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Milky way how not to do it

Scott

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Scott

Scott

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this is my first attemped at ap using a 1100d on tripod, what did i do wrong?

1. saved in jpeg not raw

2. no idea how to use dss

3.no processing software. only hp

4 no darks (couldn't work out how to use them

happy? yep

post-20406-0-98094800-1346584149_thumb.j

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Tinker1947

Tinker1947

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There's a option to save as Jpeg and Raw at the same time i normally use this as its easier to look at Jpegs than CR2's, DSS requires some Dark, Bias and Flats check out the help file it will show you what to do, there's Gimp its a freeware version of Photoshop, welcome to the Dark Side...:)

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Parallax

Parallax

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You are being very hard on yourself. I think it is a great image with lots of potential.

I hope you don't mind but I gave it a little tweak.

All I did was (roughly) align the RGB channels so that the histogram shows all 3 peaks (Red, Green & Blue) overlaid on each other.

I used Photoshop but you can do the same with Gimp.

Keep up the good work.

Steve

post-1405-0-72097600-1346608933_thumb.jp

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LukeSkywatcher

LukeSkywatcher

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Cracking image to start with. It really only needed a tweak to get the colour balance right, which Steve has kindly done for you.

Photoshop is expensive and can be tricky to use if you dont know what it can do. Gimp is free and pretty powerful.

DSS is very simple to use on a basic level. You simply load all your frames (images of the same object) into it and it basically walks you through the stacking process in 2-3 easy steps.

Give it a go with even a dozen frames of 10 seconds each and you will be amazed at the result.

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JamesF

JamesF

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I agree with everyone else. Fundamentally it's not a bad image at all. Ok, so some things could have been done better, but you've achieved something that with a little processing knowledge to pull the data out looks pretty good (which you just can't do if the data's rubbish to start with) and you've learned a few things into the bargain. That certainly meets my personal definition of a successful night :)

I use APT and keep both JPG and RAW images (the R+L option) because the JPG files are much faster to look through. Taking darks is a doddle -- just do exactly the same as you did for lights, but with the lens cap on, and you don't need so many. APT even names them differently for you. In DSS you can then just load the lights, load the darks, accept the defaults for pretty much everything else and it will do a quite acceptable job without further fiddling in most cases.

Processing is the only place you should really have problems. GIMP is very similar to Photoshop in many respects, but the easily available versions don't currently support more than eight bit colour. Someone on SGL even pulled together some youtube tutorials on processing that will get you a long way. Could have been Quatermass. I'll post the link if I can find it.

James

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Scott

Scott

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Wow, thankyou everyone for your very kind words of encouragement. (although it may have been kinder and saved me a lot of money if you said give up) joking :smiley:

Steve and Steve, you have both done wonderful jobs with the available data and it has made me realise how important the processing element of ap is. I do realise i'm at the start of a very steep learning curve but i'm so keen to get involved with this aspect of astronomy. unfortunately my wife and kids have headed back to the uk (with the camera) so it looks like i'm at a standstill until my visa is sorted out. :sad: .Better get some reading done. Still at least i've got my little heritage to keep my nights full. :grin:

once again thanks all.

Scott.

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JamesF

JamesF

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Astrophotography Tool. It and Backyard EOS (aka BYE) are applications that can control EOS cameras from a PC. I've not tried BYE, for APT for instance allows you to set up plans for taking multiple exposures which can make imaging much less work. (And it does a lot of other useful stuff too.)

James

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Leo.A

Leo.A

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Fascinating post, exactly what I was looking for.

I would like to know what I can do to bring out the colour in my image which wasn't shot in black and white.

Perhaps my using Photoshop Lightroom 4 to slightly enhance (exposure and contrast as well as adjusting black levels) the image may make other processing harder but I would hope there would be a way to get some colour into the images.

I don't think my region of sky is quite as dark as AusPom has down in Woolongong, though it's a regional area I seem to have 50% of the towns lighting in my street and all the neighbours always have external spotlights on whenever I seem to start photographing.

This is a composition of 20 stacked images, done in DSS 3.X.X. All images are 30 second exposure on F3.5 using the equivalent of a 13.5mm wide angle lens on my old Nikon D80

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

MW332DSS.jpg

I'm going to take my camera to a friends place when health and weather permits and have completely dark skies with no street lighting.

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Leo.A

Leo.A

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Thank you James, that looks amazing. I can see I'm getting a lot of light pollution around the edges, I really need to get to a friends place a little further out of town and try this again without the street lighting.

I've searched for some of the mega content here on processing and have a trial of Pixinsight, which I'm going to put some time in with. I also have Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 4 so with the help of tutorials I should be able to learn something.

Problem is these days, when I learn something new today, I have to relearn it tomorrow........EMPTY-HEAD!

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JamesF

JamesF

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When you're using levels you can often bring the white point down a fair bit to stretch the histogram and pull out more data. Just don't clip the data so you get areas that blow out. Adjusting the midpoint can help, too. That was just a quick two-minute whizz through in gimp, but I'm sure giving it a bit more time would give better results.

James

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Scott

Scott

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looks nice to me leo.A. and i bet you don't have to far to go to get some nice skies from lithgow. i remember going to a mates uncles farm up that way when we were kids and it was pretty dark (very) camping out.

Scott

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Leo.A

Leo.A

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Thanks Scott!

I can get to a friends place in 15 minutes drive but it's a matter of weather at the moment, it's a cold hole. With Spring here it is starting to warm up but my lens is still freezing up while I'm taking the snaps. In a few weeks it will be perfect, till the mozzies come anyway.

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Rihard

Rihard

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this is my first attemped at ap using a 1100d on tripod, what did i do wrong?

1. saved in jpeg not raw

2. no idea how to use dss

3.no processing software. only hp

4 no darks (couldn't work out how to use them

happy? yep

Not bad at all ! :)

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