A NASA astronaut has taken a series of impressive photos while aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and shared the techniques he used to create them.
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Matthew Dominik took zoom selfies in the Destiny module, creative portraits of crew members using off-camera flash, and epic photos of the Italian peninsula.
Dominic, who went to the ISS for six months in March 2024 as the crew commander of SpaceX Crew-8, tells us about the equipment and settings he uses to take pictures.
On July 4, US Independence Day, instead of fireworks on the ISS, Dominic shared a series of creative portraits using an off-camera flash, creating several of his own images. He then handed out cameras to the six crew members to create a fun group portrait.
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Dominic also shared a successful selfie in which the background of the ISS is blurred, but he remains in focus. The camera was attached to a pole that he held onto as he made his way through the spacecraft’s laboratory, and the long exposure of 1/5 of a second gives the impression of rapid movement in flight.
As a professional photographer, Dominic shows how different exposure can affect the way the Earth looks in photographs.
The night shot from the ISS, which shows the Nile River flowing into the Mediterranean Sea, is particularly impressive.
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This image shows an astronaut looking out of the window of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the ISS.
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In general, Dominik likes to experiment with different camera settings to get stunning photos from space. You can see a few more of his successful shots below.
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Earlier we reported how the Earth’s atmosphere shone with an unusual golden glow.
Based on the materials of petapixel.com