Blending proms and discs in solar imaging.

[ollypenrice]

I don't know how others do this but so far my best results come from this rather long winded method;

Fully process both Prom and disk images but leave them in greyscale.

Paste the short exposed (disk) image onto the long exposed (prom) image.

Now follow Jerry Lodiguss's Layer Masking routine paying particular attention to aligning the disk and proms. You will probably end up with the disk still showing the presence of some of the over-exposed prom image but flatten it anyway and don't worry for now. Here's Jerry; Compositing 2 Different Exposures via Layer Masks

Next repaste the original disk image onto the Layer masked combined image and align it. Magnetic lasso the dark sky that is covering the nice new proms, feather by about 2 and erase.

Some final tickling with the eraser will see you done. Colourize. Here's an example.

Now I need to suss out how to get a half way decent disk.

Olly

[JimStan]

I have seen pictures where the corona's exposure has been stretched so much, during an eclipse, that it was visible from the edge of the photsphere, out to some multiples of the disk's diameter ! I think that there was a graduated density filter especially made to take the picture, and since it was a film process, no one knew if the picture was going to be a success until well after it was shot.

I sure don't see anything wrong with your disk picture, Olly. You set extremely high standards for yourself !

All the best, Jim S.