IMHO I think your first attempt had better color balance as the saturated bright stars were white in the center as they should be. In the latter attempt all the brighter stars are washed with blue as are their halos. While the contrast in the colors of the fainter stars is good, the brighter stars have suffered. I do agree the bgd noise is better in the second, as is the bgd color which is closer to grey than the slightly yellow original.
IMHO I think your first attempt had better color balance as the saturated bright stars were white in the center as they should be. In the latter attempt all the brighter stars are washed with blue as are their halos. While the contrast in the colors of the fainter stars is good, the brighter stars have suffered. I do agree the bgd noise is better in the second, as is the bgd color which is closer to grey than the slightly yellow original.
Best,
EB
I don't agree with you.
I did a LAB version - further down the page & it looks nothing like what you're saying.
