Critical Eyes Please

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

Hello all

This is the first time on this subject. I found it a lot harder to process it's 2 hours on the seagul Nebula taken on a eq6 Skywatcher 150pds and Canon 550d. I'm happy with it but not satisfied. Let me know what you think.

Cheers 

Gerry

[carastro]

Looks very nice.  I am used to seeing this target in narrowband so not absolutely sure what it is supposed to look like in Broadband, but I like it.

Carole 

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

1 minute ago, carastro said:

Looks very nice.  I am used to seeing this target in narrowband so not absolutely sure what it is supposed to look like in Broadband, but I like it.

Carole 

Yes first time on this but seemed to be quite hard to get colours right. Glad it's going in the right direction. 

Gerry

[Allinthehead]

I'm viewing this on my phone so hard to tell. It looks really good for 2 hours. Best way to improve it is to gather more data.

Looks like you have a little area black clipped and you also have a green cast on the background. What program are you using for processing?

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

1 minute ago, Allinthehead said:

I'm viewing this on my phone so hard to tell. It looks really good for 2 hours. Best way to improve it is to gather more data.

Looks like you have a little area black clipped and you also have a green cast on the background. What program are you using for processing?

Ah that's interesting thanks. Yes I notice top left it always seem to be black clipped if not the bottom right seems too bright. Im doing it all on PS and final touches in lightroom. Strange I found it so hard. Maybe it's just because it needs more time. 

Cheers

Gerry

[Allinthehead]

Did you calibrate with flats? 

If you upload the stack you might get some better advice.

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

Yes did Flats around 50 same with bias. Could be a bad bunch of flats. I'll have another go I think but with some older flats it could help. Never thought about that. Thanks 

[Allinthehead]

13 minutes ago, Gerry Casa Christiana said:

Yes did Flats around 50 same with bias. Could be a bad bunch of flats. I'll have another go I think but with some older flats it could help. Never thought about that. Thanks 

I was wrong. It's not clipped but there's a light difference between the two corners which you could fix using gradient exterminator if you have it.

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

15 minutes ago, Allinthehead said:

I was wrong. It's not clipped but there's a light difference between the two corners which you could fix using gradient exterminator if you have it.

I'll have another go!

[Xiga]

I think you've done very well indeed here. Good job! 

As Richard says, give GradientX-terminator a go. Even with flats, almost every image needs gradient reduction of some degree or another. Once you nail this bit, the rest starts to fall into place a lot easier. Find the darkest spot in the image, and try not to let it get much below ~ 20,20,20 in RGB levels. And finally, download HLVG and run it on a layer with the blend mode set to Color. This will remove any green cast the image has. 

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

16 hours ago, Xiga said:

I think you've done very well indeed here. Good job! 

As Richard says, give GradientX-terminator a go. Even with flats, almost every image needs gradient reduction of some degree or another. Once you nail this bit, the rest starts to fall into place a lot easier. Find the darkest spot in the image, and try not to let it get much below ~ 20,20,20 in RGB levels. And finally, download HLVG and run it on a layer with the blend mode set to Color. This will remove any green cast the image has. 

Ok used HVLG never downloaded that before! Very useful. 

Here is my latest result. I think it’s much better.

Let me know if you see anything else  

Thanks

Gerry

 

[carastro]

FWIW, I have a darker area in my narrowband image in exactly the same place as yours and I wonder whether this is due to the nebulosity below the main nebula rather than a gradient.  It will respond to GE but looking at several other images on Astrobin, they all seem to have this darker area at the top.

This is mine, 

http://www.astrobin.com/full/319608/C/

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

32 minutes ago, carastro said:

FWIW, I have a darker area in mine narrowband image in exactly the same place as yours and I wonder whether this is due to the nebulosity below the main nebula rather than a gradient.  It will respond to GE but looking at several other images on Astrobin, they all seem to have this darker area at the top.

This is mine, 

http://www.astrobin.com/full/319608/C/

That’s a lovely picture! Yes I’m pretty sure something is there and as you say dark nebula matter probably. Glad to have resolved that. 

[carastro]

BTW, your second process is a good improvement.

Carole