First Light Equinox 80, HEQ5, Canon 100d - M42 - Pleiades

[Dannyefc87]

Finally got some clear sky tonight had a quick go of M42 and Pleiades with my new Equinox 80 from a very light polluted Liverpool back yard, first light and first ever Astro Photo. Stacked in DeepSkyStacker, little processing. Constructive criticisms very welcome

First up M42 - 8 subs of between 20s and 120s totalling 445s (testing out to see what works) 8 darks rougly same exposure length. Image cropped for purpose of posting

I actually think the small amount of processing (stacking and darks) have made the images worse, below is one 45s sub in jpeg that looks much better t my amateur eyes ha

Any help is greatly appreciated, also not sure the best way to post photos can only seem to fit these two I this post so will put Pleiades in next post.

Danny

[Dannyefc87]

Pleiades 3 short 20s subs + darks stacked and cropped

Also one unprocessed sub of 20s jpeg straight from cam only cropped to fit in post

I think I definitely need more practice with the stacking. Any tips welcome, thanks for looking.

Danny

[wxsatuser]

Well done on your first images.

The jpegs out of the camera will always make you think they look better.

To make the jpegs the camera will stretch and add a tone curve to the RAW.

Your job with RAW data is to process it and get the same effect, it's not easy and takes some effort.

If you want to improve your images and get longer exposures invest in a decent LP filter.

Although LP can be processed out you won't get very long exposures before you over expose.

[Dannyefc87]

Thanks for the input, I've yet to try any real processing that was next on my list after getting some data to work with. Looks like its time to invest in some software and an LP filter.

[knobby]

Google 'stretching Astro images' there is probably a decent image hiding in there ...

[Dannyefc87]

Took your advice and checked out a few stretching tutorials. Had a crack at it in Photoshop CC. Not sure if ive made the image better or worse haha. Seem to have pulled out some detail but lost all colour. Let me know what you think again any input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Dannyefc87]

Had another go but still cant seem to get the colour right, ok for my first tries I suppose, practice makes perfect

[Craig20264]

Had a quick go with Photoshop CC. Try starting with the levels slider. Choose each Channel, Red, Green & Blue seperately and bring the left hand slider accross to the bottom of the curve. Then go from there with your colour balance/saturation/curves etc. Give it a whirl you'll be pleasantly surprised.

[Dannyefc87]

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. Had a lil go with your suggestion and came up with this.

Think I like yours better though ha.

Thanks again.

[Craig20264]

There is more depth to yours than my edit. I'ts a softly softly approach with post processing, and there is no substitute for data and dark skies. Good luck.

[Dannyefc87]

Thanks, appreciate all the advice feel like I kinda know what I'm doing now as oppose to just sliding stuff around and seeing what happens haha.