LMC 135mm Wide Field

[dugnsuz]

Hi all,
First go at LMC.
Lots o' noise and CA on bright stars!:mad2:
135mm Pentax SMC lens (cheers leon) @f3.5.
iso400, 10x60sec exposures.
Stacked in DSS, processed(blindly) in ImagesPlus and PS.
Comments/criticism please.
Be kind its Xmas!!:P
Cheers
Doug:thumbsup:

[stephenmcnelley]

Hi dugnsuz, depth resolution is a real strong point from my posi. You can almost feel the distance perception between most of the stars.
I really like this image from a wide field dramatic point of view despite the little flaws you suggest!.
It's a christmas keeper mate.
Thumbs up.

[dugnsuz]

Cheers Stephen,
I appreciate your comments.
Doug:thumbsup:

[sheeny]

Good one, Doug. :thumbsup: A bit of CA apparent, but otherwise very good! I con't see too much noise, but I suppose you've reduced the image for posting have you? That would makie the noise less apparent, but if it's just been cropped then I wouldn't complain about the noise at all!!!:)

Al.

[CometGuy]

Very nice shot. I have a thing for the 135 f3.5 lens as I used one for many years and got some nice results with it :)

Terry.

[dugnsuz]

Thanks Al and Terry,
The CA is a pain! Each time I try to pull detail out with Levels/Curves the 2 bright stars lower left get more and more purple:mad2:
There's probably a well documented PS fix - but I'm still new to all this!
Excuses excuses!:whistle:
Yeah Terry the 135mm is my fave at the moment. I've also got a nice 200mm f4 which is lovely too.
Cheers
Doug:thumbsup:

[Tamtarn]

Beautiful shot Doug

Very sharp and love the subtle colours :thumbsup:

[leon]

Now your cooking Doug, very nice indeed, that image has some real depth, gee mate you will be a master at this soon.
Other than a little CA, its a great effort.

Cheers Leon :thumbsup:

[RB]

Great shot Doug.

:thumbsup:

[dugnsuz]

Barb and Dave, leon my old mate and Andrew I thank you!
Cheers for the comments and Happy Christmas to you all and other fellow IIS members.
Doug

[Ric]

A great image Doug, it has nice detail, depth and colours in it.

cheers

[sejanus]

The CA doesn't bother me, I think it looks tops.

[dugnsuz]

Thanks Ric and sejanus,
Cheers
Doug

[erick]

Now you know why I wanted Terry's 135/3.5 ;)

If I can get a shot a fifth as good as yours, Doug, I'm going be stoked! :D

[avandonk]

You should try and mount a 2" nebula or UHC or similar filter with a step up/down ring on the front of the lens. Also dont use a standard photographic UV filter as they are optically not good for stars. This will get rid of some if not all of the purple fringing as it is mainly due to near UV. This will also accentuate the faint nebulae by cutting out light pollution and skyglow. I am a great fan of widefields as it puts everything into some sort of perspective. They are also a great challenge to get right as there is so much variation in brightness of the objects in the field and dont even mention gradients.

The real fun is taking your own pictures otherwise we would just look at Hubble pics.

Bert

[dugnsuz]

Hi,
Thanks Erick I'm sure you'll love the 135mm lens - I think we scored a couple of bargains there eh? Someone up there must like us!!!

Bert, thanks for the advice.
I think putting a UHC filter on the lens is a great idea to enhance the nebulosity and reduce the effects of CA.
Would a Minus Violet type filter be a less costly way of getting rid of the violet fringing?. Also, where can I get a step-down adapter?
Cheers
Doug