More repro's from Cloud Central aka, Brisbane.

[AlexN]

Given the rather constant cloud cover and a few months without a camera, I've fallen into continuous reprocessing of old data. I think I've done a good job on this one, Its kind of hard to say with the colour blindness and all, but it looks pretty smooth to me..


First image is the previously posted image, second is the repro..

Details:
8hrs Ha (24x 1800sec exposures) 5hrs 40mins (53x 300sec) OSC data from dark skies.
Ha captured over 3 nights, OSC captured over 3 nights about 4 weeks later..

8x 300s Darks, 8x 1800s darks. no flats used.

Equipment used : TMB/LOMO 80mm F/6 triplet, Baader MPCC, Baader 7nm Ha filter, Orion StarShoot Pro, WO ZS70ED + QHY5 for guiding. HEQ5 Pro.

[h0ughy]

sorry mate but i prefer the first go the second has far too much makeup ;)

[RobF]

Eek - I think you might need the colour saturation somewhere in the middle of the two as well Alex. I'm still voting Mark I - its really captured the stars well even if M20 and M8 could use just a bit more colour depth.

Heck - its hard to ace a repro when the original was so good to start with you know :)

[AlexN]

Gone to far have I? Eek.. I kind of thought the saturation might be too high, as to me it looked vibrant... Vibrant to me is usually "Technicolor" to everyone else! :D hahaha

I'll have a fiddle...

[Tilt]

Yep, repro looks rather pink, probably too much for me. Tinker again :thumbsup:

Michael

[strongmanmike]

Ah grasshopper do not rush like a swollen river to find your repro quest, reap slowly and be guided by the colours in your mind not your eye, move like a ripple getting ever larger, little steps...are?.. worth two in the bush?..?..:confused2:...:screwy:


Yeh the first one looks better :lol:

[AlexN]

luckily you clarified that at the end there Mike, otherwise I would have thought two things...

1 - You've lost your mind..
2 - What the hell is that guy talking about :P

I suppose rather than attempting to change the colour, the object of this repro was to try and increase the contrast between the bright and dark areas of the background stars... I think in the first, the background stars are lacking in colour a bit, and the darker dust lanes seem a little muted.. I was trying to add punch to it a bit.. giving it a bit more dynamic range I suppose..

I'll have another go at it.. aiming for the same colours, with the contrast enhancements.. Well see how I go.. :D

[Octane]

The reprocess looks like some film shot from the 70s or 80s not scanned in correctly.

The original is orders of magnitudes better.

Regards,
Humayun

[AlexN]

Wow.. The repro is that much worse? :D

Not to worry! :) Thanks mate...

PS - Congratulations on 3000 Posts Humi! :)

[Hagar]

My vote also goes to No.1. The second looks well overcooked, almost like the colour was added with a paint brush. Less is best.

[AlexN]

Thanks Doug, Im wondering if its worth going and getting my eyes re-tested... I've done some pretty shocking things with colours before, But I dont believe I've messed up this bad in the past... Maybe the colourblindness is getting worse? :D

Oh well...

[Garyh]

No 1 is my vote Alex, like Humayun mentions, the repro looks like a old Fuji film astro shot from the 80`s. I reckon a blend of the new repro into the original (minus the saturation) should give a very pleasing result!

[AlexN]

Gary - Funny you should say that, I've got them both opened in photoshop at the moment, Im trying to get the same depth and contrast from the repro in the original without touching the colour...

We'll see how it goes.! :)

[AlexN]

Round 3...

Whats the general consensus on this one? better? worse?

[strongmanmike]

Nup, the original is still the best.

I had a go at combining the two versions and then some and the data isn't good enough to imrpove it I don't think, I found I was just going around in circles, when you lift the contrast you lose the naturaual look. You have some unmatched bits betwen data sets too - top left and bottom right.

Leave this one I'd say :).

Mike

[AlexN]

The Ha and the OSC data don't line up Perfectly, that is present in the top left and bottom right... Yea, I've moved on to processing up a few data sets I got of the web... M8 and M20 can wait until I can acquire a decent set of data next year..

