Recent images I’ve put up have had a certain amount of criticism (and fair enough too), which left me somewhat wondering. The source of my problem I decided (and hoped) was the monitor of the laptop I was using. Going to another IIS members residence and doing a quck side by side test confirmed my suspicions.
So a purchase was required, I went out with my wife in search of a NEW MONITOR , and bless her heart the budget for this was increased, to allow me to get a 24 inch 1920 x 1200 pixel one with an 8000.1 contrast ratio for my images.
This one came with a program called Natural Color Pro which allows you to set the calibration of the monitor ……. (yes I know the pro’s are cringing)…. Having done this I compared a few images with those I had printed at a reasonably reputable printing place, and was happy with the result. Which leaves me to consider how many monitors are not calibrated in any way out there?
Im not saying mine is perfect (for photoshop users try going to SETTINGS/ CONTROL PANEL / ADOBE GAMMA in your computer for a simple test and compare to your prints). I could probably do this to the laptop now that I have a vague idea what I am doing, …. Note other laptops I looked at had a similar problem, I don’t know if they are set up this way for power conservation perhaps?
Now that I have done the introduction, on to the image, M16 as well known as they come. The one that’s bright red with green haloed stars is the OLD version
it did look good on the old laptop though
. The other one is the reprocessed on the new monitor version. I hope it looks the same to you as to me. I am pretty sure the colors will be right , just the brightness whether to you its too light or dark..... i did peek at jases repro for an IIS member and compare.... after i finished.
I tried to keep some star colors (thanks for those who sent advice) I will need to work on this further but a degree of success was made, my central focus in the image was the two ‘Towers " and trying to keep the luminous edges clearly visible, and not introduce too much noise, the crop is a pixel for pixel conversion 1280 x 1024 and further processed to add more contrast and correct the histogram black points for those who like to asses it that way, the blue was raised to increase the blue in the stars, and protocol seems to demand the background sky has a slight blue tinge to it.
For those who need to know what was used
12inch newtonian
qhy8 camera
6 min exposures (probably 2hrs worth) …. Backed up the FITS to disk somewhere?
G11 mount