Can GIMP improve this Milkyway image?

[Jayla]

Hi,

I'm new to astrophotography and am looking for some advice on how to bring out the best in my photos. I took advantage of some clear skies last night and got this (it's jpeg, but I have the raw version of it)

f/3.5

ISO 6400

18mm on Nikkon d5100

15 sec 

I've watched a bunch of tutorials on youtube for processing the milky way, but they're all on Photoshop. I don't have photoshop and can't justify buying it. CS2 is a free download but unfortunately it doesn't work on mac! So I'm stuck with GIMP.

I can't find any good GIMP tutorials, and the photoshop tutorials don't translate to GIMP very well, so I'm a bit stuck.

Is it possible to bring out the colour in the milkyway from this image, the "cloud" looks very feint.

Thanks

[kalasinman]

Actually a lot of good data there. This would process nicely. I don't have tutorial for GIMP.

[happy-kat]

I found the tutorials on budgetastro.net translated enough that I can use them in paintshop pro you might find ideas for using in GIMP.

[Scott]

Sorry, can't help with gimp but....BACCHUS MARCH !!!! thats a far cry from suffolk Tad warm those victorian summers hey

[LittleSkink]

not at my PC right now but couple of things I will try later if I can . . .

Unsharp mask with low % and wide radius is worth a go to "lift the fug", eg 

http://luminous-landscape.com/contrast-enhancement/

Image is quite noisy, you might improve it but suspect you will struggle with an astro image/jpg like this one - don't suppose you have a RAW file? You can do some better noise removal. If you could shoot raw then raw therapy and others give you some useful tools (sorry dont know if they are Mac though - I thought Macs came with a good photo edit prog?)

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Selective_Gaussian_Blur/

[LittleSkink]

meant to say, Gimp can do pretty much all that Photoshop can (except maybe the automatic stuff) - so if you can find the same tools/settings in Gimp it will still do the job

[Jayla]

I found the tutorials on budgetastro.net translated enough that I can use them in paintshop pro you might find ideas for using in GIMP.

Thanks for the heads up on BudgetAstro, I ended up watching them all in one go last night, very useful stuff!

Sorry, can't help with gimp but....BACCHUS MARCH !!!! thats a far cry from suffolk Tad warm those victorian summers hey

Yeah its a big change, being able to see the milkyway from my back yard is nice I'm assuming by your username you were once down this way?

not at my PC right now but couple of things I will try later if I can . . .

Unsharp mask with low % and wide radius is worth a go to "lift the fug", eg 

http://luminous-landscape.com/contrast-enhancement/

Image is quite noisy, you might improve it but suspect you will struggle with an astro image/jpg like this one - don't suppose you have a RAW file? You can do some better noise removal. If you could shoot raw then raw therapy and others give you some useful tools (sorry dont know if they are Mac though - I thought Macs came with a good photo edit prog?)

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Selective_Gaussian_Blur/

Thanks, I ended up caving in. Theres a 30 day trial on Photoshop CC (no payment details needed upfront).

This is what I was able to come up with (from the above raw), opinions/suggestions welcome!

And heres a link to the raw file on dropbox, if anyone wants to show me how its done properly

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17161460/DSC_0003.NEF

[Scott]

origionally a sydney-sider but travelled oz a bit before my search for pristene skies brought me to the uk  

[laser_jock99]

Here's my quick effort at processing your RAW data. I used Photoshop Elements v12- a good deal cheaper than 'real' Photoshop. Most of the funcationality is still there but disabled however some of it can be accessed via free pluggins.

[Jayla]

Here's my quick effort at processing your RAW data. I used Photoshop Elements v12- a good deal cheaper than 'real' Photoshop. Most of the funcationality is still there but disabled however some of it can be accessed via free pluggins.

That's great! Would you mind summarising what you did? It's a great result but I'd like to know how you got there so I can try for myself next time

Thanks