Ngc 1977

[jjjnettie]

The Running Man
Another from the vaults. Taken January 16th this year.
36x5 minutes.
No flats.
Canon 20d, ed80, heq5pro, guided.
DSS and CS3
I'm working my way through "The Zone System for Astro Imaging" atm and I'm seeing an improvement in my skills, thus this post.:)
That said, I still managed to clip the image, but I feel there's something inherently wrong with the data in the first place. :shrug:
Considering the date it was taken, I reckon it must have been a really hot and muggy night. (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it:P)

[h0ughy]

the running man was sweating!

nice work JJJ - your processing skills are way better than mine - shows some dust and of course the neb, but the heat noise is a probelm with DSLRs - especially in summer.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Very nice image Nettie !! Lovely natural looking colour in that as well - quite a nice processing job! I wanted to scroll down and see more of the nebula at the bottom of the frame - you'll have to follow up with another shot! I've also just finished reading the Zone System (by Wodaski) - certainly helped me a lot! How much of it have you read so far?

[marc4darkskies]

Way to go Nettie! The Zone System is a great book - I used it to get up to speed myself. You'll find eventually though that it doesn't cover everything. A simple example is adjustment layers - not mentioned anywhere - but a crucial element in processing IMO so you can backtrack and refine.

Your 1977 is looking good! I think you just need to do longer subs next time if noise will allow. You've also black clipped the blue channel somewhat I think (?)

Keep 'em coming! :)

Cheers, Marcus

[jjjnettie]

Yep, layers are a very important part of the process Marcus. The opacity slider is my best friend, it where all the finer adjustments are made.
I'm really making use of the Carboni Actions too. I don't know what I ever did without them.
David..... I'm just starting on colour balancing. Mind you, just because I've read part of the book, doesn't necessarily mean it's sunk in. LOL

Next on my list is Adam Blocks DVD "Making Every Pixel Count, Powerful Processing in Photoshop".

[David Fitz-Henr]

Oh I see, so this is just your first read through ... ;)

[multiweb]

Nice one JJJ. The blue channel is a little bit clipped but overall great process. Top work. :thumbsup:

[Davros]

Your doing fantastic work JJJ :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: keep it up its inspiring.

[gregbradley]

Thats a very nice image Jeanette.

Only suggestion I would make is perhaps a run through with Noise Ninja to smooth out the background grainy areas more.

Noise Ninja is a very handy plugin.

Only slight disagreement with Wodaski's book is he has you move the black point in levels into the bottom of the bell curve too much.

I think it is better to leave more of that bottom area of the bell curve intact as there is fine data there. He must like his background quite black. I am now leaving more of the bell curve at the bottom left intact than he says to do in his book. He tends to black clip a tad in an effort to reduce background noise. Noise Ninja and other techniques do a better job of controlling that. Even an S shaped curve does that better as well.

Greg.

[RobF]

Nice going Jeanette. You seem to be having fun with old data lately.

I never seem to get a decent run at Orion - always mucking around with my gear changing something that time of year :rolleyes:

[jjjnettie]

Like with all advice, you pick and choose which suits you best. :)

[RobF]

Hey - now that is good advice! :)