Plasma Loop

[Carbon60]

One from a couple of weeks ago. 150mm modified PST with 2.5X TeleVue Barlow. Processed with Registax, PixInsight and Photomatix (as you can see from the watermark ).

Stu.

[Anweniel]

Impressive! The detailing is great.

[JamieW]

Hi Stu, I just wanted to say thanks for your posts and experiments in HDR processing. As Anweniel has said - the detailing is great.

Keep up the good work, it's really appreciated from someone who's just starting out imaging the sun.

[Photosbykev]

very nice capture

[Carbon60]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

The conditions we're not so good at the time, so I was pleased to just capture anything. The loop was a bonus and significant image processing has teased out something respectable. This is a home built 150mm scope with PST etalon, ISTAR objective, internal ERF and BF15. At the time I was ironing out a few wrinkles when I captured a few AVI's. Developments in P-HDR processing and flatfielding have also contributed to image improvements and I can highly recommend PixInsight.

Here is another one from the same day. I'm less pleased with the result as there are still some vestiges of Registax 'stacking' evident, but again it is more a case of showcasing P-HDR.

Stu.

[Montana]

Wow! these are really fiery, beautiful processing and lovely pictures. I really must get a grasp of this HDR!

Alexandra

[Anweniel]

Another wow picture right there.

I have a question though. When you click the larger picture, there is some clear geometric shapes underlying the plasma, I find this quite surprising as this tends to be very rare in natural conditions ( I can think of one obvious astronomical exception - the polar cap of Saturn that exhibits a Hexagonal phenomenon) so my question is really is this a feature or something thats cropped up in processing? or some other explanation? I am intrigued.

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

One from a couple of weeks ago. 150mm modified PST with 2.5X TeleVue Barlow. Processed with Registax, PixInsight and Photomatix (as you can see from the watermark ).

Stu.

Stu

when i am taking shots and know i will HDR them, i tend to frame up slightly different. i imagine the image as it would appear out of photomatix ( ie: i shoot so my subject is bottom right of frame) and then imaging the watermark in my image frame. so most of the time my shots are framed bottom right of the picture.

so i would frame my subject say a bottle to be bottom right in my shot and in focus. then i know once it hits the software i can crop out the watermark and have a clean framed subject

larger frames will have three water marks so framing subject becomes more important and a small cropped shot. i added a couple of shots i have done in photomatix but with careful framing to counter the watermarking.

[Carbon60]

Thanks everyone.

Alexandra, good luck with the P-HDR processing, remember this is not regular HDR, so we're not just selecting 'HDR' mode in Photoshop. I hope you find my notes helpful in my recent email. Getting the right end result can be tricky, but stick with it.

Anweniel, the geometric forms come in this case from image processing (Registax) which I need to address.

TamiyaCowboy, thanks for the tip. Great photos there.

Regards

Stu.

[Montana]

Hi Stu,

Over the weekend I had another go

HDR colouring?

I was quite happy with this result so far but you have me worried when you say it's not the HDR mode in Photoshop? I don't have photomatrix so I was hoping I was on the right track. What do you think or have I got it wrong?

Alexandra

[Carbon60]

Hi Alexandra,

Sorry, I simply meant that it is not as simple as just selecting 'HDR mode'. As you know, there is more to it than that.

I've just checked out your image and it looks like it is coming along great. I find that I have to make a number of adjustments to get the right blend between the different images to bring out the best results and result do vary, as they say.

Regards

Stuart

[Montana]

Thanks Stuart

That's a relief! I'm definitely going to keep going with it as I think it looks more like the double stack natural. Thanks for the revised photo btw

Alexandra

[hunterknox]

Hi Stu,

I don't think I thanked you for the guide yet - thank you!

Love this new approach. I'm not sure I've seen anyone doing anything similar with solar images before. It really captures the dynamism of the plasma loops.

[Carbon60]

Hi Stu,

I don't think I thanked you for the guide yet - thank you!

Love this new approach. I'm not sure I've seen anyone doing anything similar with solar images before. It really captures the dynamism of the plasma loops.

No problem. I hope you find it useful. It can be a bit fiddly to get right, but the results can be worth the effort.

Regards

Stu.

[sheri_barri]

Lovely image. Well done with the processing... a real 'heat' in the colouration.