Adam, Martin, & John, thank you for those comments, they are very helpful.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AdamJL
Good work here. Things I would change
- your stars, as you mention, have little colour. Sometimes star colour drops, but here they're almost white. They're also so small you might as well do starless. However this could just be because they're colourless so the contrast is higher.
- Not sure about the colour... That's a personal thing of course, but it seems a little muddy? (excluding the core)
That said, the core of this image and the detail captured are excellent. Great work on both of those fronts.
edit: ps, getting the stars right is not easy. I'm working on the Cat's Paw and mine are nearly white as well  |
Adam, I completely agree. It’s so challenging getting natural looking stars, with natural colour. My stars had a blue ring going round them and I found that the only way to fix it was to bring the saturation right down. I also tried out a new star mask: ~(~Image/~starless) in Pixinsight Pixelmath. Apparently it’s supposed to be better, than a simple Image-Starless. But I clearly haven’t mastered the processing part yet. Time will tell if I can get the hang of it.
I also struggle to get the right colours. I might need to stretch the colour masks to gain better control. Needless to say, I spent a lot more time working on the core than the outer hydrogen region.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Startrek
Stephane,
A nice capture of M16
I don’t know how you managed 20hrs , the weather has been atrocious, must have been over weeks and weeks ?
|
Martin, yes, this image was acquired over 5 nights over the past few weeks. We haven’t had many clear nights, but I managed to get a few.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Startrek
Contrast a bit weak between core region and outer region
Colour a bit washed out , I don’t know how you managed the grey tones, some blues , greens and red / tan would give it some depth. At 20 hrs the L Extreme should provide enough Ha and Oiii to map and process the colours in a SHO or HOO pallete.
Stars definitely look odd , as if they have been painted on with a circle template
There are no diffraction spikes from your Newt or any halo at all around the stars, a bit artificial looking
Other than that an excellent image and well done for effort alone
|
I struggled a little with contrast in the outer region. I could only get either good contrast in the outer region, or good contrast in the core, but never both. I’ll have to improve working with curves. Also, I am terrible at processing colours. I spent a lot of time doing the core but not enough on the hydrogen. I have some ideas on how I might brush up my colour processing.
Stars look terribly odd due to a different method of obtaining a star mask. The method probably works well; my ability to execute the method effectively doesn’t… The palette is HOO, but I rather clumsily got some strange colours.
The diffraction spikes are there (just), but almost invisible for some reason. I believe it is because of the star reduction method that I used which is currently causing me more issues than benefits.
I’m glad you pointed these things out, as it gives me a good sense of direction on where I need to improve. Thanks again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gastraea
Looks excellent.
I'm a novice so please take my words with a grain of salt.
Personally I like diffraction spikes, in so much as it is authentic to the telescope you used. If you used and APO but put the spikes in I'd probably say the spikes shouldn't be there. Anyway just my preference, like "all ferraris should be red" sort of logic
|
John, your comment is much appreciated. I agree and like my diffraction spikes. However with the star mask that I used, they almost disappeared (they are still there if you look very closely). I’ll have to look at that process carefully and see what I can do to reduce stars less aggressively and not lose those spikes. Thanks again
