well this is my 1st go with my new setup M101

[Wirral man]

Hi all out last night and tried out my new heq5 with skywatcher evostar 80ed pro and nikon d5300, 8 subs @180sec 2 dark 2 flat 2 bias processed with DSS and CS2 Photoshop, still got plenty to learn but last night i got my polar allignment pretty good with just using the built in polar scope.

[geordie85]

Not bad for a first attempt. It's very noisy but that's to be expected with only 8 subs. What processing software are you using? If you align your histogram so all the channel peaks (rbg) are at the same point, you'll have much better colour and it won't be so red/ purple.

[pi_co100]

Well that galaxy is definitely there! I am also hooked by M101. I hope to be able to get some good pics this bank holiday weekend. If you use Photoshop, I think that has an auto color function that would align the channels.

[Wirral man]

ah ok will have another go at processing it..its all new to me wish i had a better program for processing, also my bortal scale is 6 so would using a skywatcher light pollution filter help bringing more detail and colour out??

[geordie85]

23 minutes ago, Wirral man said:

ah ok will have another go at processing it..its all new to me wish i had a better program for processing, also my bortal scale is 6 so would using a skywatcher light pollution filter help bringing more detail and colour out??

It would help with your light pollution (if it is the old sodium lights) but then you'll also have to increase your exposure time.

[Wirral man]

ive come to the conclusion that cs2 Photoshop is not up to the job 

[geordie85]

6 minutes ago, Wirral man said:

ive come to the conclusion that cs2 Photoshop is not up to the job 

Why not? There's lots of people who get great results from cs2

[happy-kat]

Why not buy the book Dark Art or Magic Bullet from FLO. There is a lot you can do using CS2 it's like Paintshoppro does an awful lot of what Photoshop does, each time I process I learn something new, it will get better.

Personally I think just 2 darks will be adding noise.

[happy-kat]

1 hour ago, Wirral man said:

ive come to the conclusion that cs2 Photoshop is not up to the job 

It's your first go with your lovely new equipment with just 8 light frames. It's more data you need not a different program at this point.

I hope you can get more data soon. M101 is clearly there it is a great start.

[knobby]

Hope you don't mind but I've had a very quick play with your image ... in CS2

Don't give up, have a bash with your original file.

Adjusted levels using the rgb drop down to match the colours, tweaked contrast and colour balance.

[Wirral man]

35 minutes ago, knobby said:

Hope you don't mind but I've had a very quick play with your image ... in CS2

Don't give up, have a bash with your original file.

Adjusted levels using the rgb drop down to match the colours, tweaked contrast and colour balance.

oh wow how did you do that i need to learn photoshop!! rgb drop down?

[Davey-T]

2 hours ago, Wirral man said:

ive come to the conclusion that cs2 Photoshop is not up to the job 

I think Olly Penrice may still be using CS2, have a look at some of his images on here.

Dave

[geordie85]

10 minutes ago, Wirral man said:

oh wow how did you do that i need to learn photoshop!! rgb drop down?

I'd HIGHLY recommend you buying this book. It'll teach you alot about what you want to know. 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/dark-art-or-magic-bullet-steve-richards.html

[knobby]

28 minutes ago, Wirral man said:

oh wow how did you do that i need to learn photoshop!! rgb drop down?

Image - adjustments - levels then at top of levels box click on drop down and adjust each colour separately.

It's probably on you tube .

[Wirral man]

everyone i have just ordered the book from FLO its clear i need to learn cs2 otherwise whats the point in having good gear for the end result to crash thanks again guys!!

[ChrisEll]

The data is there, just needs a bit more TLC...

 

[ollypenrice]

5 hours ago, Wirral man said:

ive come to the conclusion that cs2 Photoshop is not up to the job 

I use CS3. There is very little to choose between them. I doubt I would notice the difference.

Olly

[ollypenrice]

9 hours ago, Wirral man said:

Hi all out last night and tried out my new heq5 with skywatcher evostar 80ed pro and nikon d5300, 8 subs @180sec 2 dark 2 flat 2 bias processed with DSS and CS2 Photoshop, still got plenty to learn but last night i got my polar allignment pretty good with just using the built in polar scope.

I do lots of imaging tutorials and the first and most important thing I say to beginners is, 'Look at the picture.' It sounds obvious but I still say it. So look at your picture above. What colour is the background sky?

Clearly a no-brainer, it's red. This isn't a problem, it's great because now you know where to begin with your processing. You need to colour-balance your picture so that the background sky is very dark grey (not black.) And the next processing step will be just like that one. You'll look at the picture and see what's next.

Processing is all about learning to look at the picture. I'm sorry to say that it took me a long time to learn this!

Olly

[Wirral man]

olly ive seen your pics and wow if i can get mine to look even 10% i would be happy im quite good with computers but photoshop is something i have never bothered with untill now taking up this amazing and expensive hobby i have ordered the book from flo which was recommended to me on here and i will study it from page to page thanks. john

[Wirral man]

olly how do get the colour to (pop) in my images?

[geordie85]

26 minutes ago, Wirral man said:

olly how do get the colour to (pop) in my images?

Your going to need ALOT more data, think several hours of data and not just 24 minutes 

[ollypenrice]

9 hours ago, Wirral man said:

olly how do get the colour to (pop) in my images?

More data, of course. No way out of that one!

Then use the black point adjuster in Levels to get the top left hand edge of the histogram peak aligned in R, G and B channels.

For stronger colour only use the saturation tool as a last resort. There are better ways.

1) Convert the image to Lab Colour mode and increase the contrast (using the simple contrast tool) first in 'a' channel then in 'b' channel by the same amount. Try 30 points. Re-convert to RGB mode.

2) Make 2 copy layers. Set the top layer's blend mode to soft light and flatten it onto the middle layer. Set the new top layer's blend mode to Colour and flatten.

Steve's book will get you going nicely.

Olly

[Wirral man]

thanks i notice i a red tinge to most of my images would that be light pollution?

[ollypenrice]

4 hours ago, Wirral man said:

thanks i notice i a red tinge to most of my images would that be light pollution?

Quite possily, but even from our dark site here we have to fix colour gradients. I don't think anybody knows where they come from!

Olly