate though many photos.

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

@Starfire Technology Ah, I see! Yes, If I was doing it as a gift for a desk, I'd go for a corded backlit frame so it can be on all the time. The problem with the digital photo frames I've looked at is image quality. To match the price of this project, you aren't going to get very good image quality out of a digital photo frame, but still looking into it, maybe another DIY project with a raspberry pi nano could be fun.

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Yes, I agree the cost is high. I haven't found anything cheaper yet for this printing technology.

কি মামু তোমারে না বল্লাম একটা Teliscop পাঠাউ Bangladesh

Looked awesome, until you hit the price and then it lost me.. for that price i could like buy a cheap LCD photoframe from amazon.

@NebulaPhotos

Жыл бұрын

Hi Troy, I've heard from others that I messed up by not asking the right questions of the printer. Apparently, it was so expensive because they have a minimum size, so I could have gotten four of these prints for the same price, which would have been brought it down to $15 each. Still a big up-front cost, but I'm confident it will look a lot better than the LCD photoframe. Cheers, Nico