M31 - core detail

[jezhughes]

Hi all

Does anyone have any decent photoshop workflows relevant for getting more detail out of my M31 core? There's loads of data there, I just can't seem to stretch, curve, pull it out for the life of me. I know there's a couple of ways to do it in PI but I don't own that.

I'm assuming perhaps doing a dedicated masked layer for the core and developing the luminance differently?

Excuse the noise in the image - I haven't done any noise reduction yet.

Thanks!

Jez

[jezhughes]

Addition: stretched out detail in the luminance

[andyboy1970]

Looks good, I'm no expert but I would say even shorter subs as you'll get nothing from over-exposed areas.

[jezhughes]

12 minutes ago, andyboy1970 said:

Looks good, I'm no expert but I would say even shorter subs as you'll get nothing from over-exposed areas.

Cheers Andy. I do have a load of 60s data but it seemed actually a bit harder to drag the detail out.. not sure why

[andyboy1970]

Just had a look at Hubble images and it has no detail in the core, suspect that there is so many stars crammed in there that it is a white blob.

[jezhughes]

3 hours ago, andyboy1970 said:

Just had a look at Hubble images and it has no detail in the core, suspect that there is so many stars crammed in there that it is a white blob.

I think it depends on how you process it.

I've seen other photos with detail in the core, but no dust lane detail.

I think it comes to if you stretch the pixels to bring out the dust lanes (like I have), you also stretch the core detail. Where as if you boost contrast, forget the faint dust lanes and just go for central detail, you can get more depth in the middle of the target. If that makes sense...

[ollypenrice]

Very short subs are not the answer, I don't think. I've just been working on this target with a guest and used the RGB data to make a synthetic luminance for the core. (RGB was shot in 10 minute subs and only the very tiny central part of the core is saturated.) I processed this synthetic luminance to make a 'core only' layer. If you have Noel's Actions for Ps his Increase Local Contrast routine can be applied several times to pull out spiral detail in the core. You can also do this by using fixing points in curves to pull down any faint hits of structure in the core only layer. After that it's a matter of gently blending the 'core only' with the main luminance.

Olly

[jezhughes]

3 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Very short subs are not the answer, I don't think. I've just been working on this target with a guest and used the RGB data to make a synthetic luminance for the core. (RGB was shot in 10 minute subs and only the very tiny central part of the core is saturated.) I processed this synthetic luminance to make a 'core only' layer. If you have Noel's Actions for Ps his Increase Local Contrast routine can be applied several times to pull out spiral detail in the core. You can also do this by using fixing points in curves to pull down any faint hits of structure in the core only layer. After that it's a matter of gently blending the 'core only' with the main luminance.

Olly

 

Cheers Olly

My next step was to try a synth luminance in general as overall the data is better. I want to try and get slightly better green first as my G data is a bit messy. I'll update you on my progress, and i'll take a look at the NA actions