Most of it was done with selective color ranges in PS. I'm only just starting to play with the possibilities this creates after reading some great tuts that Peter posted:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=42216
Definitely some good stuff in there. Up until now I used to restrict myself to playing with Curves and Levels, but I'd love to really understand and use layers and selective ranges.
I can't recall exact order I applied, but something like:
Select/Color Range..../drop box choose "Shadows" - click invert (effectively selecting starts and bright neb)
Select/Grow (take in a bit more of the faint neb)
Then use Curves and Levels to brighten.
I repeated this lightly for just the blues too:
Select/Deselect
Select/Color Range..../drop box choose "sampled colors" - then click on the faint blue bits of neb
Select/Modify/Expand.... (large enough to get the blue bits of interest)
Then Curves/Levels to brighten.
I'm assuming you've already got your head around non-linear stretches using Curves, and tweaking black points with Levels - if not, perhaps check out:
http://www.ezystyles.com.au/photoshop.html
You can also use selective ranges to just work on the background (less stars etc) and pull down some noise etc - should be more on that in the original tuts I mentioned. Noise can become an issue as you enhance colours and details - but that's a whole new area to play in.
And last but not least - remember to keep an eye on the clock.....
