TheSkySearchers

@Jockinireland , your work flow is totally awesome! I redid the noise removal then used your technique on the outer edges in the upper left, lower right corners and along some of the inner dust lanes. I brightened the core a little bit too get some more detail out of it. I think I'm happy this version. Want to thank @SkyHiker too, he initially pointed out that the core was blown out and the area around the core was mostly grey. This was a truly good exercise in processing.

Now back to the Seven Sisters for a redo. That one is definitely an HDR project!

Clear Skies!

chris_g wrote: ↑Sat Nov 20, 2021 9:22 pm @Jockinireland , your work flow is totally awesome! I redid the noise removal then used your technique on the outer edges in the upper left, lower right corners and along some of the inner dust lanes. I brightened the core a little bit too get some more detail out of it. I think I'm happy this version. Want to thank @SkyHiker too, he initially pointed out that the core was blown out and the area around the core was mostly grey. This was a truly good exercise in processing.

Now back to the Seven Sisters for a redo. That one is definitely an HDR project!

Clear Skies!

It is still very flat and grey. There is much more in the data. How about you mske the Autosave.tif available so we can all have a go at it?

Disclosure: Chris already gsve me a copy and I processed it offline so I know there's much more in it.

SkyHiker wrote: ↑Sun Nov 21, 2021 2:53 am
It is still very flat and grey. There is much more in the data. How about you mske the Autosave.tif available so we can all have a go at it?

Disclosure: Chris already gsve me a copy and I processed it offline so I know there's much more in it.

For whoever wants to play with the data, all I ask for is a step by step of what you did so I can learn from it

https://1drv.ms/u/s!ArTUOFX8EnYdlVWDzXo ... a?e=XRZwHk

Hi Chris,

So I gave you data a quick go in PS because I know thats what you use. Process was;
Convert 16b
Curves
crop
Several iterations of levels and curves to balance background and stretch the image
Gradientxterminator
Saturation boost
HLVG
Space noise reduction
deep space noise reduction
Local contrast enhancement (Last 3 are Astronomy Tools Actions - ATA)
camera raw for some colour adjustment
Increase star colour -ATA
Make stars smaller ATA
selective high pass routine
final tweaks in levels and curves.

All giving this
I expect someone more skilled in PS could do better. In particular it would benifict from a little more nooise reduction in the outer areas. I also did a run in Pixinsight as that's what I'm more familiar with now and got this.

My tips to you would be - be careful with levels and dont clip black - put some colour sampler points own and use them to adjust your levels, i keep background around 35,35,35. Use the Astronomy tools for NR, And some adjustemnts of the galaxy (this time i usedd LCE but others work for other subjects.

I hope this all helps.

BTW - I dont see any real difference between image between image B and image see on your Astrobin ??

take care

David

This is what I got using DSS first for color balancing (its color curves work better for me than Gimp) then edited in Gimp including gradient removal by wavelets. With some more time it can be improved but at least it shows nice colors and good detail. Chris that was some very nice data! That's the crucial part so you are well on your way, just figure out the editing.

Hi David,

You've got the same anomaly in the upper right corner that prompted me to do a crop in the first version. I've since discovered what it is from another post, say hello to Barksdale Air Force Base. That's what I worked to get rid of at the expense of the inner dust lanes in the core. I was following a process from AstroBackYard to set a black point to get the background as dark as I could. Reinforces my thought process that HDR, more data and a different location are needed to bring out all the details. I image primarily from two different locations. Currently I'm in a Bortle 7 sky with a military base so close I can hear the engines on the flight line, about a half a mile from the perimeter fence.

The difference between B and the final version, I used your selective high pass process to bring out more detail in the outer edge areas. I also didn't run Increase Star Color, the core is white in the final instead of yellow. I also tried it on the inner areas but not with much success. Put them each in their own tabs and click back and forth.

As always, your work flow is a great help, it shows me what I need to do to improve my process. I definitely like the PixInsight version

https://www.astrobin.com/lu8o9n/B/

https://www.astrobin.com/lu8o9n/C/

Jockinireland wrote: ↑Sun Nov 21, 2021 1:15 pm Hi Chris,

So I gave you data a quick go in PS because I know thats what you use. Process was;
Convert 16b
Curves
crop
Several iterations of levels and curves to balance background and stretch the image
Gradientxterminator
Saturation boost
HLVG
Space noise reduction
deep space noise reduction
Local contrast enhancement (Last 3 are Astronomy Tools Actions - ATA)
camera raw for some colour adjustment
Increase star colour -ATA
Make stars smaller ATA
selective high pass routine
final tweaks in levels and curves.

