Eta Carina @ 280mm, f5.6

[dugnsuz]

Hello all...
Seems a very long time since I last posted any images - life and weather conspiring to stop me imaging.

Moved into a new place and acquired a HEQ5 Pro in the downtime.
So here's the first light from this new rig/location. My new place allows me the luxury of setting up outside then doing all the monitoring etc indoors...sweet:). This has allowed more critical focusing in between each frame - hope it shows!?

Eta Carina Complex - 20.3.09
Canon 40D (modded)
Canon 70-200mm f4L lens + Canon 1.4x Extender
Hutech IDAS LPS2 filter
HEQ5 Pro Mount
Autoguided with PHD

18x600 second exposures (3 hours total)
iso1600, f5.6, ICNR on, Flats applied.

Processing: ImagesPlus and Photoshop CS4 (...love that Smart Sharpen filter!!)

High Res Version...
http://s327.photobucket.com/albums/k461/doug-robertson/?action=view&current=8a.jpg


Cheers for looking
Doug:thumbsup:

[Craig_L]

Very sharp Doug - maybe the new mount? And nice colours. Low noise from that 40D by the looks too, even at 1600 ISO.

[dugnsuz]

Very sharp Doug - maybe the new mount?
Thanks Craig, new mount eh!? At least it's working!!!!:P

And nice colours. Low noise from that 40D by the looks too, even at 1600 ISO.
Not too garishly red is it?
Funny, I've found iso1600 images a lot smoother than one might expect - stacking 18 of them might help too. Minimal noise reduction applied in PS too.

Cheers
Doug

[gregbradley]

Wow that's a super image Doug. Only improvement I could suggest would be to tease out some more colour in the stars which are whitish which is a common DSLR image problem.

Try colour range tool on a star, use the + eyedropper and add more stars and keep the fuzziness slider low at first (4) and then slide it over until you've got the bulk of the stars.

Now once selected you can use curves, hue/saturation on the stars to bring up the colour.

You can also set the sponge tool to saturate and 10% and rub on stars that have a bit of colour in them to bring them up.

Greg.

[dugnsuz]

Great tips Greg - Thanks.
I'll try that over coffee in the morning.:thumbsup:
Doug

[gregbradley]

Its a really impressive image Doug, I mean really nice. Its worth that little bit of extra processing to bring up the colours.

Star colours are easier with CCD cameras I presume because they are 16 bit and 4 different filters. With DSLRs it can be a bit of a fight. If the image exposure is too long it seems the colour washes out. The 40D is 14bit so I bet a lot of that colour data is still there ready to be brought out.

Sometimes with CCD shots the stars seem to go all white too. But there is usually a bit of colour data buried in them that can be brought out. Othertimes the stars can be very colourful.

Tom Davis on this list is one processor who has mastered star colours. Look at his images and you'll see perfect star colour processing and notice how much it makes the image interesting.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Fabulous image Doug!

Colour looks nice to me. Eta Carina is one of those grand objects that looks good in many colour variations.

Mike

[gregbradley]

Also its nice to see a DSLR image of 3 hours and ISO1600. You reaped the reward for the long exposure.

Greg.

[Visionoz]

Hi Doug

I like your reddier color better than my widefield one!:lol: See what you mean about being a "reddy" person! Very sharp and good shot!

BTW did you get your 40D modded locally? I thought of doing the same and keep the EOS 5D in original state - I think it's more advantageous to mod the 40D as it has LiveView and more suited to my setup with the Vixen 6.4 FR

Regards
Bill

[Garyh]

Excellent result Doug!
Have to peek at the Big picture now!
:thumbsup:

[Tilt]

Its great to see another image from you Doug with the trusty 70-200, its been a while. 3 hrs at ISO1600 :thumbsup: Plenty of data!

Michael

[spearo]

well done
i like it, core not burnt out either that's very good
frank
frank

[Paul Haese]

Nice work Doug. Very smooth image and contains a wealth of information. Perhaps could do with a little more contrast boost, but that is only a tiny thing with this lovely image. Well done.:thumbsup:

[leon]

Now that is a beauty Doug, ;) nice going mate, seems like your new location has some nice clear and unobstructed skies.

I was only wondering who would hit this target at this time of the year. :whistle:
Leon :thumbsup:

[desler]

That really is spectacular Doug, well done.

Darren

[multiweb]

Superb widefield Doug. Magnifique! :thumbsup:

[dugnsuz]

Thanks all for the comments - I will try reprocessing the stars soon.
This really appeals to me as I've felt that my DSLR images have always needed a little tweak in that regard.
Thanks all
Doug

[RB]

Wow Doug, what a lovely image and at ISO 1600 no less !!!!
That is a great result.
There is nothing like more exposure, that's what I've been aiming for too, you just can't beat the results, but sometimes the weather has other plans.

Well done, you have controlled the noise well and colour is lovely.

