Greetings All again,
Well after some really encouraging feedback on my single widefield shot, I have decided to take another plunge this time into stacking deep sky stuff which I haven't done before
Anyway, I probably spent 2 days trying to work out why my raws were so grey in DSS (quite awful in fact) and then also, parts of the final stack looked like stars were missing - aaaahhh

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Soo, I did some research here on IIS and found that 1 setting made the huge difference in colour - it was when I saved the final TIFF and it was to "embed adjustments ... but do not apply". This was from one of Bojan's threads
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=59762
Next was the stars problem so I set DSS to pick the best 80% for registering and stacking and this fixed this problem.
Finally, then my Photoshop skills are at level 1 (ie beginner). But I found recent thread on levels and curves by atalas (Louie) and when I got the stack into PS, it looked really dark but applying these changes then bugger me!!
So here are 2 pics - 1st is stacked with no darks and then 2nd is with the darks.
I put a third one on as I am hoping someone can give me any help on whether this histogram looks right or wrong or just dodgey
I'm probably trying too many things too quickly but everytime I get these new steps it's like opening up a new treasure chest of what lies beneath in the elusive hunt for a good picture
Would love any feedback esp any critiques etc.
PS - thanx to all those who have given me tips in the last month which has got me trying anything I can get my hands on
Thanks for looking,
Cheers,
Darrin...