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Old 22-06-2007, 05:11 PM
jase (Jason)
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Melbourne, Victoria
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Normally, I wouldn't do this as modifying an image in such a highly compressed state is a recipe for disaster. Really lacking dynamic range to play with, but I thought I'd provide an insight to one of the ways to remedy star fields/colours in PS.

Created a duplicate layer of original - now you have two layers to work with - one for stars, the other for nebulosity (you can go on a create many other layers depending on what you want to achieve, but the complexity level increases. I try to keep the layers no more than 6, but sometimes go to 8 if I'm working with Ha info. Mosaics are a different story.

Drop the red channel via curves on the duplicate (as can been seen on PS histogram) - red balance is higher than other channels. This brought out more blue balance. I perhaps over did this a little. Then with the PS colour range tool selected specific stars that I wanted to come through and modified the fuzziness to include some of the smaller fainter ones deep within the nebula.

Then on this modified layer, I created a reveal selection layer mask. This allowed the nebulosity to come through, from the original (background) layer, but also bring out the stars. Seasoned to taste. I’ve left the nebulosity untouched (other than boosting saturation) as manipulating this results is too much noise for my liking. The nebulosity is rather muted IMO. Needs more saturation. You "chase" the details by using other layer masks to provide greater control.

I pushed the blue a little too hard, but I think I got my point across - balancing star colors is important for aesthetics. Regardless of what you're using to capture the night sky, it is possible to push the limits in processing.
Attached Thumbnails
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Click for full-size image (NGC-7000-Bweb-reworked.jpg)
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