Beehive Cluster

[all-on-black]

I just wanted to share my effort on the Beehive Cluster. It's my first attempt at it, and although I think I have over done it on the saturation (again) I quite like it.

Any thoughts?

[Langy]

That's pretty good. I think I'm guilty of the same trying to get the black sky just overdoes it a little.

But it's your image and your interpretation of what you saw.

Well done!

[Bizibilder]

Yes - that is a good image and you do have star colour.  It looks as if you have "clipped the black point" a bit ie the background sky is black.  In reality the sky is dark but not truly black.  What processing software did you use?  We can probably help you or at least explain what is meant by clipping the black.

[Russe]

The saturation can be dealt with better in a separate star layer that's been set to a different blending mode in PS - "colour".

So, "select colour" and click on a couple of stars (with the "+" tool), then "expand selection" by ~3 px and "feather selection" by ~2 px. Now all stars should be selected - press Ctrl + J - voila, a star layer.

Change blending mode to colour and apply match colour and maybe saturation. You could blur the star layer with Gaussian blur a little bit as well.

Otherwise, in star clusters it often looks nice if you put a "halo" around a couple of major stars to highlight your object a bit better. Similar to above, select a few noteworthy stars, new layer from the selection, blur, maybe curves down to make them appear a bit better. Just as an idea!

Great image!!

[Russe]

Otherwise, the background, Ollie once wrote, is never truly black. Should be around the 24,24,24 mark.

Oh, and if you have a green tinge, apply the HLVG filter plug in. Me being colour blind, that's essential!!

[all-on-black]

The saturation can be dealt with better in a separate star layer that's been set to a different blending mode in PS - "colour".

So, "select colour" and click on a couple of stars (with the "+" tool), then "expand selection" by ~3 px and "feather selection" by ~2 px. Now all stars should be selected - press Ctrl + J - voila, a star layer.

Change blending mode to colour and apply match colour and maybe saturation. You could blur the star layer with Gaussian blur a little bit as well.

Otherwise, in star clusters it often looks nice if you put a "halo" around a couple of major stars to highlight your object a bit better. Similar to above, select a few noteworthy stars, new layer from the selection, blur, maybe curves down to make them appear a bit better. Just as an idea!

Great image!!

That's an 'ell of a lot of information for me to take in at once haha but I shall follow that and see what difference it makes, probably alot!

Thanks

[all-on-black]

Otherwise, the background, Ollie once wrote, is never truly black. Should be around the 24,24,24 mark.

Oh, and if you have a green tinge, apply the HLVG filter plug in. Me being colour blind, that's essential!!

I'm colour blind too! That's why my images are always over-saturated!