As New Horizons has shown us, the geniuses at NASA are not only solving the mysteries of the universe, they're also capturing its beauty. Just like you and I, though, they don't just publish those images straight out of camera. Read how Photoshop helps NASA to fully represent the universe in all its awe-inspiring beauty.
The surface of Mars isn't exactly smooth and as such, the pictures the Mars Rover sends back are rarely aligned with the horizon. Furthermore, due to the cameras' being purposed toward geology, they do not adjust their exposures to changing sky conditions. As such, edits frequently involve compositing skies and matching exposure, not unlike an earthly composite. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech notes that although the edits improve the visual appeal of the images, maintaining the scientific accuracy of the data is the guiding model. NASA even goes so far as to provide the original unprocessed images to the public, exactly as they were when sent back to Earth (care to edit an image sent from space, anyone?).
NASA takes many images in the infrared spectrum of light and as such, it falls to people like Robert Hurt, a visualization scientist, to convert the infrared data into visualizations that are both aesthetically pleasing and representative of the scientific structure contained within. He says:
I basically take raw grayscale data from different parts of the infrared spectrum and then remap them into visible colors — typically with red, green, and blue Photoshop layers — to create images that are accurately representative of the infrared colors that human eyes cannot see. I think of it as a visual translation process.
His work requires not only proficiency in Photoshop, but a deep understanding of the structure, behavior, and physics of an object he is given to process.
The Orion Nebula, M42. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
Whereas we often run the risk of destroying skin texture if we edit with too heavy a hand, Hurt runs the risk of destroying galaxies. He notes that just like any camera, his data comes with optical artifacts that are not actually representative of scientific data, which he must rid the image of. Nonetheless, this requires great finesse: "I always save my layers, generating massive multi-gigabyte files, because I want to be able to backtrack in case I accidentally delete something real. Telling the difference between a digital blemish and an astrophysical object is where being an astronomer comes in."
Lead image credit: NASA
[via Adobe]
I would have love to see a video of the full process !
Sometimes called pseudo color. Electron and con-focal microscopy use visible colors to represent non visual data too.