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Messier 81... DSLR reprocess


StargeezerTim

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This is one I did a few weeks ago. 12 X 5min, iso 1600, DSS, Photoshop. Originally a widefield with M 82 but I wanted to display it on its own, so I cropped it and sharpened the galaxy, luminence sharpening, some high pass and unsharp mask, just on the highlights, and smoothed the rest a bit. Its probably a bit of a small object  on a DSLR for a close up, but I am quite pleased with it and plan to put it on the lock screen of my phone!

56ed9b21016eb_M81.thumb.png.d45f3bf98059

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A DSLR with small pixels is a good idea at shorter focal lengths. This is very good, a clean result. For a hard critique just based on my eyeball prejudices...

The blue channel is a bit lacking. It should ideally show in the spiral arms.

The whole colour balance is a tad green.

There could be more star colour.

The core could do with a bit of layering to control the dynamic range.

Most or all of this is within the range of processing, I think. Not sure about star colour. The shallow DSLR well depth makes it easy to saturate stars but you might have more than you think.

It's a good image, for sure.

Olly

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20 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

A DSLR with small pixels is a good idea at shorter focal lengths. This is very good, a clean result. For a hard critique just based on my eyeball prejudices...

The blue channel is a bit lacking. It should ideally show in the spiral arms.

The whole colour balance is a tad green.

There could be more star colour.

The core could do with a bit of layering to control the dynamic range.

Most or all of this is within the range of processing, I think. Not sure about star colour. The shallow DSLR well depth makes it easy to saturate stars but you might have more than you think.

It's a good image, for sure.

Olly

Thanks... I never seem to get much blue in my galaxies. Any tips for boosting this without affecting the whole image?

Cheers, Tim.

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You could check out this workflow http://www.astronomersdoitinthedark.com/dslr_llrgb_tutorial.php

There is a method called l.a.b color that allows you to boost saturation in blue or red without adding a lot of noise. Another method in the video is "Saturate block" that also boost color without adding a lot of noise, but in all channels.

I have reprocessed most of my images with this workflow, and i like it :)

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OK...had a play with colour balance and Lab mode, changing the B channel in curves... and got some yellow and blue into it! and some more colour into the stars.

The core is a bit blown... I could tone that down by adding a layer a la M42, but that is for another day. Must have a go at my very pink M 51 next!

Thanks Ollie and Magnus for your help and suggestions...

 

56edfa18ae9fd_M81blue.thumb.png.de7a24c9

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Very nice image. You managed to get more blue in the galaxy, and colour in the stars. As for the core; I think somewhere between the first image and this one, is where you should go. This image looks kind of like there are Sodium lights in the dust lanes near the core; a bit too orange for my taste.

 

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