Thanks for the feedback. Will definitely have a go at those stars again Andy. Not sure quite how to approach them in PixInsight, the goal being to keep (and sharpen perhaps) the NB star profiles and bring in the RGB colour. The RGB is what is darkening the edges I think so might just be a case of lifting those colours a bit more in the blend :-)
As for the colour scheme and framing I may well have subconsciously gone "Andy" :-) although, heart on my sleeve, I really just followed what I felt the image gave me. A linear colour calibration gave me most of the colour and framing was about avoiding the rather dull cloudy bits on the right and the overly dark bit in the bottom left. I tend not to study other NB images before processing my own as I really just want to work with what is there. That I might have half ended up in similar colour territory as you Andy is actually very exciting for me, given that I absolutely respect and love what you do :-)
I have also tried reducing saturation but it seems 'less' to me. Vague concept that! Anyway...
A spectacular image Ben and very 3D - a real sense of depth there.
If I am being really picky though some of those stars look too HDR flattened and not enough dynamic range. I have seen this myself when adding stars back in and using layers and lowering the opacity. it seems to reduce their dynamic range so they are lack sparkle. Really minor though, but something to consider.
Again thanks for the feedback :-) Really very much appreciated. The stars definitely lose out when added back in from the NB luminance, when applied to the starless background colour image. Maybe a bit of a masked curves stretch but wary of losing colour and blowing them out too...hmm
Again thanks for the feedback :-) Really very much appreciated. The stars definitely lose out when added back in from the NB luminance, when applied to the starless background colour image. Maybe a bit of a masked curves stretch but wary of losing colour and blowing them out too...hmm
It's not that much the stars intensity but the stellar profiles that are gone. They look like sequins. No real gradient or fall off between the bright core and the outline.
Okay, had a go at fixing the issue. I isolated the outer areas of the stars (keeping the middle reasonably fuzzy) and reduced the RGB and this seemed to head in the right direction. Only really focused on the big stars. Betterer I think? :-)
Thanks so much for the push to refine this. Learning heaps!
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