NGC6188 20 hours with total reprocess

[Paul Haese]

I have imaged this area before which also included NGC6164, but I was never really enamoured by the final finish of the image or its composition.

It is an often imaged region and I doubt that I am presenting anything new. I prefer this palette to my original effort though.

For those interested I did a Hubble palette on the narrow band data and then did a lighten layer mask to the RGB to give a more natural colour look. This object can tend to look quite green due to the gas composition, which is not one of my favoured cast colours to NB imaging.

There are some interesting knots of gas and dust and a rather interesting blue shell surrounding the OB star in the centre. It is really there as I have seen vague hints of it in others images.

Click here (http://paulhaese.net/NGC6188FSQ.html) for larger resolution image.

Edit: a slight repro to manage contrast level and saturation. I have added a new image to the link and a thumb nail for comparison

Edit again: I have done a total reprocess which I like better myself. I have added another thumbnail for colour comparison

[Bart]

The large star left of centre has a blue halo around it, deconvolution artifact?

Over all the image looks heavily processed with a lot of unsharpmasking and looks too dark?

Not a fan of this one Paul. :(

[LewisM]

I was going to say what Bart said.

Colour looks weird to me Paul, sorry. Stars look like I processed them :) :P (blocky).

Repro man, repro - I know it's in you :)

[Paul Haese]

No the blue halo is a real halo around that star. Not an optical artefact.

Certainly not heavily processed but does have a high contrast appearance. I don't use unsharp masking at all. In fact I don't do broad brush processing like many here do.

Ok not to be a fan. I am still seeing how it fits with me too.



You need to wait for the image to down load correctly Lewis. It is a big image around 3mb and the stars will look blocky to start with.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Don't know what image your looking at Lewis????

Stars look nice and round in the large image at 200% from edge to edge.
There's great detail in the nebulous area's I can appreciate what Paul is trying to do with the mix.

Very good I reckon Paul!!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Cheers,

Justin.

[rustigsmed]

yep nice Paul, i can see you have been working on the darker areas, the small jpg does look posterized in parts but thats obviously only 200kb.

cheers

russ

[theodog]

I like it.
Darker feel has some drama.
Nice one Paul. :thumbsup:

[alpal]

That's a great picture Paul,
keep them coming.

cheers
Allan

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the support but Gray has rightly pointed out that I went a bit over board on contrast and sharpening. Not a lot, but enough to bother me too. I was looking at it on my ipad and was not happy with it on that. I used several monitors to determine what looks best. So it is a legitimate critique.

I have done a mild reprocess with less sharpening and curves for contrasting. I think it fits better but it might not suit others and that is ok to say so.

[LewisM]

Nope, I have ultra fast ADSL and your image loads almost instantaneously. Sorry but I feel the stars look "odd" for and FSQ image. Seeing poor?

Not having a go - far from it - it's just not quite the Haese image I have come to admire so much.

Now don't berate me like Gendler did :LOL:

[Paul Haese]

Well the stars are round at my end and looking on the website they appear round and not blocky. Maybe try refreshing your screen.

Seeing is not the problem here.

[Ross G]

Great looking photo Paul.

Both versions are excellent....so sharp and so much detail.

Stars look fine to me.


Ross.

[cometcatcher]

Looks great on my monitor without my glasses! I put my glasses on and... it looks even better! Wonderful image. Yes it's contrasty but in a good way. A really good narrow band / RGB mix.

[RickS]

Paul,

Detail is good and the stars look like typical KAF-8300 stars with the microlens spikes (people keep accusing me of adding them!) I'm not a huge fan of the colours. I gave it overnight to see if they grew on me but they didn't. Just personal taste, of course... Good on you for trying something a little different.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Placidus]

Paul, I think it's a superb, interesting interpretation of this area. Trish and I spent a lot of time comparing your shot with ours, and we could see that you've brought out faint OIII nebulosity which is there in the sky but we'd lost in processing.

I agree with you completely that the big bright cluster near centre has a genuine blue OIII bubble emission ring around it, and if one looks very closely, there are several other even bigger but fainter OIII bubbles in the image. These are unquestionably caused by stellar winds from very bright stars that may have finished their lives by now.

Folks: Stars at this distance are tiny unresolvable points, with no discernible diameter at all. It's not the dark ring that that's the artifact, it's the whole thing, especially the Airy Disc, the thing that we all normally so proudly show. It is sensible to permit some ringing around stars in order to improve legitimate sharpness in the nebulosity, which is the point of the photo.

Great image, Paul.

[gregbradley]

Nice image Paul. Stars look good on my monitor.

Dark and brooding which is different. So was your 3324. It looks best to my eye in the larger size.

Greg.

[LewisM]

Well, I looked at it on my laptop just now (was on the wife's Acer last night - should say enough!), and I agree the stars are VERY good. And the "spikes" surely are KAF microlenses as Rick suggests - I noticed it with my 8300 too on brighter stars.

So, I take what I said back, if I may :)

[Bart]

Looks a bit better, not so dark and brooding. :)

[multiweb]

I like the colours and depth but it definitely looks a little soft and bloated.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks all for the comments. I appreciate you taking the time to write down your thoughts. :thumbsup:

I have done a total reprocess and I think I like this one better myself. Feel free to tell me what you think.

[RickS]

I like the repro a lot better, Paul :thumbsup:

[RobF]

Repro Like +1 :)

The first image was interesting for the bits of red and blue shown below the "dragons", but no.3 has much more impact on the eye.

[multiweb]

Last repro's on the money. Star profiles are good. :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

For exploring the finest detail, for example the tight cluster around the brightest star, or those OIII rings nearby, I slightly prefer the darker penultimate version.

As an image to blow up to A1 and put on the wall, the final repro is superb. A warmer, more inviting feel, without losing any impact.

Overall, the final one has it.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys for the comments on the repro.




Thanks Mike. I usually wait for a day or two when publishing and just see how things fit with me, but I was in a rush and yet another lesson learnt with patience to process. I will examine this version more closely to see what can be improved with it before moving onto the next project which is being collected right now. Its been a busy month with 4 images completed. The objects I am on now though might take some time to collect all the data.

[gregbradley]

Nice repro Paul. Looks better.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Looks better? What would you like to see improved?

[gregbradley]

NB is largely.subjective hence no real valid comment.
But it would probably improve the image to.make the stars recede more and a better balance between light and dark.
As I say its subjective and not a valid criticism free really
Greg