Quote:
Originally Posted by Tamtarn
Thanks for your constructive thoughts Mike. 
I hadn't purposely darkened that area. Having checked a hubble image and a few others some seemed to leave it dark so I left ours that way.
After your suggestion I realised that there was a lot of detail hidden away around the dark core so I did a repro selecting just that small area.
There's more detail there hope it looks better 
(New image at beginning of thread) |
I see, you have managed to reveal the inside of the dark bay (as I call it) nice! I ws refering though to the area around the trap as a whole. There are lots of interpretations for sure but the usual problem I see with this area in most M42 shots is that it looks unanaturally darker than the bright surrounds and the transition to this darkened area is too abrupt. It is very tricky to get right I recon but the Trap area is the brightest part of the whole nebula so it should really remain so to look natural. The trick is to gradually blend the darkened trap area into the surrounding bright areas so that it is showing plenty of detail but remains bright, just my opinion of course
Over all it is a very pleasing result and you must be quite happy with it. I really like how you have revealed stuff inside that dark bay section and the coliurs look good too, nice!
MIke