A peak of Eta Carina Nebula

[WingnutR32]

Ok, so I didn't use any darks or flats.. I'm a very bad boy.

I have ordered some light boxes from Peter off this forum so I can hopefully get around the lack of flats problem. As for not having darks, I can only blame my current lazy state after the cold Canberra nights being outside.

Here is a stack of 9 photos of the Eta Carina Nebula. Stacked in DSS, post-processed in PS CS5 (levels and curves).

Enjoy :)

Eta Carina Nebula (well a part of it)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/w1ngnut32/5975905163/

(This one has the red channel slightly enhanced to bring out more colour. Now to decide on whether to astro mod the 60D)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/w1ngnut32/5976199153/

[renormalised]

Nice piccies:)....you could stretch that quite a bit further to bring out more detail. But you really do need the darks and flats. They would make a lot of difference.

[WingnutR32]

Thanks Carl,

The flats will definetly be coming as my payments have already been made for my nice new light boxes :)

As for stretching it further, I've only just learnt how to use the level and curves functions in PS so not sure how far to go or not.

[renormalised]

It's a subjective thing...too much stretching can add further noise to your piccie. Too little and not enough detail comes out. That's why you need more and longer subs. The longer your subs are and the more you have, the better your S/N ratio will be, the more you can stretch your image to get the results you want. It's subjective, as I mentioned, in that you'll be the judge of what you think is the best you can get out of a series of subs. It all comes with practice and experience. You never stop learning or improving your pics.

[WingnutR32]

Completely understood Carl. Thanks for that feedback.

Subjective results have always appealed to me with so many differing opinions on one particular item.

EDIT:
Didn't want to double post, so have edited this one.

I have added some spikes to the stars as a trial. Still deciding on whether I like the added spikes or not in an image, I think it would be a good thing provided it doesn't overpower the image itself.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/w1ngnut32/5980430196/in/photostream/lightbox/