Falling behind the others.

[raymo]

These two images illustrate how I am falling behind others that started
digital imaging around the same time as I did. One reason for it, is that
I have still to learn how to combine short and long subs in PS, in order
to avoid burnt out cores of objects. I now have the latest PS and " PS
Astronomy", but haven't had time to delve into them yet.
To avoid burning out the trapezium completely I've had to chop back the highlights to almost nil, and keep the subs short.
Usual gear, 1100D, 40 x 35 secs @ ISO 400.
raymo

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Hi Raymo,

You need to follow Louie Atalasidi's tutorial on masks, and practice, practice, practice.
If you have trouble following, minimise your photo shop screen and Louie's tutorial until they both fit on the screen.

Then you can pause at any section of the tutorial so you can practice in PS.

Here's Louie's tutorial.
http://www.atalas.net/masks-for-photoshop

There's no way around it you have to learn it.
It's well worth it!:)

Cheers,

Justin.

[raymo]

Thanks very much for the info Justin. It would help though, if I knew how to minimise the PS and tutorial screens. I have a large expensive monitor
that was given to me as a present. It can display several windows at once, but I have no idea how to do it.
raymo

[RobF]

There's no doubt processing is a steep mountain to learn to climb. One step at a time though.

M42 is deceptive. Even though its the first DSO many of us go for, its probably one of the hardest to process because of the huge dynamic range variations. Don't get too worried about. Focus on learning one thing at a time well.

Have you tried a Pixinsight trial at all?

Regardless of software, gentle stretching and masking are critical skills. At least one of those images is a bit black clipped too by my eyes, but nice data so worth continuing to do repros.

[raymo]

Thanks for the comments Rob; the black clipped one is the result of a
different way of trying to fix the burning out of the trapezium.
raymo

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Hi Raymo,


In the top right corner of your window you have the cross which is the close icon,
To the left of that you have a box icon or restore down, click this and the window size will reduce.
After doing this place your cursor on the on the top corner or side and top of the window, hold down left button on your mouse and you will see the cursor has changed to a double ended cursor.
You can now move the cursor diagonally, left and right or up and down depending where you place the cursor. while still holding the left mouse button down and make the window to size.

Make the window half the screen width but keep the height.

When you open the next window, follow the same procedure.
Now with that done just left click on the icon for the previous window which will be on the bottom bar.

Now they will both be on the same screen.

You may have to move them around so they are not overlapping, again hold the left mouse button down making sure the cursor is on the top bar of the window, you can now move it to where you want.

Now you should be able to operate both programmes on the same screen.

To make the window fill the screen again just left click on the box again.

Hope this helps,:)

Cheers,

Justin.

[cometcatcher]

M42 is a hard one. I still struggle combining the core and outer regions.

[raymo]

Thanks for your help Justin. No I haven't tried Pixinsight. I am
subscribing to the latest PS and Lightroom, and have the book
PS Astronomy, so what with them and the tutorial you linked, I shall be kept busy. Solid cloud, as usual, so I should have plenty of time.
raymo

[raymo]

Justin, I have just played the tutorial through 3 times, and can safely say that I will learn nothing from it at all. Everything happens far too quickly, and the cursor moves to different tabs faster than I can follow. He also
assumes that the viewer knows more than I do. For instance, he says at one point that " you can now flatten the image". I have no idea how to do that. I have to hope that the tutorials on the DVD that came with the PS
Astronomy book are easier to follow.
raymo

[jsmoraes]

Raymo, since you work with photoshop one of the best place to learn how to do is http://www.imagingdeepsky.com/ and his tutorials movies in http://www.imagingdeepsky.com/Presentations.html ; from Ken Crawford.

For mask: http://www.imagingdeepsky.com/Tutorials/Masks/Masks.htm
:thumbsup:

note: copy the original photo of tutorials and try to repeat each action of the movies. Try to change the values to understand very well what each movement or action makes with the image.

With those informations I did : http://astronomia-e-astrofotos.1069742.n5.nabble.com/file/n1381/m42-1k-140206-A.jpg with ISO 400 5 x 30 sec, 5 x 60 sec, 6 x 240 sec

And http://astronomia-e-astrofotos.1069742.n5.nabble.com/file/n679/m42_multilayer_k5.jpg with: 11 x 120 s iso 800; 2 x 60 s iso 1600; 4 x 60 s iso 400; 4 x 30 s iso 400

minor time for trapezium, medium time for nebula, large time for border of nebula and periphery

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Hi Raymo,

The idea is to pause the tutorial, and repeat that section by dragging the play bar back with your mouse to repeat that section.
At the same time trying the method on your own image.
It's far easier to do step by step rather than trying to absorb the whole tutorial in one go.

Cheers,

Justin.

[raymo]

Thank you very much Jorge; I think I now have enough to keep me
going for the foreseeable future.
raymo

[raymo]

Sorry Justin, I missed that last post of yours. I think I will do some reading of PS Astronomy to get some idea of what masks etc: are
all about, and how they are used, before tackling the tutorial.
raymo