First Eta Stack with 40D - Which One ????

[Tamtarn]

This is our first stacked Eta taken with our 40D . Very impressed with the detail the camera is producing which shows on the Higher Resolution.

Detail.....6 x lights 7 mins...4 x Darks 7 mins ISO 800

Which do you prefer ..... Comments please

Image 1 processed to our liking

Image 2 same process but colour saturated


Higher resolution of the first here.. http://barb.david.1.googlepages.com/home


......

[Craig.a.c (Craig)]

Both pics are very nice. Being a newbie I can't really see much difference between them except that the second one looks a little brighter.

Is that NGC 3372?

[EzyStyles (Eric)]

great shot guys. i prefer the first one. The red looks more natural and not overly too bright.

[Matty P (Matt)]

I'm with Eric on this one, I prefer the first one. It has a a more natural look than the second one.

Both are very nice images, well done.

[Garyh]

I prefer the first one as well. The 2nd just looks too red.
Very nice result!

[Alchemy (Clive)]

sorry both too red, all the discusion of red images lately makes anyone whose isnt red feel out of place..... which is a pity.

i could be wrong but the dark lanes arent that red ive included an image to show what i reckon .... sorry to crash the party but an opinion was requested and i cant say either is right, the image i saw the other day had more potential i felt.

i as always could be wrong.

ive added more or less the same image hammered to bring up the colour, the dark lanes dont seem all that red still.

sorry guys

[citivolus (Ric)]

I'd go with #1. #2 is giving too much emphasis on the red channel. As Alchemy says, not every nebula emission is red.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Great pictures guys. Don't worry too much about the red. I see red too when there are too many clouds (like last night).

[Hagar (Doug)]

Nice images.. I like the first image better as it shows better colour separation in the stars and allows more detail to be seen. IMO
Looks like you are getting the 40D to work well. I love mine.

[iceman (Mike)]

Great images B&D, you guys are improving so fast. It's excellent to see.

The 40D looks like a great investment! Now to mod and cool it?

[danielsun]

Excellent shots guys!!! I'd probably go with the first.
Already off to a great start with the 40D.Well done.

[lineout]

I think I prefer the first pick. There's more red in the second one which takes some of the detail away. Still both are nice and I wouldn't complain if I took either.

How are you finding the 40D?

Rene

[Peter Ward]

A gold standard for Eta and its colour balance is probably here
(Daniel's work is extraordinary)

http://www.verschatse.cl/nebulae/ngc3372rgb/maximum.jpg

What also needs to be understood is the amount of exposure given to an image will affect its relative colour balance. The core of the Carina Nebula
is very bright and it will saturate to white if the surrounding (quite red) nebulosity is being captured with some depth.

To preserve this dynamic range and still make an image look "natural" is not easy. But probably most would agree this has been done well in the linked image.

[Ric]

A lovely capture, I think I prefer image number 1.

As Mike said you are really shooting up the learning curve.

Great stuff.

[Tamtarn]

We have been off line for a few days because of our computer kept crashing with the large image files from the Canon . Had to get a 500G external hard drive.

Originally Posted by Craig.a.c

Both pics are very nice. Being a newbie I can't really see much difference between them except that the second one looks a little brighter.

Is that NGC 3372?

Thanks for the input Craig

Originally Posted by EzyStyles

great shot guys. i prefer the first one. The red looks more natural and not overly too bright.

That's definitely our choice Eric the second one was just there for comments

Originally Posted by Garyh

I prefer the first one as well. The 2nd just looks too red.
Very nice result!

Thanks Gary totally agree No1

[Tamtarn]

Originally Posted by Alchemy

sorry both too red, all the discusion of red images lately makes anyone whose isnt red feel out of place..... which is a pity.

i could be wrong but the dark lanes arent that red ive included an image to show what i reckon .... sorry to crash the party but an opinion was requested and i cant say either is right, the image i saw the other day had more potential i felt.

i as always could be wrong.

ive added more or less the same image hammered to bring up the colour, the dark lanes dont seem all that red still.

sorry guys

Yes you did see 2 images at our house last week Al. You saw a single RAW 7min exposure and the same single frame processed. This was taken on 25-2-08. We agreed with you then that the processed one was too overdone

These are the actual 2 images you saw and we feel are quite different to what you posted as a comparison .

