Reprocessed Dark Tower

[Paul Haese]

I was not very content with the colour of my Dark Tower image recently. The Ha was a bit too muted and this was reflected in being asked if it was an LRGB image.

With a couple of useful tips from fellow imagers I have taken another look at the image and produced a better result I think? Still not entirely convinced but at least the Ha is visible now.

I would appreciate any comments of new processed image.

Click here (http://paulhaese.net/TheDarkTower.html)for larger image

[Larryp]

Lovely image, Paul

[IanP]

Hi Paul, I just boost the saturation of part of red spectrum (without touching blue and green) - PixInsight-colour-sat - to my taste ...
I hope you don't mind ......

[atalas]

Hi Paul

Ok...the blue is too strong so you need to bring that down mate,and the green needs to come down too because It is subduing the reds.

First of all use curves and drop blue and green down grabbing the curve from the center.

When you pull down the blue you should see the yellow strengthen and when you pull down the green you should see the reds come through...don't worry about getting things perfect right,just get a good feel of things.

Balance color bios and again don't worry too much,its just getting a feel of whats happening(you can perfect later)

Now,try this so you can clearly see how the brightness levels effects you perceived color on screen.

Open the "Brighness & Contrast"dialog box in PS and switch to the individual RGB channels .

Experiment with brightness, increasing and decreasing and same with contrast so you can clearly see how brightness levels effect your perceived color!

You will be pleasantly surprised of the impact on perceived color...

Hope this helps.

[Paul Haese]

Hi Louie yep do that with curves a lot. The contrast stuff I picked up from last time and did this to get the red.

Here you go, worked it a bit more. Not sure about the red/magenta, personal taste I suppose. Thanks for the tips Louie.

[Paul Haese]

Can't handle that magenta red. Reverted just a bit.

[atalas]

Paul,your very welcome mate!

I want to be very clear here mate,I'm in know way trying to dictate on how you should process your image so please don't take me the wrong way(some do)

What I am trying to show is some tools we can use so we can clearly see how brightness levels impact on what we perceive as color.

Hope Ive been able to do that!

[Paul Haese]

No problem Louie, there are always more tools to learn in processing. I find more and more that there are new techniques to pick up as I demand more from my images. Thanks for the tips.

[RickS]

G'day Paul,

I think the repros are heading in the right direction for a more "conventional" version. The original was interesting too!

Cheers,
Rick.

[Peter.M]

Yes this is more to my taste Paul! I love the colours in this version.

[RobF]

I love the first version myself Paul.
Only problem is it needs to be rotated 90 degrees to the right ;) :)

I was a little surprised at the appearance of the brighter for a Tak refractor. Is that just what the filters and camera do?

Either way, top image :thumbsup:

[jase]

Impressive Paul. I like the rendition you came out with following Louie's tip alas the magenta stars hint you need more green in the highlights. Perhaps pushed it too far. I enjoy the deeper Ha hues but its not to everyone's liking. More please...

[Ross G]

All the versions look good Paul.

It's a great photo.

Ross.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys really appreciate your comments and high praise Jase.




The halos (I take it this is what you mean) are I think a combination of filters, distance from the reducer and the speed of the scope now. The small diffraction spikes are most likely to do with the 8300 microlenses on the sensor. Mostly I see this with narrowband and Ha in particular, so I am guessing the halos are filter orientated, even though I have a replacement set.


For those interested this is my final image. Pretty happy with it and I will consider other narrowband data to add to it for a more interesting image.

Click here (http://paulhaese.net/TheDarkTower.html) for image.

[SkyViking]

Great image Paul, my favourite is the one in post #5.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Very nice Paul; I think that your final image has good balance between the red / blue / magenta hues.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks David and Rolf. This one was a tough gig. I could not decide which I liked most. In the end I went with what I thought looked good. I really appreciate all the help that people offered.