IC1805

[alan4908]

I wasn't very impressed with my first attempt at IC1805 with my colour Trius SX26C camera (see my gallery if your interested), I decided it was a bit "flat".

So, here's my second attempt, this time with H alpha on a different camera (Trius SX814) and a bit more post processing knowledge.  Since the Ha is strong, I decided to blend via PS screen a small proportion of this into both the Luminescence and RED channels.  

I quite like the variety of star colours within the nebula, so I decided not to push them into the background too much.

The final LRGB +Ha image represents about 10 hours of integration time.

Alan

H alpha

 

LRGB + Ha

Lights: L:10; R:10: G:14; B:9 X 600s. Ha: 10 x 1800s. BIAS: 100; FLATS:40; DARKS: 30 all at -20C.

[wimvb]

Great result. You captured lots of fine detail in this target.

Thanks for sharing

[alan4908]

12 hours ago, wimvb said:

Great result. You captured lots of fine detail in this target.

Thanks for sharing

Thanks Wim.

I think the Ha makes a major difference to the amount of detail.

I'm not happy with the framing since the Heart didn't quite fit into my field of view ! - I might see what the result looks like if I combine the result with my wider FOV colour data.

Alan

[swag72]

Looking good - Nothing at all flat about this rendition   You got some star colour in there too...... Nice one

[ollypenrice]

I'd call that a great success. It's a bit tight to show the heart shape but the colour, including star colour, the structure and the relief are excellent. The blue stars are tight despite your using some Ha in luminance. Often this bloats their halos.

Very nice image!

Olly

[alan4908]

1 hour ago, swag72 said:

Looking good - Nothing at all flat about this rendition   You got some star colour in there too...... Nice one

Thanks Sara - I was very happy with the star colours, I think it is much better than my previous effort.  I find the most difficult aspect is attempting to get good star colours for those stars that are embedded within the nebulosity. This time I tried the technique of PS Screening a lightly stretched RGB only image with the processed LRGB+H one. 

48 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

I'd call that a great success. It's a bit tight to show the heart shape but the colour, including star colour, the structure and the relief are excellent. The blue stars are tight despite your using some Ha in luminance. Often this bloats their halos.

Very nice image!

Olly

Thanks Olly - yes, star halos are sometimes a problem, however, I found a very good PS technique (via a video tutorial) for reducing these which uses the minimum filter (set to preserve roundness) you apply this only to the star halos and with the filter set to about 0.5 pixel.  

You can impact the star halos only via a two step process to create a suitable mask: first select all the stars + halos (via colour sampler highlights) and create a mask. Whilst on the mask you reselect the selection and modify (contract) the selection such that only the star cores are selected. You then fill the star cores on the mask with black via the fill command.

Alan 

[laudropb]

Very nice image with good detail captured.

[alan4908]

29 minutes ago, laudropb said:

Very nice image with good detail captured.

Thanks for the comment Laudropb.

Alan

[PatrickGilliland]

Nice work - great detail and colour version is nice, some good star colour coming through.

Paddy

[gnomus]

10 hours ago, alan4908 said:

Thanks Sara - I was very happy with the star colours, I think it is much better than my previous effort.  I find the most difficult aspect is attempting to get good star colours for those stars that are embedded within the nebulosity. This time I tried the technique of PS Screening a lightly stretched RGB only image with the processed LRGB+H one. 

Thanks Olly - yes, star halos are sometimes a problem, however, I found a very good PS technique (via a video tutorial) for reducing these which uses the minimum filter (set to preserve roundness) you apply this only to the star halos and with the filter set to about 0.5 pixel.  

You can impact the star halos only via a two step process to create a suitable mask: first select all the stars + halos (via colour sampler highlights) and create a mask. Whilst on the mask you reselect the selection and modify (contract) the selection such that only the star cores are selected. You then fill the star cores on the mask with black via the fill command.

Alan 

Nice image Alan.  You wouldn't happen to have a link to that video would you?

[alan4908]

1 hour ago, gnomus said:

Nice image Alan.  You wouldn't happen to have a link to that video would you?

Thanks Steve.

The technique was described in one of the Adam Block videos I have, however, since each one is many hours long and I have quite a few, I'm not totally sure which one it came from . 

If I had to guess, then I'd say it would most likely be in this one (which I would highly recommend):

 http://www.adamblockphotos.com/store/p7/Dimensions_of_Photoshop_by_Adam_Block.html

Alan

[alan4908]

4 hours ago, PatrickGilliland said:

Nice work - great detail and colour version is nice, some good star colour coming through.

Paddy

Thanks Paddy - Yes, I'm quite pleased how this one turned out 

Alan

[Barry-Wilson]

Two delightful ilmages Alan - I especially like the Ha mono.  One of the best targets for a mono rendition and this is a tightly focused and natural process.  Great.

[alan4908]

12 hours ago, Barry-Wilson said:

Two delightful ilmages Alan - I especially like the Ha mono.  One of the best targets for a mono rendition and this is a tightly focused and natural process.  Great.

Thanks Barry.

I don't normally post just the Ha component of my Ha blended LRGB images but I also quite liked this, so this time I made an exception.

Alan