M106 (reprocessed)

[alan4908]

Since the UK weather has not been very good recently, I've been watching yet more PS tutorials. So armed with a bit more knowledge, I decided to have another attempt at reprocessing my recent M106.  Since the previous image was a bit red, I decided to use a more aggressive black clipping of the Ha data before blending into the red channel. I currently use the PS Screen blending mode to incorporate the Ha data into the RGB image. Since Screen is an additive blending function, it spreads the Ha signal much more than the alternative option of using PS Lighten. I also discovered that I could improve the image quality if I applied noise reduction to the Ha signal prior to blending.  Anyway, after a few more PS tweaks:

M106 with bonus galaxies:

 

M106 crop:

 

 

Lights: L17:, R:19, G:20: B:18 at 600s and 6 Ha at 1800s. DARKS: 30; BIAS: 100; FLATS: 40 at -20C.

Alan

[wimvb]

Very nice result. The background seems neutral and the stars have good colours. The gaalxies seem ever so slightly pink to me. Maybe my screen?

[toxic]

yes very nice indeed great shot

[alan4908]

Thanks for all the comments  

1 hour ago, wimvb said:

The gaalxies seem ever so slightly pink to me. Maybe my screen?

Hi WIM - I don't think it's your screen since they also look slightly pink to me  When I was reprocessing the image, I was aware of this but I just left it in since I thought this must be due to the Ha signal. 

Alan

[wimvb]

Glad to know it wasn't just me then. Computer screens can have all kinds of effects, not just colour related. In another post I thought that the core of M81 in an image was blown out, until I scrolled the image somewhat. It seems that the viewing angle is very critical on my laptop. Makes me more careful when commenting on images.

 

Cheers,

[laudropb]

Lovely image.