In Sky & Telescope, images are as important as text. When authors or photographers provide images to us, the quality we can reproduce in the magazine is directly proportional to the quality we get in the first place. How a picture was taken is as important as how it was developed and printed or, for a digital image, how it was saved and processed.

Here we'll go over some basic techniques for setting up and taking photographs of astronomical equipment and people, offer tips on processing and printing film photos, and discuss issues related to digital-image acquisition and processing.

For information about submitting astrophotos and CCD images of astronomical objects, please see our Astro Imager's Guide.