Soul Nebula with DSLR (IC 1848)

[StargeezerTim]

After many false starts, I managed to get over 3 hours on the Soul last night. Added to some data collected a couple of nights ago. Still a noisy background but overall not looking too bad I think?

26 X 7.5 min, iso 1600, UHC clip filter, DSS, PS, Dithered, Bias and Flats applied.

Looks like another clear night tonight. The term 'London Buses' comes to mind. 

[graemlourens]

Hi Tim.

I think its already looking amazing!

If i'm not mistaken i can see a green hue in the background that i'd try to remove as well as lower the allover background brightness levels while keeping the nebula at the same brightness (using curves in Photoshop and Curvestransformation in Pixinsight). You've got the usual DSLR color blotching going on in the background, and if you lower the brightness level, and remove the green (in PI you could use SCNR, in photoshop somebody else can help you here for sure)) it will help a lot in my opinion.

But allover, a great image!

Kind regards, Graem

[StargeezerTim]

11 minutes ago, graemlourens said:

Hi Tim.

I think its already looking amazing!

If i'm not mistaken i can see a green hue in the background that i'd try to remove as well as lower the allover background brightness levels while keeping the nebula at the same brightness (using curves in Photoshop and Curvestransformation in Pixinsight). You've got the usual DSLR color blotching going on in the background, and if you lower the brightness level, and remove the green (in PI you could use SCNR, in photoshop somebody else can help you here for sure)) it will help a lot in my opinion.

But allover, a great image!

Kind regards, Graem

Thanks Graem. I'll try that. I have tried smoothing the background with a hefty dose of gaussian blur but it just looks glassy and unnatural.

[graemlourens]

6 minutes ago, StargeezerTim said:

Thanks Graem. I'll try that. I have tried smoothing the background with a hefty dose of gaussian blur but it just looks glassy and unnatural.

Hi Tim.

I'd not go to crazy on trying to smooth the background, it very quickly looks unnatural and like 'vaseline'. In those cases i'd rather stretch the image less, or reduce the background levels so its less visible (but still there obviously).

But it is amazing how much HA you gathered with just a UHC filter!

Kind regards, Graem

[MikeODay]

Great image Tim with some very nice detail.  Well done.