Welcome to the ALEPH Plant Payload Photography Challenges! These hands-on tasks are designed to enhance your scientific photography skills while contributing to real-world space exploration. You can select each challenge below, try them out, and share your results with the project team and fellow citizen scientists. Explore different techniques, experiment with lighting and macro settings, and help us refine the process for capturing plant growth in extreme environments.
Challenge: Capture a clear image of the plants inside a small container while also including the background landscape.
Objective: Experiment with your camera's depth of field, focus settings, and exposure to achieve a sharp, well-composed photograph that balances the close-up details with the distant background.
Instruction Booklet: Download PDF
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Challenge: Get as close as possible to a plant or seed and capture a macro image that reveals intricate details.
Objective: Discover the limits of your camera's macro capabilities. How much detail can you reveal? Consider the lighting, stability, and focus techniques to produce a crisp and detailed close-up.
Instruction Booklet: Download PDF
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Challenge: Use photographic techniques to highlight indicators of plant health, such as leaf colour, texture, and moisture levels.
Objective: Experiment with lighting, angles, and filters to showcase plant health in your images. Can you effectively communicate the plant's condition through photography alone?
Instruction Booklet: Download PDF
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Challenge: Capture the same plant under different lighting conditions to observe how light influences the appearance and details of the plant.
Objective: Understand the impact of natural versus artificial light, and how shadows and highlights can alter the perception of plant health and growth.
Instruction Booklet: Download PDF
Submit your entry:
Once you've completed all four photography challenges, you can register for a specialised portfolio of your entries and receive a certificate of contribution to the ALEPH mission. Please ensure you’ve entered your details with each submission to qualify for the portfolio and certificate.