The Mars Challenge

Challenge #8 in the Take a Natural Photo series. Hosted by xpda.

Challenge has finished

The Mars Challenge
Processing Mars Rover Images

As the Mars Rovers "Spirit" and "Opportunity" wind down, a new Mars Rover "Curiosity" will be launched later this year. "Spirit" and "Opportunity" took thousands of photos on the surface of mars. These were taken with a black and white camera using color filters.

This challenge requires combining five black and white filtered images that were transmitted from Mars into a single, natural color photo. You can select a set of Mars images from the 8 samples provided.

If, by chance, you have never been to Mars, there may be some guesswork involved as to what is realistic. You will also need to decide whether to make it look as it does in Martian light, or like it would in Earth's sunlight. This challenge is obviously not for everybody, but hopefully a few photo processing experts as well as novices will apply their skills.

Show full rules

Announced:

Sunday, 30th October, 2011 (GMT)

Submissions:

Sunday, 6th November, 2011 – Saturday, 12th November, 2011 (GMT)

Voting:

Sunday, 13th November, 2011 – Saturday, 19th November, 2011 (GMT)

Processing rules:

The five images in each set correspond (roughly) to red, orange, yellow-green, blue, and indigo-violet.
The photos use the original NASA file names. Each file name ends with M1. The digit before the M1 tells which color filter was used:
...L3M1 = red (673nm 16nm bandpass)
...L4M1 = orange (601nm 17nm bandpass)
...L5M1 = yellow-green (535nm 20nm bandpass)
...L6M1 = blue (482nm 25nm bandpass)
...L7M1 = indigo-violet (432nm 32nm Short-pass)
For example, the file 2P129026827EFF0327P2382L7M1.JPG was taken with the indigo-violet filter because of the L7M1 at the end of the file name.
Here are more details on the file names, in case you're interested.

Capture date rules:

No restrictions.

Additional rules:

You can get the Mars Challenge Photo Sets from the DPReview Albums on this page.
You can also download the Mars Challenge Photo Sets here: xpda.com/marsChallenge/
You can use any of these 8 sets for the challenge.
If you prefer, you can select another set of photos directly from the NASA site, but please make sure it includes some man-made items so the color balance can be verified. Also, please use the full-frame photos from the panoramic camera.
The Mars photos are courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech.
You can find more information on Mars colors at xpda.com/mars/color.htm

Maximum number of entries per user:

Maximum number of entries in challenge:

Not restricted

submission
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7 entries

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50 votes

Slideshow 11 / 14 Full size Next Challenge Previous

Colour1

by gbainbridge

11^th place

2.325

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Part of the rover Spirit showing an American flag and a lot of electronics.

Camera:	NASA Panoramic camera
Lens:
Submitted:	Monday, 7th November, 2011 14:19 (GMT)
Taken:	Monday, 7th November, 2011
Focal length:
Shutter speed:
Aperture:
ISO:
Notes:
Views:	129
Galleries:	View this photo in gbainbridge's gallery

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Entry comments

I really like this photo. Unfortunately, there were only three color bands taken so the red and orange are a little off.

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