First Light Modded 1100D - Flame and Horsey

[Shibby]

Hi Gina, I think that's pretty good for 20s subs! I once tried the flame with 30s subs and a D70 - you really don't want to see what came out (or didn't, rather!)

Looking at your DSS output, it seems you have stretched the curves in DSS, am I right? If so, I'd suggest doing all post-processing in PS (if that's what you use), making sure to reduce the vignetting first.

[badgers]

That looks great Gina.

[Gina]

Thanks both

I think I'll turn the camera round next time and use portrait mode. Then I can get the subject in the middle of the frame. I don't know what's causing the vignetting - I have the camera directly on the focuser with just a 2" extension.

[Quatermass]

Its interesting seeing your stacked files Gina you seem to have quite a bit of noise there and a few dust bunny's but believe me I get just the same sort of subs at times. However the noise may be just using to high an ISO 800 is normal for me but sometimes its 1600. Taking about 20 darks and 20 flats is now my normal amount as more does not make any significant difference but taking lots of subs does so I tend to take about 50-80 short subs of 120 or 60 seconds then stack that with 20 darks and flats. This is not standard for all subjects certainly not nebula like the rosette but it does work ok for a lot of other stuff. For the horse head I took 30 subs at an ISO of 1600 and another 30 at 800 ISO all 120 or 60 seconds,you have to experiment with your set up and see what works best for you. I used to take loads of darks and flats but I am finding there is no need to do more then about 20 of each with processing in PS any cruddy bits can be sorted out. Since I modded my Canon 350d my stars look less colorful then before but you can adjust the colour in PS so that's not a big issue. Think I will invest in a proper ccd camera next year just need to find a money tree.

[Quatermass]

Also if you have not done so yet down load gradientxterminator and try it out for free for a while I am very impressed by it having tried it out it does a great job at getting rid of those annoying gradients.

[Gina]

Hi Gina, I think that's pretty good for 20s subs! I once tried the flame with 30s subs and a D70 - you really don't want to see what came out (or didn't, rather!)

Thank you

Looking at your DSS output, it seems you have stretched the curves in DSS, am I right? If so, I'd suggest doing all post-processing in PS (if that's what you use), making sure to reduce the vignetting first.

Yes, firstly I move the colour histograms to lie on top of each other then I go to Luminance and adjust the curve to put the colour histograms on the slope and increasing the slope to stretch the resultant histograms a bit. I also like to increase the Saturation a little - up to about 20%. Post-processing I've done in GIMP but expecting to use something better soon.

[Gina]

That looks great Gina.

Thank you

[Gina]

Its interesting seeing your stacked files Gina you seem to have quite a bit of noise there and a few dust bunny's but believe me I get just the same sort of subs at times. However the noise may be just using to high an ISO 800 is normal for me but sometimes its 1600. Taking about 20 darks and 20 flats is now my normal amount as more does not make any significant difference but taking lots of subs does so I tend to take about 50-80 short subs of 120 or 60 seconds then stack that with 20 darks and flats. This is not standard for all subjects certainly not nebula like the rosette but it does work ok for a lot of other stuff. For the horse head I took 30 subs at an ISO of 1600 and another 30 at 800 ISO all 120 or 60 seconds,you have to experiment with your set up and see what works best for you. I used to take loads of darks and flats but I am finding there is no need to do more then about 20 of each with processing in PS any cruddy bits can be sorted out. Since I modded my Canon 350d my stars look less colorful then before but you can adjust the colour in PS so that's not a big issue. Think I will invest in a proper ccd camera next year just need to find a money tree.

Thanks for the advice - I'll take that on board

[Gina]

Also if you have not done so yet down load gradientxterminator and try it out for free for a while I am very impressed by it having tried it out it does a great job at getting rid of those annoying gradients.

Thanks - I'll try that - already been on the site and requested download, just waiting for email.

[Gina]

Had another go with the subs I took the other night. Added in a couple with longer exposure and removed a few rejects. Ran DSS on it again including the darks and produced a new TIFF file that seems a bit better. From that I've produced a JPEG with adjustment of curves and colour balance etc. then scaled for uploading. I think that's about as far as I can go with that data. Maybe I'll get another chance tonight to get some more..... Fingers crossed.

[Slim]

Had a quick play with your jpeg in gimp, just a little adjustment with levels and curves.

[Gina]

Thank you - that's lovely

[Slim]

Had a quick play with your jpeg in gimp, just a little adjustment with levels and curves.

Edit: Woah, amazing how it looks so different on my laptop at work. Looks overdone on my home PC now, two ticks.

There we go, hopefully that look less garish.

[Gina]

Yes, that's better I find quite a difference in how it appears here compared with directly on my computer.

[Slim]

Yes, that's better I find quite a difference in how it appears here compared with directly on my computer.

The pics look completely different on my laptop, iPad and desktop. Not worked out which is 'right' yet