G'day everyone,
Western Veil from last month. Seeing was not good that night. Took me forever to process this, I have never processed an image with so many stars. I am still not sure my processing is ok. Let me know what you think.
Image details:
42X300sec @ ISO1600 with the gear in my signature.
Thanks for looking.
OK everyone, I felt the original was too smooth so I did a reprocess, colours came out a little different, probably better than the first, not sure. I have attached it as the second image in this post. I am much happier with the detail I pulled out of this one. Let me know what you think, and pointers and advice well regarded.
Thanks for looking
Thanks Richard. I found this to be the hardest image I have ever processed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stevec35
Very nice Rex!
Steve
Thanks Steve, glad you like it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Camelopardalis
Beautiful Rex, well done
How did you tame all the stars?
Thanks Dunk. I really struggled to be honest. I used several different range masks at different stages and hit the stars with Morphological Transform to reduce them. It was quite hard to ensure the nebula was adequately masked so it wasn't affected by the process. I ended up having to use pixelmath to combine a star mask, and a range mask, so that the nebula was protected but the stars weren't. I just kept trying different ways of doing it until I found one that worked. Gave me a huge headache, but I learnt a lot. Sorry to ramble but I wanted to explain without being vague. Thanks again for the kind words.
I really struggled to be honest. I used several different range masks at different stages and hit the stars with Morphological Transform to reduce them. It was quite hard to ensure the nebula was adequately masked so it wasn't affected by the process. I ended up having to use pixelmath to combine a star mask, and a range mask, so that the nebula was protected but the stars weren't. I just kept trying different ways of doing it until I found one that worked. Gave me a huge headache, but I learnt a lot. Sorry to ramble but I wanted to explain without being vague. Thanks again for the kind words.
Awesome, thanks Rex! It's a high bar you've set there
Good job, Rex! One trick worth trying is to clone your Luminance, hit it with multiple iterations of HDRMT and then use it to generate the star mask.
Thanks Rick, and thanks for the pointers, I will definitely be trying that out. I'm always looking for easier ways to do things.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cometcatcher
Lots of faint Ha nebula in there Rex. The modded 1100D is really performing.
Thanks Kevin. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the astro mod was the best thing I could have done for my images. I did it myself so cost nothing apart from time and as you say the extra Ha it picks up is well worth it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by multiweb
Nice shot Rex.
Thanks a lot Marc, appreciate it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Camelopardalis
Awesome, thanks Rex! It's a high bar you've set there
Thank you again Dunk for the kind words. I am actually not 100% happy with it, it looks a little too smooth to my eye. I might have another play down the track (after I get over the headache of the first round ), and see if I can make it look a bit more natural.
Thanks Ross, I'm happier with the second attempt. This is definately the hardest image I have ever tried to process. I'll get there, just takes time and practice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
That's veily good Rex ...interesting hearing all the convoluted processing steps too ...things we do huh? usually for hours on end too
Mike
Thanks Mike for the "veily" nice comment , still got some learning to do before I am totally happy with this one, but with my current skills, this is it.
), and see if I can make it look a bit more natural.
...interesting hearing all the convoluted processing steps too 
...things we do huh? usually for hours on end too 
, still got some learning to do before I am totally happy with this one, but with my current skills, this is it.
