IC5070 Pelican Nebula - Obeying rule of thirds

[graemlourens]

Hi everybody.

As always i devote every picture to one specific processing technique or some aspect of astrophotography.
This time i took the Pelican nebula and gave more thought about framing as i usually didn't spend enough time on considering how to frame something (and this is extremely important as i have learnt)

In normal Photography there are certain guidelines, whereby rule of thirds plays a great role. I tried to use this while framing IC5070. Also i wanted to make this look like a mountain edge, or underwater abyss (the blues giving an underwater feeling).

The data is 25x1200s HA, 18x1200s OIII 2x2, and 12x1200s SII 2x2. I processed it in my standard Tonemapping approach i'm now using for all tricolor narrowband images.

Except for 2 bad star halos i had to photomagically make disappear (or at least i tried) the data was a delight to process. Lots of signal, in both OIII & SII that made everything simpler as usual.

Does anyone see anything i missed that hasn't been handled/fixed or something i totally messed up?
Whats your 'gut feeling' when you look at the picture?

Feedback, critics - all welcome.

Kind regards, Graem

[Bonnylad]

I'm in no position to comment on your processing, but just visually - stunning. Love it.

[graemlourens]

Thank you so much! I appreciate the feedback.

[Barry-Wilson]

You have a very beautiful Pelican there Graem.  The elements of the composition I find are quite balanced, eg not overly saturated, dark dust not too black, and you really get a feeling of the gas and dust streaming from a mountain (could be just auto-suggestion from your text ).

Maybe a hint of green lurking in there . . . . ?

I find my eye wants to see what's hiding away just above the top edge of the frame.  Just some encouragement for you to create a mosaic, LOL!

Good work Graem.

[graemlourens]

Hey Barry.

Thank you for your feedback!

I'll check about the green, but if i'm not mistaken i gave it a very good portion of green-removal-magic. Only the lower third, if i look closely, could still be harbouring some evil green.

No Mosaic on this one -  there is no end to that gaseous area!, and with my fov, i'd be busy forever as i'll not be able to choose where to stop

Kind regards, Graem

[StargeezerTim]

A lovely clean and sharp image. Excellent work...

[PatrickGilliland]

Hi Gream

First impression is it looks fantastic and is a super job.  Then you ask me to look at things i don't like and there is only 1 i can find.  The larger stars have the feel of a white circle and not that of stars.  They are also seem to be causing a little halo effect.  If you could resolve that you work is done  

Not sure what software you are using if PI have a look at stretching using auto-histogram or similar and then mapping the stars from that stretch back onto the data.

Paddy 

[graemlourens]

Hi Paddy.

Thx a lot for your honest feedback!

Yes, those larger stars (there are 4 problematic ones in my opinion) had absolutely massive Halos around them and i was fighting for a long while to clean those up. At one point i also was tempted to just remove them (no joke!), but then i caught myself and just did my best (its not very good, i agree on that. It doesn't look natural anymore)

I am not quiet skilled yet with taming halos, and this is certainly an aspect i should devote a future picture to!

Kind regards, Graem

[-ChoJin-]

this image is stunning and certainly deserves a good quality print.