Milky Way 7 panel panorama REPRO

gregbradley · #1 21-07-2012, 10:16 AM

Attachment 119356From Thurs night. Nikon D800E, 14-24mm at 14mm F2.8, 30 seconds at ISO6400. Stitched together in PTGui Pro and post processing in Photoshop.

http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/...44887132/large Portrait Orientation
http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/144869476 Landscape orientation

Greg.

RickS (Rick) · #2 21-07-2012, 10:26 AM

How does the full res version compare, Greg? Some nice dust and a bit of Ha visible but the sky background looks a bit mottled on my laptop screen.

gregbradley · #3 21-07-2012, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickS

How does the full res version compare, Greg? Some nice dust and a bit of Ha visible but the sky background looks a bit mottled on my laptop screen.

Its a bit mottled as you say.

Perhaps I should try stacking several of each per panel to build up signal.

I'll be at my dark site soon so I'll be doing another few of these.

I think ideally these shots need to be tracked with the landscape component still and layered in. I'll have to get one of those little Losmandy star trackers or an adapter to fit my 14-24mm on the Proline and PMX!

Greg.

RickS (Rick) · #4 21-07-2012, 10:36 AM

New toys are always good, Greg

I'll be interested to see what you can do at the dark site.

strongmanmike (Michael) · #5 21-07-2012, 03:55 PM

Nice result Greg, while perhaps not perfect (you'll get there) it still looks great.

I shoudl get off my lazy R's and use my D7000...probably will, if we end up in dark skies outside Canberra

Mike

gregbradley · #6 21-07-2012, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickS

New toys are always good, Greg

I'll be interested to see what you can do at the dark site.

It should be a bit better. How much more I am not sure. My home skies in the west are about 75-80% of those at my dark site.

Quote:

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Nice result Greg, while perhaps not perfect (you'll get there) it still looks great.

I shoudl get off my lazy R's and use my D7000...probably will, if we end up in dark skies outside Canberra

Mike

Thanks Mike.

The large number of fabulous nightscapes on this forum has inspired me to put my DSLR to good use.

Its a bit of a learning curve with new gear.

iceman (Mike) · #7 21-07-2012, 05:00 PM

Good start with the stitching, but it's pretty noisy and grainy and looks overprocessed.

I'd like to see some at ISO3200 for comparison and try running some noise reduction on each frame before stitching.

Bassnut (Fred) · #8 21-07-2012, 07:08 PM

mmm, given its a 6 panel panorama and probably very hi res, thats a woefull thumbnail, cant see why you did that. The link is also fairly ordinary, and then clicking on "original" size is way too bright and noisy.

..............ahh, nikon, understand, NP

Adelastro1 (Wayne England) · #9 21-07-2012, 10:36 PM

Well since I'm a fellow D800E owner I'm going to have to stick up for the Nikons here Fred!

Yes it does look a bit over processed to me, or it's something else. Here is a Milky Way shot I took last weekend at the Dish at Parkes (cropped out foreground to leave upper left corner). This is ISO 6400 too but only 20 secs (ignore the star elongation - I had the camera sitting on my camera bag cos I left my tripod home!). There is very little noise visible. It's processed slightly in PS6 - levels, contrast etc. The second image is a further top left crop of the first which shows the low noise a bit better.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2900549...ream/lightbox/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2900549...ream/lightbox/

Octane (Humayun) · #10 22-07-2012, 12:06 AM

Wayne,

There's a bit of a magenta cast through those images. Viewing on a calibrated monitor, too. :S

H

Adelastro1 (Wayne England) · #11 22-07-2012, 01:48 AM

Yeh I'm just on my average laptop....
I took some 30 sec darks a while ago and there's a fair bit of amp glow at high ISO on the D800 compared to other FX Nikons. Not sure why but will have to compensate or remember to subtract darks. At least the noise is good!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Octane

Wayne,

There's a bit of a magenta cast through those images. Viewing on a calibrated monitor, too. :S

H

colinmlegg (Colin) · #12 22-07-2012, 06:14 AM

Wayne, these are with high iso NR on, yes? The Milky Way looks a bit soft and plasticy. I reckon you'll get a better image if you leave high iso NR off, drop the ISO to 3200 or 4000 and use a post processing NR program with correct noise profiles - like 'Neat Image'.

gregbradley · #13 22-07-2012, 09:22 AM

Thanks for the replies.

