Still not back in the saddle yet but I did a quick repro of my published Ha image of NGC2070 ... only reworked the web sized file for fun ... brought out more of the fainter nebulosity.
p.s. First pic is original ... second is repro ... for comparison.
Well I happen to like the original as well Trevor ... I just got bored with not being able to image again yet The first ( original ) is smoother by far and I think the nebulosity looks more natural ... I just wanted to see more of it.
I actually checked the posting out on a different computer and it doesn't look as good as it did when I edited on this machine ... here we go with monitors again ... never mind ... thanks for your comment.
Good work Steve. First rendition does it for me. Whilst the second seems to pack some contrasty details, stars have gone quite crunchy looking.
Not sure how far you want to take it, but if you make the first rendition you base layer in PS, then the second (contrasty version) on top, you'll be able to gain greater control of the effect on the stars. With the top layer selected, go to the colour range tool and select highlights. This will automatically select all highlights in the image such as the stars, but also much of the bright parts of nebulosity. Expand and feather the selection to ensure the stars are adequately selected then use the lasso tool to deselect only the bright nebulosity components. Once done, hit the delete key. This will bring first rendition features from the base layer through to the top layer. You can then drop the opacity of the top layer to get a smoother blend/transition between the two. Worth a shot if you're up to it. Probably an easy way of doing the above such as fading the effect or similar.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your efforts. Look forward to seeing more.
The first ( original ) is smoother by far and I think the nebulosity looks more natural ... I just wanted to see more of it.
