Here's the last of the data captured last weekend. I didn't get too much data as I knew the moonlight was going to wash it out a bit, but as I was up and with little choice of targets at the time, I thought I would throw a few together.
Horsehead is 8 x 20 min exposures, darks and flats subtracted.
Orion is 4 x 15 min, 3 x 5 min, 2 x 90sec and 1 x 30 sec.
The reason I took these varying exposure lengths was that Orion is has such a range of very dim to very bright and i was hoping by stacking them I would get the full range. Not so I feel, as I still burned out the core. Hmmmm.
Taken with ED120 and Orion Starshoot Pro DSI III OS colour CCD.
Stacked and subtracted in MaxIm DL Essentials, PP in Photoshop elements 6.
The way you replace the core with the shorter expsoure core shot is this way (well one of a few ways):
1. You process 2 images, one is the long exposure image with the burnt out core and the other is the core shot composed of short exposures where the core is not burnt out (that may be 15 seconds with some scope/camera combos).
2. Open both in Photoshop.
3. Click on the short exposure image. Use the colour range tool, click on the core area and use the fuzziness slider so it selects the core region that you want to install on the long exposure.
Feather your selection 75 pixels.
Select/save selection. edit/copy
4. Click on the long exposure.
select/load selection
Now the core area is selected same as in short exposure
edit/paste
now the core has been replaced.
5. Use levels, shadows/highlights etc to match the 2 as well as you can.
You may need to use the sponge tool and set it to dodge and rub on the transition area to brighten it up if needed.
Great shots !! did you use any focal reduction? the FOV is fantastic.
and how are you finding the Starshoot pro 3?
Thanks Robbie.
I have cropped both shots a little bit just to chop off the stacked edges and centre frame them a bit.
I love the Starshoot, my first CCD. I have yet to master it completely, but I can see it won't be long before I am looking for a high end mono camera with filters.
I have been imaging with it off and on over the past year, and only this weekend, was I reading the manual again and found I had completely missed that I should be shooting in Light RAW 1x1 and convert to colour later. All this time I have been shooting in Light Colour 1x1.......
Next time I am out there I will be trying this to see if there is much difference if any.
Lovely Horse head Baz. You have captured and kept the colour in the flame very nicely. A lot of people try to highlight the Ha region around the HH with a red colour adjustment and totally stuff up the flame.
Ahh yes I did the same with my SS2 the model previous to yours, you will see a definite improvement when shooting in raw then converting and using darks will improve them yet again, last week I was tossing up whether to lash out on the new ss pro but I have to say that I have been less than impressed with my ss2 the main reason being the size of the chip, when coupled to a 10" f10 meade your fov is almost nothing ,shooting with it on the ed80 is fun but you are still needing a wider fov. I actually decided on a DSLR canon 50d this time around but had I seen those pics you took earlier I may have been swayed back towards the SSpro.
the grouped shot of the Flame and horse is the shot Ive dreamed of taking and if thats one of your first efforts on CCD then I take my hat off to ya, good work.
A few people have suggested some step by step ways to fix the core burnout. I have photoshop essentials, not the full version, so i am trying these techniques out tonight to see if they work...
Well, I am having trouble with layers. It was so frustrating. I watched the tutorials, but I am missing something. Not sure what.
Anyway, I DID pick up a few tricks and reprocessed the one with a less dynamic range, although I still had to employ tricks to avoid burn out, especially in the flame and that little reflection nebula underneath the Horse.
So here is a reprocess. What do you think?
I had to compress it a fair bit to put it here, the saved TIFF is beautifully smooth. I notice the bottom corner is a bit lossy with the compression but what can you do?
good work.
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