[h0ughy]

nope - still looks like i processed it:rofl: - burnt out core bits;) go the original

[jjjnettie]

Somewhere in between the two would be just right Alex.
You've been processing when tired again, haven't you.:lol:

[AlexN]

JJJ... You know me soooo well... :) Sleepy eyes and processing do not go together.. (at least its not like that pink M20 that I did up at 10 chain hill a few months back... that was my worst processing effort ever I think.. :D hahaha!

Dave - Yea, I've given up on it... (well, sort of.. I have another one in the works...) but I think increasing the contrast any amount causes the image to go a bit pair shaped...

[mill]

Sorry Alex i had a go at it (man a jpeg is a pain in the %#^@ to process).
Ok here it is what i have done: First select-color range and select only the neb and the blue from the triffid.
Then hue/saturation (red and blue seperate).
Then astronomy tools and do the local contrast enhancement.
Hope it is ok as i kinda suck at processing.

Original first and repo next.

[AlexN]

Martin - I like it, I think you've done well, however I liked mine too so I dont know what we should deduce from that.. :)

I think you've done well indeed actually, colours look nice to me, contrast is greatly improved..

[mill]

The contrast and selective coloring give more detail in the lagoon and give a darker background.
Just do a side by side comparison.
Just a pity i don't have the full res pic :(

[AlexN]

You want one? I can upload the JPG, or alternatively the tiff that **I Think** still has the layers separated (Ha Lum and RGB)

If you'd like to have a go at it, let me know and I'll upload either of the two files.

[mill]

The tiff please, then i can also pre learn some tiff processing :)

[AlexN]

I dont have one that is completely unprocessed, Its processed, but not yet finalised...

I'll get to uploading it asap.

[AlexN]

Ok, I had a look, there is two options...

1 - Ha+R G B version, not in separate layers.
2 - Pure RGB TIFF and the Ha Tiff as separate files. These will need registering etc as they were taken weeks apart..

The Ha+R G B file is probably the better of the two to work on... as all the pesky business is already sorted out.

[mill]

No 1 please sire :)
Hope i wont make a mess out of it.

[AlexN]

:) Can't do any worse than I did mate! :) haha...

Starting upload now..

[Matty P]

Must be quite a bit of cloud in Brisbane at the moment. When you start reprocessing a reprocessed image you know there is something wrong. :P

:thumbsup:

[RobF]

Help us Matty - they're closing in worse!!!!
Must.....see......starlight....... :screwy: :P

[mill]

Alex where did you upload the image to ?

[AlexN]

Having trouble uploading the zip file to my webspace at the moment Martin.. I'll post a link here when I've got it sorted, and PM you to let you know..

[Matty P]

Here's what I'll do...

I'll put an order in for some astro goodies. Might send the clouds down this way for a couple days. :P ;)

[AlexN]

Dude... I think you'll have to do better than that... I think you need to do a rain dance, video it and put it on youtube :P hahaha!

My camera will be arriving tomorrow probably, Maybe monday.. Mount in january..... Yea... I think we're going to get some good rain in the coming month.. Its not like SE QLD doesn't need the rain... I'm just doing my bit for the good of the country I think...

[Matty P]

If I was to do a rain dance it would most likely keep the rain away. :P haha.

I don't think I can be much assistance then seeing that you have a new camera and mount arriving soon.

At least it'll keep the clouds away from Canberra. :lol:

[AlexN]

Laugh it up kiddo! The sky gods see you always you know.. poking fun at our clouds.. :) The Darkness Approaches!! :D

[jjjnettie]

I've got another little package due to arrive soon from the US, that will add few more hours of rain.

[AlexN]

Good good.. Give me a chance to build a sufficient dark frame library.. :D

[RB]

Don't know if this will help with your colour blindness Alex, but I believe PS CS4 has a couple of settings for colour blindness, maybe worth checking out.

I liked Martin's repro version and I couldn't resist having a little bash myself since it's raining here too.
Hope you don't mind.
Just adjusted the colour levels and saturation.

Anyway cheers and Happy New Year to all.

[AlexN]

Very interesting RB.. I'll have a look into these settings and see what I can figure out..

I do not mind your re-pro at all, I think it looks good too... I'll check my server pc and see if that upload finished, if it has, I'll put a link to the full res tiff image for anyone who wants to take a stab at it.. :)

Cheers, And a Happy New Year to you too! :)