Orion Nebula - A7S on Tak Epsilon

[sharkmelley]

Modified Sony A7S on Tak Epsilon.

360x30sec at ISO 2000 plus (for the core) 20x30sec at ISO 640 and 20x30sec at ISO 200.

Sky condtions were 20.8 mags/arcsec2 according to the Unihedron Sky Quality Meter.  Ambient temperature around 1C.

I created an HDR image and then compressed the dynamic range but  I think I need to learn some techniques for getting contrast back within the brighter parts.

Mark

Larger version here:  http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/2016/orion20160115large.jpg

[Uranium235]

Lots of the outer dust picked up there, but I have to agree on the loss of contrast in M42. Youve probably already used layer masks, so your next port of call would be some selective high pass and a dash of contrast enhancement using Noels actions (if you have it) - which should also be applied selectively using a layer mask so you can "paint" in the contrast where needed. However it would mean knocking it down and starting the process again becuase you cant apply that stuff to an already processed image.

[wxsatuser]

Thats picking out some nice dust for 30secs, better seen in the larger image.

[Tom OD]

Looks great. Lots of nice Brown-red dust. You could re layer a higher contrast process of M42 back in. Micro contrast curves in PS. Select a dark area and a bright area and "s" curve them.

[Stu1976j]

Wow loving the image 

[laudropb]

Nice image. Great detail on the dust.

[laser_jock99]

Nice Orion nebula.

[sharkmelley]

Thanks all, for your comments and suggestions.

Mark

[ollypenrice]

The short subs for the Trap might not be short enough, maybe? How do they look in linear? 

A lack of contrast is all that stands between this image and what it is trying to be! Let's be clear, though, it's very good as is.

Olly

[sharkmelley]

I imported the image back into PixInsight and played around with the HDRMultiscaleTransform.  It took a while for me to find the settings I wanted but it had the desired result of getting contrast back into the bright areas - particularly the Trapezium area.  I'm quite pleased with the result now.

 

P.S. I like this new forum - clicking on the image above allows you to see it full size: 4100 x 2820 pixels

Mark

[StuartJPP]

Good stuff for only 3 hours of integration time! I'd be inclined to tune the saturation down one notch, but that is just me. Loads of details and fluffy stuff...