I reprocessed it this morning to get a more natural and less heavily processed look. I used Photoshop CS6 (I love this program).

I looked at the original again and it now looks ghastly!

I think this is a big improvement.

A question:

Which orientation do you prefer, the landscape (sideways) version or the portrait (vertical) version?

If you prefer the portrait version do you think the landscape part at the top looks good or would it better if I cropped it off?

http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/144887132 Portrait Orientation
http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/144869476 Landscape orientation

gregbradley · #14 22-07-2012, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Nice result Greg, while perhaps not perfect (you'll get there) it still looks great.

I shoudl get off my lazy R's and use my D7000...probably will, if we end up in dark skies outside Canberra

Mike

Thanks Mike I've done a repro as the original was overprocessed and pushed too hard.

Quote:

Originally Posted by iceman

Good start with the stitching, but it's pretty noisy and grainy and looks overprocessed.

I'd like to see some at ISO3200 for comparison and try running some noise reduction on each frame before stitching.

Hi Mike, Yes its pushed way too hard. I did a repro this morning and got it more natural. Signal to noise ratio is weak compared to multi hour CCD images so its a more delicate approach. All part of the learning curve.

ISO6400 is pretty useable and clean on the D800E like the 5D3 much the same. So I think its more the processing. See the repro and see what you think. I'll experiment with ISO3200. I did some experiments with higher ISO. ISO12800 is starting to show some noise, ISO25600 is getting colour background noise intruding. ISO6400 seems at this stage to be the sweet spot. 5D3 and D800 should both handle ISO6400 without any trouble.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bassnut

mmm, given its a 6 panel panorama and probably very hi res, thats a woefull thumbnail, cant see why you did that. The link is also fairly ordinary, and then clicking on "original" size is way too bright and noisy.

..............ahh, nikon, understand, NP

I looked at it this morning and yes its pretty ghastly. Using CCD imaging processing bashing the image too hard and it can't take it. I need to be more of a delicate flower handling the DSLR images.

What did you say about the Nikon - OMG -Where's the ignore button again?

Greg.

CapturingTheNight (Greg) · #15 22-07-2012, 10:17 AM

SOOOOOO much better Greg

The original had too much of a HDR feel to it for my tastes.

gregbradley · #16 22-07-2012, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by obsidianphotos

SOOOOOO much better Greg

The original had too much of a HDR feel to it for my tastes.

Thanks. Yes I agree the original was ghastly.

Greg.

multiweb (Marc) · #17 22-07-2012, 10:54 AM

Cool shot Greg. I also liked your time-lapse. Nice one.

iceman (Mike) · #18 22-07-2012, 10:59 AM

Much better!

gregbradley · #19 22-07-2012, 11:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by multiweb

Cool shot Greg. I also liked your time-lapse. Nice one.

Thanks Marc. DSLR is a lot of fun.

Quote:

Originally Posted by iceman

Much better!

Thanks Mike. Thanks for the tips.

Greg.

Adelastro1 (Wayne England) · #20 22-07-2012, 01:34 PM

Much better Greg. I can't decide whether I like the landscape or portrait better though. Both have pluses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by colinmlegg

Wayne, these are with In Camera Noise Reduction on, yes? The Milky Way looks a bit soft and plasticy. I reckon you'll get a better image if you leave all ICNR off, drop the ISO to 3200 or 4000 and use a post processing NR program with correct noise profiles - like 'Neat Image'.

Thanks Colin, I'll try no NR in camera. I had High ISO NR set to high. It was also a quick processing in PS6 and could have done better. I'll take a look at Neat Image - I've used a trial of Noise Ninja once which seemed ok, but noise profiles sound interesting and worth a look.

What settings did you use Greg? Any NR in camera? I'm finding 20sec a good exposure length to reduce star movement.