Greg thanks for the tips Re: Star colours. :thumbsup:

[Tamtarn]

Great work Doug

New location new mount 40D 70-200 lens all combined to produce a stunning image :thumbsup:

[dugnsuz]

Andrew, B&D - Thanks
Now I'm going to have to do 3 hours worth on every object!!!
AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
Doug

[RB]

Keeps you off the streets.......:P

[dugnsuz]

WORD:cool3::P

[dugnsuz]

Repro - tried Greg's suggestion re increasing star colour and using the sponge tool to buff up the brighter stars.
There's a wee bit of a difference - gives the image a bit of a lift I think. But you would probably have to do a blink comparison to appreciate it!!!

The sponge tool works well on the brighter stars - think I'll use that technique routinely in my processing workflow...cheers Greg!:)
Doug:thumbsup:

[Bassnut]

mmm, 2 things, the thumbnail is nothing like the hi res version, an initial dissapointment, just dont bother with that for quality DSLR images IMO. AND, sport, could I take a wild guess and say you applied min filter to the whole image ?, bad call, woefull.

[Screwdriverone]

SPLASH!

Jumped right in and had a swim around Doug!

Another corker, simply stunning.

What struck me was how clear and sharp it was, almost a 3D effect on the stars to the bottom right of the frame.

More please Sir!?

Cheers

Chris

p.s. OUCH, just read Fred's comment. :(

[dugnsuz]

Do you mean the High Res version Fred?
Applied a "smaller stars" action which uses the min filter heavily I think.
Is that what you mean?
Any criticism from experienced guys is constructive in my book.
Cheers
Doug

[Bassnut]

Yes, the hi res version. Hey, I use min filter too, but ONLY on the stars after selecting them, its so bleedin obvious on a whole image and kills it with strange stringy artifacts. Mike Sidonio used to hammer me into the dirt for it, he hates it alltogether. Sorry to be savage, but its a heavy filter that should be sneaked in on stars only if you really must.

[dugnsuz]

Thanks for the heads up Fred - I've been using that kind of filter a lot lately, and I know what you mean about that stringy "snot" artifact!!!
Small stars look like they begin to join up to form filaments rather than discreet points. Looks passable from a distance but crappy when you zoom in.
Cheers for being a savage:)
Doug

[dugnsuz]

Thanks Chris:thumbsup:
And, don't worry I'm a big boy...I can take it!!:lol:
Doug:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Screwdriverone]

Never doubted you for a second!

Chris

[dugnsuz]

:sad:

[gregbradley]

Geez Fred tell us what you really think - thats OK, bikie gang on the way. Hehehe:lol:

You're right though Minium filter is a savage beast. The Noel Carboni action uses it but I think it also selects stars first. I sometimes use it on a single star.

Though you get a better result by using deconvolution. With a one shot colour you may need to make a duplicate copy/desaturate to make it black and white. Then run deconvolution (not a Photoshop tool though) and then use that as a luminance.

When I use deconvolution (on RGB and Luminance masters) I use CCDstack and I pick a star with the lowest FWHM (full width half maximum - a measure of how "tight" the star is) and use only about 40 iterations (number of times it repeats the action).

If you overdo deconvolution you get harshed out stars so its a bit of trial and error.

Then relayer (in Photoshop) in the "luminance" layer you created above into your one shot colour RGB to get tighter stars and set the layer to "luminosity" and adjust the slider to suit.

There's no way around it - you're heading down the several hours of processing time for each image path.;)

Greg.

[Jen]

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: nice pic Doug love the colors :)

[AlexN]

I regularly use the same method as Greg described in his previous post to reduce star sizes, however, rather than copy/pasting the entire RGB image, then desaturating, I often do the R G B channels separately, as they all react differently to the filter, so I process each channel to its own merits, then re-combine them in PS later. Usually taking the R channel, doing a little more work to make sure thats perfect and using that as Lum...

I love this image of yours doug, a few more tweaks here and there and Im going to want an A3 print... :)

[dugnsuz]

Cheers all
And, thanks for all tips/tricks
Doug

[jase]

:lol: What's wrong with the minimum filter? Sure it butchers stars, but you don't use it to 100% opacity. Immediately after applying it, go to the edit menu and select Fade. Drop it down between 40 to 60 percent. It will just tighten them up a little. Subtlety is the key with processing.

Really grand image Doug. 280mm frames the target exceptionally well. You got any of your ED80 data there of Eta? Make a hybrid image by registering some of the data to incorporate into the key features. Just blend it in as another layer. It will pack the image with some resolution punch and beats trying to sharpen details that aint really there to begin with. Don't worry about incorporating the stars, just use a mask to tweak the nebulosity details.

Thanks for sharing this visual treat. Keep up the good work...and yes...3 hour total integration time images from now on please.;)

[dugnsuz]

Thanks jase - must admit I get a little bit carried away with the processing side of things and don't always stick to a rigid processing workflow! In this case I think I used the min filter and faded it as you suggested early in the piece - all the subsequent tweaking has only served to accent and highlight the artefacts caused by this filter.
For me it's a balance between the dodgy stars and the lovely wispy nebular detail! Going to try a repro now with all this in mind!
Doug:thumbsup: