gorann Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 Had another go at my 2.8 h of data on this nebula from 2015 and 2016, trying to control the star field better. One reason was that I just invested 50 dollars in the Star Shrink plugin for PS (by Russell Croman). I have previously used "Make stars smaller" in Noels Actions for PS. I also did my best protecting the stars while stretching in many small rounds. This is quite a fight with the Veil nebulas that easily get buried in a snow storm of stars. I think I managed better than before and the Star Shrink is a good little plugin as there are some sliders that can be used to better control the shrinking (selecting for different star sizes, strength and sharpness), while Noels Actions is just controlled by the number of times the action script is run, and by finally using the slider on the layer. I have previously also used some of the manual methods (using the selection tool and minimize filter in PS). In any case, I still end up with neighboring stars being connected by a cord of light, giving an odd impression if you zoom into the stars. Maybe it is not a big problem for the overall impression of the image but it is rather annoying. Any great tips on shrinking stars without odd artifacts? It could be that I am just shrinking them too much and then small neighboring stars that were not completely separated in the data will inevitably show these cords connecting them. Here is the "big picture" and a crop on the star oddities (ES 5" apo at f/5.9 and Canon 60Da, 21 x 480s, ISO1600): By the way, I have no moral issues with shrinking stars since they are point objects that are blown out of proportions by our atmosphere, scopes, guiding and chips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filroden Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 I think the artefacts aren't noticeable when the image is viewed full screen so it depends how you want to view the image. If I ever zoom in to a picture to see detail it tends to be areas of intricate nebulosity. So I'd be checking the star reduction process didn't degrade nebulosity detail or leave hollow halos, neither of which are happening here. I think you have a nice balance here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gorann Posted March 23, 2017 Author Share Posted March 23, 2017 3 hours ago, Filroden said: I think the artefacts aren't noticeable when the image is viewed full screen so it depends how you want to view the image. If I ever zoom in to a picture to see detail it tends to be areas of intricate nebulosity. So I'd be checking the star reduction process didn't degrade nebulosity detail or leave hollow halos, neither of which are happening here. I think you have a nice balance here. Thanks ! Yes, maybe I am to critical and should refrain from zooming in on things that would not be visible in full view anyhow. It is definitively better now than in my first attempts on processing the Veils. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MARS1960 Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 For some very odd reason that isn't clear to me, the crop reminds me of images of the cones and rods in our eyes, heaven knows why, but regardless of the randomness of my imagination that is a lovely western veil Gorann. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnomus Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 Hi Goran The image is great. Like others I'm not sure how noticable the artefacts are. Some folks wouldn't worry about them. However, they would bother me too. I find that I need to be careful with any of these star reduction tools. Whichever I use, I start to see oddities Of one sort or another fairly soon. With Noel x 2, I often find little red patches appearing between stars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gorann Posted March 23, 2017 Author Share Posted March 23, 2017 20 minutes ago, gnomus said: Hi Goran The image is great. Like others I'm not sure how noticable the artefacts are. Some folks wouldn't worry about them. However, they would bother me too. I find that I need to be careful with any of these star reduction tools. Whichever I use, I start to see oddities Of one sort or another fairly soon. With Noel x 2, I often find little red patches appearing between stars. Hi Steve, yes, it is a balancing act I assume, and it is good enough if it looks good at full size on a normal screen. I noticed that in some of masterpieces of the grand masters of AP shown on the net, when I zoom in I get the impression that they set the resolution to a level that will just give me pixels when I look for the shape of the small stars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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