All giving this


I expect someone more skilled in PS could do better. In particular it would benifict from a little more nooise reduction in the outer areas.

I also did a run in Pixinsight as that's what I'm more familiar with now and got this.

My tips to you would be - be careful with levels and dont clip black - put some colour sampler points own and use them to adjust your levels, i keep background around 35,35,35. Use the Astronomy tools for NR, And some adjustemnts of the galaxy (this time i usedd LCE but others work for other subjects.

I hope this all helps.

BTW - I dont see any real difference between image between image B and image see on your Astrobin ??

take care

David

Wow! You brought out all kinds of color and detail kept the anomaly in the upper right or in your case the lower left of the image almost to nothing. if I didn't know it was there I would not even know. All you did was work with the curves in DSS and gradient removal? Post processing, that is truly my challenge now.

SkyHiker wrote: ↑Sun Nov 21, 2021 7:43 pm This is what I got using DSS first for color balancing (its color curves work better for me than Gimp) then edited in Gimp including gradient removal by wavelets. With some more time it can be improved but at least it shows nice colors and good detail. Chris that was some very nice data! That's the crucial part so you are well on your way, just figure out the editing.

I moved the image back to the staging area on Astrobin, going to work with it some more...

Thanks to everyone for your help and tips!

Hi David,

Would you be able to put up the final tiff so if can see each layer as it progresses? I was working along with your steps and I got more of the inner dust lane to show but still not as much as you did.

Chris

quote=Jockinireland post_id=180154 time=1637500536 user_id=406]
Hi Chris,

So I gave you data a quick go in PS because I know thats what you use. Process was;
Convert 16b
Curves
crop
Several iterations of levels and curves to balance background and stretch the image
Gradientxterminator
Saturation boost
HLVG
Space noise reduction
deep space noise reduction
Local contrast enhancement (Last 3 are Astronomy Tools Actions - ATA)
camera raw for some colour adjustment
Increase star colour -ATA
Make stars smaller ATA
selective high pass routine
final tweaks in levels and curves.

All giving this


I expect someone more skilled in PS could do better. In particular it would benifict from a little more nooise reduction in the outer areas.

I also did a run in Pixinsight as that's what I'm more familiar with now and got this.

My tips to you would be - be careful with levels and dont clip black - put some colour sampler points own and use them to adjust your levels, i keep background around 35,35,35. Use the Astronomy tools for NR, And some adjustemnts of the galaxy (this time i usedd LCE but others work for other subjects.

I hope this all helps.

BTW - I dont see any real difference between image between image B and image see on your Astrobin ??

take care

David
[/quote]

chris_g wrote: ↑Mon Nov 22, 2021 9:05 am Hi David,

Would you be able to put up the final tiff so if can see each layer as it progresses? I was working along with your steps and I got more of the inner dust lane to show but still not as much as you did.

Chris

quote=Jockinireland post_id=180154 time=1637500536 user_id=406]
Hi Chris,

So I gave you data a quick go in PS because I know thats what you use. Process was;
Convert 16b
Curves
crop
Several iterations of levels and curves to balance background and stretch the image
Gradientxterminator
Saturation boost
HLVG
Space noise reduction
deep space noise reduction
Local contrast enhancement (Last 3 are Astronomy Tools Actions - ATA)
camera raw for some colour adjustment
Increase star colour -ATA
Make stars smaller ATA
selective high pass routine
final tweaks in levels and curves.

All giving this


I expect someone more skilled in PS could do better. In particular it would benifict from a little more nooise reduction in the outer areas.

I also did a run in Pixinsight as that's what I'm more familiar with now and got this.

My tips to you would be - be careful with levels and dont clip black - put some colour sampler points own and use them to adjust your levels, i keep background around 35,35,35. Use the Astronomy tools for NR, And some adjustemnts of the galaxy (this time i usedd LCE but others work for other subjects.

I hope this all helps.

BTW - I dont see any real difference between image between image B and image see on your Astrobin ??

take care

David

[/quote]


Sorry Chris, I tend to flatten my images as i work through them and dont keep anything other than the final version.

Rgds

David

I thought I would give this a rework with the new skills learned over the last couple of months. StarNet was very kind to it, I only had to clean up a couple of blemishes. Since it left the core, it was extremely easy to tame, so to speak. I still have a lot to learn but I'm progressing, faster now.

Lot of work on that one!

With good results.

BABO