Lady Liberty

[joshman]

I spent over 40 hours on this target, and half of that time was in error because I bumped my framing by 30 degrees for several nights. This is the full stack at drizzle 2x, including those frames, and autocropped by Pixinsight.

I'm not in love with my colour palette here, so will likely revisit again in the near future. be sure to check our the full resolution version on astrobin! (https://astrob.in/h2g7b5/0/)

[gregbradley]

That's a super image. The long exposure has given a certain solidity to the nebula.

I quite like the colour scheme.

Greg.

[Dave882]

Great shot - amazing detail but still really well controlled

[strongmanmike]

This area really suits the banner style framing, nice job Josh :thumbsup:

Mike

[joshman]

Thanks Mike, it looks nice on my ultra-wide monitor at work. ;)

It has been a nice happy little accident.

I have yet to see what the "proper" framing looks like that i was originally aiming for.

[alpal]

Hi Josh,
very good data.
I think the picture looks a bit too dark.
The dark nebulas above the Statue of Liberty have been lost in the picture
you've shown but can be revealed by different stretching.
The dark areas are down at 16 out of 255 bits,
and even the brighter areas are mostly below 100 out of 255 bits.
It's almost as though half the dynamic range has not been used.
I could provide an adjusted sample if you want?



cheers
Allan

[Retrograde]

Very nice Josh. Great detail in the hi-res version and I like the colour palette. :thumbsup:

[joshman]

Hi Allan, thanks for the feedback, i'd appreciate an adjusted sample, and advice/information on how you arrived at it. I think i was so focused on trying not to clip the very bright core, that I neglected the overall contrast, especially around the dark nebula at the top of the image. There is quite a bit of dynamic range here.

The image looks good when viewed on the monitors i have at my disposal, but i agree that is looks a bit dark, especially when viewed through the web browser.

[Stephane]

I love this nebula. You’ve captured some nice detail. Great job!

[alpal]

Hi Josh,
OK I just quickly did a re-stretch using curves and levels.
I've made it the same size as the pic in your opening post for comparison.
Do you see how the dark nebulas have been revealed?
It would be better to do with the original TIFF files.



cheers
Allan

[AstroJason]

Wow the full res image, love that blue shining through the centre of the nebula! Nice details in there too!

[joshman]

Hi Allan, thanks for the quick process, This one is on my (rather long) list of data to continue processing. I can definitely see that i needs to be made brighter and adjust the contrast and the saturation and colour balance as well. it's quite iridescent when the brightness is pushed.

[alpal]

Hi Josh,
I see you've done a revision:
https://www.astrobin.com/h2g7b5/0/#rB

that certainly shows the dark nebulas now -
well done - a lot better.

cheers
Allan

[joshman]

Hi Allan, Thanks for the kind words

I've actually just uploaded a new revision (https://astrob.in/h2g7b5/C/) with a different mix. I generally change my computer wallpaper to whatever my current image is, so i get to see it very often, it helps me to judge whether i actually like the processing long term. I think my latest revision might get printed at some stage.

[alpal]

I dunno Josh,
is my monitor not turned up bright enough compared to yours?
The latest image version C seems very dark.
I boosted the curves in Photoshop and it looks better -
I can see everything.
I think others need to chime in?


cheers
Allan.

[joshman]

Hi Allan, i can see what you mean on my monitor here, it does look darker than the previous edition.

Funnily enough i had some test prints made of the previous version that i recieved in the mail late yesterday, and even those prints look a little dark. So I will need to make some adjustments for the purposes of printing.

I'm keen for other to chime in with how these look on their monitors.

[alpal]

Hi Josh,

I just checked using Mike's website:
https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/55347254

I can't see squares 1 & 2 -
I can just see square 3 but it's difficult.
Square 5 is quite clear.

cheers
Allan

[Dave882]

Firstly - I love the revised image. Really lovely clarity and detail all over.
My preference is certainly the latest version - I think the colours are a bit more pleasing too my eye on my laptop screen, and brightness good as long as the screen-brightness is turned up. Interestingly, on my phone, I prefer the previous iteration for colour and brightness :question:, but obviously that's always going to be an inferior view to the larger & better laptop screen.

[joshman]

I get similar results on my laptop monitor here at work. it has a 100% sRGB IPS screen, so I tend to trust it's rendition., though i do have the brightness all the way up and the screen hasn't been calibrated.

I'll give this a look on my processing PC at hom tonight and see where it lands.

[joshman]

I've just pulled them up on my phone and i agree with your assessment. I think this has a lot to do with screen technology - LCD vs OLED. most phone screens are OLED these days, and I find they do well with strong bright and contrasty colours, but they can't really render subtle contrast and colours differences well.

[alpal]

All the way up? -
that would explain it.

I have my screen at only 17% brightness but it still
seems very bright to me.
It's actually too bright at night but is perfect for the daytime.