Processing advice sought - Trifid Nebula

[niko]

Here's my quick and dirty image from Snake Valley. I was hoping someone might offer some advice on how to draw out more detail in the nebula. I've tried levels and curves across the whole image but feel I need to focus just on the area of most interest.

Is a layered mask and then levels and curves just on it the way to go? How to I feather this in to the rest of the image?

Stoopid newbie questions I realise but just a few pointers would be great if someone has the time.

cheers

niko

[allan gould]

No image, Niko

[niko]

doh!

image addded, thanks Alan

[alistairsam]

Hi Niko,
can you post a larger image, this one is only 520x340 and is pretty hard to makeout any details.
cheers

[niko]

here's a slightly larger file but no processing at all on this one

cheers

niko

[RobF]

Plenty of data in there Niko, but needs more stretching and colour tweaks. Might be worth asking Mike if you can upload a TIF if you want people to play with the raw data and give some tips.

Attached nothing special - just some stretch and saturation

[DavidU]

Levels curves soft light layer @ 60% smart sharpen.

[niko]

thanks guys

what does "stretch" entail?

cheers

[Poita]

If using Nebulosity, you can follow how to do a stretch in this tutorial
If using something else, the same principles pretty much apply anyway.

http://www.stark-labs.com/help/nebulositytutorials/files/PostProcHowTo_v1b.pdf

[gregbradley]

The best way to learn image processing is either Ron Wodaski's Zone System book which goes over all this with lots of details or Adam Blocks Image Processing DVD tutorials.

I myself prefer DVD tutorials as you see the example of him processing the image in front of you.

They are very comprehensive and complete so you would not need anything else really.

Greg.