....

These are the images you posted which must be from your own data and are quite different the "hammered up" version is nothing like our single exposure

....

The image on this thread is a totally different set of subs and were taken on 29-2-08 and is a 6 x 7min stack giving an overall exposure of 42mins - 4 dark frames were also used. This stack revealed more nebulosity than the single image you saw including more red.

Barb enhanced the red channel in colour balance then used levels to define the nebulosity from the sky background colour. She then tweaked saturation.

The troughs remained red and the sky background dark. The stars would also be red if it was false colour as Barb hasn't been able to work out how to separate the stars when processing her images I just wanted to point out there is quite a difference in the data captured in a 7min exposure than a stack of 6 x 7min equalling 42min exposure.

We notice on Mick Pinner's 20min exposure he has more red in the troughs also.

She processes on the CRT monitor as she hates our LCD because contrast and colour depends which way you have your screen tilted.

The stacked image looks fine on the CRT. Not too red at all.

Looking forward to getting back out again in the next couple of nights Barb just has to learn to manage her crutches after having a fall on Tuesday

David

[Tamtarn]

Originally Posted by Matty P

I'm with Eric on this one, I prefer the first one. It has a a more natural look than the second one
Both are very nice images, well done.

Thanks for the comments Matty

Originally Posted by citivolus

I'd go with #1. #2 is giving too much emphasis on the red channel. As Alchemy says, not every nebula emission is red.

The second was just to see if there were some who like the more saturated images

Originally Posted by multiweb

Great pictures guys. Don't worry too much about the red. I see red too when there are too many clouds (like last night).

Originally Posted by Hagar

Nice images.. I like the first image better as it shows better colour separation in the stars and allows more detail to be seen. IMO
Looks like you are getting the 40D to work well. I love mine.

Thanks Doug it's our preferred too. We're enjoying the 40D as you are

Originally Posted by iceman

Great images B&D, you guys are improving so fast. It's excellent to see.
The 40D looks like a great investment! Now to mod and cool it?

Don't want a modded Mike happy with the data wer'e getting. Cooling well that's a thought Although we have pretty cool nights out here so we don't bother to go out on hot nights. Did a session at 19degrees a few nights ago subs look great will post the image soon.

Originally Posted by danielsun

Excellent shots guys!!! I'd probably go with the first.
Already off to a great start with the 40D.Well done.

Thanks Daniel

Originally Posted by lineout

I think I prefer the first pick. There's more red in the second one which takes some of the detail away. Still both are nice and I wouldn't complain if I took either.
How are you finding the 40D?
Rene

Thanks for the comment Rene. We're very happy with the 40D. the quality of the subs from the camera are very clean. And of course the live view is great for achieving focus

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

A gold standard for Eta and its colour balance is probably here
(Daniel's work is extraordinary)

http://www.verschatse.cl/nebulae/ngc3372rgb/maximum.jpg

What also needs to be understood is the amount of exposure given to an image will affect its relative colour balance. The core of the Carina Nebula
is very bright and it will saturate to white if the surrounding (quite red) nebulosity is being captured with some depth.

To preserve this dynamic range and still make an image look "natural" is not easy. But probably most would agree this has been done well in the linked image.

Daniel Verschatse is an amazing imager his website is our favourate DSI site some of his galaxy images are extrordinary and his clusters are magical

Originally Posted by Ric

A lovely capture, I think I prefer image number 1.
As Mike said you are really shooting up the learning curve.
Great stuff.

Thanks Ric as we've explained before the second image was just an exercise to see if the majority liked over saturated images looks like they don't

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Wow that's stunning! You're progressing so fast with your astrophotography! No real preference one way or the other between those two. I think the eye/brain adjusts after looking at the picture for few seconds.

[Alchemy (Clive)]

ive had a look at the pic peter ward referred to, it indeed shows more red in the lanes than i thought was there.... it seems everyone else agrees too..

it seems i was wrong.....

just stating it publicly for the record.

[robin]

I like the 1st one guys. Looks great.