Have I reached this image's limits?

[heathenwoods]

hi all, apologies for what might be a stupid question but is there much more I can do with this image? I'd like to make it more contrast-y but without blowing out the core and it's a bit lacking in colour.

I know that part of the reason it's washed out is because of the moon being in the same part of the sky and the lack of subs (15x30s but DSS only used 5 or 6 of them). The tracking was a bit off as I set up in a hurry, (long litany of excuses brought to a premature end). Given this set of limitations is it unrealistic to expect much more from the image?

OIIId.tif

For reference, this is one of the subs after a quick play:

[Sam]

Hi, have you got some details of the equipment you used? It shows a bit of a tracking problem but you did mention you didn't have time to sort that. Not a bad image though, it's certainly M42.

[heathenwoods]

And that's a start!

It was a Canon 1000D on a 150PL/EQ5

[russellhq]

I had a go with the TIF in photoshop, a little bit more detail pulled out:

[robbieince]

My 2p worth

There is a lot of noise but there is still loads of colour

We could do more in terms of sharpening and enhancing if the tracking error wasn't there.

[heathenwoods]

Thanks Robbie and Russell. This is my third DSO image so I'm still just at the 'having a play' stage; it's good to know there's more there and to keep exploring the images.

Sorry to be a pain but could you give me any tip for squeezing more colour out? I've got a bit more out now using individual channels on an 'curves' adjustment layer but can't get close to what you guys managed.

[robbieince]

My main approach was levels and curves always moving the black and grey points on levels but leaving the white point alone.

when I got close I used curves with a few specific selection points to only enhance that grey pont on each of the separate RGB channels. Is put three points close together on the curve and lift the middle one.

Finally a general saturation boost and a star selection followed by a reduction

best regards, Rob

[ollypenrice]

I think you were pretty close to the noise limit. I did some quick fixes on the stars, flattened the background and then used all the low noise colour boosts I could think of to get it this far. DBE in Pixinsight was the most vital bit of software. I used a separate stretch for the trapezium. You only need some longer subs and you could have a very nice M42. I turned it round a bit out of habit!

Since the last M42 I worked on had 22 hours of data this was actually more of a challenge!! The data is remarkably good. Sorting the tracking would be number one priority.

Olly

[heathenwoods]

Wow! Thank you Rob and Olly.

I'm quickly learning that it's no exaggeration to say that the software side is at least as important - and far more complex to someone with limited Photoshop experience - as the actual data gathering. It's very exciting to see what can be done with the basic image. Thanks again for your insight and advice.