IC5146 and Vdb157

[Leonardo70]

There were some good days in the mountains and I took advantage to catch this pair of objects. All immersed in the dust:

http://www.starkeeper.it/IC5146.htm

Thanks for looking.
Comments welcome.

Ciao,
Leo

[gregbradley]

A sensational image. Very vivid and sharp.

Greg.

[multiweb]

Great shot Leo. Wow! Amazing colors and details. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[jase]

Very impressive image Leo! I found this quite a difficult target to process. You've done well. I enjoyed the rich colours you've portrayed as they provide good contrast between the emission and reflection nebs in the scene.

I think what distracted me those most however were the bloated stars across the scene. Either you've got some bad subs in the masters or the overall seeing conditions weren't supportive of the focal length. I see you're still running Photoshop CS2. Perhaps its time for an upgrade? CS4 onwards has a great tool known as Liquify. You probably heard of it? When operating in pucker mode, its far better than the minimum filter (ghastly!) and the pinch tool (which sucks as it only operates in 8bit mode). Liquify is the bomb!

Hey, look on the bright side - if the tool can make fat people thin (http://photoshoprevealed.com/blog/learn-photoshop-cs4-virtual-weight-loss/), just imagine what it can do to those stars! There's plenty of info online. Experiment with the settings to get good results. I took a very rough run of Liquify to Vdb 157 as seen below. Need to spend more time to correctly match stellar profiles but just want to drive the point.

In most cases stars are what make an image so helps to look after them!

[Leonardo70]

Thanks for your comments...

@Jase : i read your suggestion about the bloated stars and i changed the photo. Many Many thanks for the info about CS4.

[jase]

Prima! Look'n good Leo. :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

I use liquify and mesh warping tools all the time but I've never thought about using them for astro. Interesting use of the toolset. :thumbsup:

[atalas]

Nice work Leo,love the pink....Jase,Liquify....another great tool to add to the arsenal!something I wouldn't of dreamed of looking at...thanks for the tip.

[strongmanmike]

Unless you're Fred :P

Fabulous colourful vista Leo :thumbsup:

Mike

[Leonardo70]

Thanks to all for the comments...
Again thanks to Jase for the help and info :thanx:

Ciao,
Leo

[Ross G]

Amazing photo Leo.

Sharp, lots of detail and glowing colours.


Thanks.


Ross.

[iceman]

Wow, that's a stunning image Leo. I don't usually see the Cocoon nebula at such long focal lengths.

Beautiful, bright, rich. Love it!

It's now IOTW (http://www.iceinspace.com.au).

[Ric]

A wonderful image Leo and congratulations on it becoming "image of the week"

Cheers

[Paul Haese]

Nice work Leo. The colour is great.

[bokglob]

Belisimo Leo!

[Leonardo70]

Thanks Mike, it's an honor for me.
Thanks to everyone for the nice comments.

Ciao,
Leo

[cybereye]

Leo,

Well done - a truly magnificent image!

Cheers,
Mario

[marco]

Great one Leo, I was almost going to miss it. Lovely rendering of the details and excellent color balance, as your usual.

Clear Skies
Marco

[Leonardo70]

Mario, Marco .... grazie !! :thanx:

Ciao,
Leo