Alnitak, flame nebula and horsehead

[jarlaxle2k5]

Hello guys i managed to get a bit of shots close to alnitak. During the post-processing with photoshop unfortunately a lot of noise came out and work with just level and curves is hard because to make the horse head visible alnitak become to much bright and it ruin completely the picture. I got the 10 shots with my 8" inch dob and canon 1100 with iso 800 per 30sec. of exposure. Next time i will try to collect more subs and do you think that i should reduce the iso further?

Any suggestion for the post processing with photoshop?

Looking forward to hear from you and in the meanwhile i wish for all of you happy new year

[lensman57]

Hello guys i managed to get a bit of shots close to alnitak. During the post-processing with photoshop unfortunately a lot of noise came out and work with just level and curves is hard because to make the horse head visible alnitak become to much bright and it ruin completely the picture. I got the 10 shots with my 8" inch dob and canon 1100 with iso 800 per 30sec. of exposure. Next time i will try to collect more subs and do you think that i should reduce the iso further?

Any suggestion for the post processing with photoshop?

Looking forward to hear from you and in the meanwhile i wish for all of you happy new year

Hi,

You either have to set a star mask or do an initial very mild stretch and then use this as a mask on top of the original . Another way is to remove the stars from the image, stretch and then paste the image with mild stretch on top and blend them together. I don't use photoshop but I am pretty sure some one who does can  instruct you better.

A.G

[ianaiken]

There is a new book I just got which would help you significantly processing your image.  It is Lessons from the Masters: Current Concepts in Astronomical Image Processing (The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series).  It has a lot of Photoshop tutorials in there and a couple of methods for creating star masks and processing your image.  I found it quite useful for processing my image I just posted of this area, although I used PI.

I definitely recommend the book based upon reading about a quarter of it.  I got the Kindle version so I can keep it open on my PC while processing.

[Pete Presland]

There is a new book I just got which would help you significantly processing your image.  It is Lessons from the Masters: Current Concepts in Astronomical Image Processing (The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series).  It has a lot of Photoshop tutorials in there and a couple of methods for creating star masks and processing your image.  I found it quite useful for processing my image I just posted of this area, although I used PI.

I definitely recommend the book based upon reading about a quarter of it.  I got the Kindle version so I can keep it open on my PC while processing.

i also got this book it does look very good, looking forward to putting some of it into practice!

[jarlaxle2k5]

Guys thank you so much for the ideas and suggestion i will try asap

[ollypenrice]

I use a simple method which had me jokingly accused of 'butchery' by one of the most admired imagers on the forum! He may have a point but I reckon it works! It's very simple. I find star masks quite hit and miss, espcially on monsters like Alnitak, so I do the normal stretch that you did which makes Alnitak look like a splat of ice cream dropped from a considerable height.

Then I go back to the linear and use a special stretch which rises steeply like the original but flattens early. This lifts the background sky but stops the stars bloating. The only bit of the image youre interested is Alnitak and the flame clse in to it, so only look at those bits. Heere's the curve I use.

Once I have a reasonable Alnitak surrounded by Flame which is bright enough to have a chance of blending with the main stretch I paste the main stretch on top of the core control stretch.

Now for the butchery! I take a large feathered eraser the size of the burned out blob or a bit bigger, set it to a low opacity like 10%, and partially erase the blob in one click. I then reduce the size of the eraser and erase again, reduce and repeat. Etc etc. 

A couple of examples of this technique;

http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/i-QpQcQHw/0/X3/HH%20NEB%20328mm%207%20HRS%20ODKHORSE-X3.jpg

http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/i-6shTXhn/0/X3/Horse%20HaLRGB-X3.jpg

The first was with a Tak FSQ85, the second with a TEC140. It must be said that the TEC made life easy because it controlled Alnitak brilliantly and reduced the need for much Photoshop thuggery.

Olly

[frugal]

Cheers Olly. I will be adding that tip to be toolbox.

If you ever write a book to put all of these nuggets into it should definitely be called "Astrophotography thuggery with Photoshop"

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk

[jarlaxle2k5]

I use a simple method which had me jokingly accused of 'butchery' by one of the most admired imagers on the forum! He may have a point but I reckon it works! It's very simple. I find star masks quite hit and miss, espcially on monsters like Alnitak, so I do the normal stretch that you did which makes Alnitak look like a splat of ice cream dropped from a considerable height.

Then I go back to the linear and use a special stretch which rises steeply like the original but flattens early. This lifts the background sky but stops the stars bloating. The only bit of the image youre interested is Alnitak and the flame clse in to it, so only look at those bits. Heere's the curve I use.

Once I have a reasonable Alnitak surrounded by Flame which is bright enough to have a chance of blending with the main stretch I paste the main stretch on top of the core control stretch.

Now for the butchery! I take a large feathered eraser the size of the burned out blob or a bit bigger, set it to a low opacity like 10%, and partially erase the blob in one click. I then reduce the size of the eraser and erase again, reduce and repeat. Etc etc. 

A couple of examples of this technique;

http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/i-QpQcQHw/0/X3/HH%20NEB%20328mm%207%20HRS%20ODKHORSE-X3.jpg

http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/i-6shTXhn/0/X3/Horse%20HaLRGB-X3.jpg

The first was with a Tak FSQ85, the second with a TEC140. It must be said that the TEC made life easy because it controlled Alnitak brilliantly and reduced the need for much Photoshop thuggery.

Olly

thank you for the suggestion i will try that as well.

Here is the stacked tiff for those that would like to give it a try:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cyph26yivspsxc4/fzlukNgScT

Unfortunately is full of noise.

Attached the result of my post-processing......too poor

I just used level and curves.