Critique Please

[LooseFur]

Hi all!
I hope you guys are well. 
I was doing a night hike yesterday morning (started at midnight the previous night). I like to shoot landscapes/sunrises on mountains so usually that involves me hiking in the dark for many hours until I arrive at a predetermined location. But I've been looking to the heavens increasingly lately, mountains are usually great dark sky locations so when the head torch is off - the skies are amazing.
Anyway, I got sidetracked (from the hike) because as the moon set the sky lit up with stars (and the milky way) so I opted to take a few long exposures of the Cygnus region using a nikon d810 and zeiss 35mm on a static tripod. I should note that I used the lens in 'dx' mode, even though the D810 is full frame - so 1.5 x crop factor. The lens is amazing stopped down but even at f/4 the corners are still not great for stars. f/5.6 gets you there though but without tracking, I need more light. 'dx' mode was the compromise, plus I get a bit more magnification.
This is what I came up with (12 images stacked in DSS, f/3.2, 4 secs each ISO 6400). No tracking, or guiding - just a static tripod. This was my first real attempt at any sort of wide field shot. I used in camera long exposure noise reduction and took darks but did not use them in the stack (I might try the stack again later with darks).

I was quite happy with it but I think there is probably some noise and I am not too sure about the colour balance, I'd like to get more accuracy with the colour balance - so tips are most welcome! Obviously there is room for improvement, more frames would have been better (but I was again 'balancing' between getting to my spot for sunrise in time vs shooting the stars - life is ALL about compromise!). Without tracking, I can't get away with much more than 4 seconds exposure either. 

Edited August 31, 2020 by LooseFur

[fwm891]

'FX' is full frame 'DX' is the cropped format.

Nice image - re colour it looks green to me. Removing that would lift the magenta nebulae in the region.

Edited August 31, 2020 by fwm891
Text added

[LooseFur]

Just now, fwm891 said:

'FX' is full frame 'DX' is the cropped format

silly me, my head is not screwed on - I knew this haha. I'll edit the post

[MarkAR]

Lovely image, bit of SCNR/ green reduction will work a treat.

[LooseFur]

Thanks guys, that's the sort of feedback I was hoping for - I am not an astrophotographer per se, though I am a veteran landscape photographer - what applications do I need to perform SCNR?

Edited August 31, 2020 by LooseFur

[LooseFur]

I used Pix Insight in the end, yes it looks better now after the SCNR. Thanks a lot for the tips guys.

[RT65CB-SWL]

The re-edited image is a lot better. Thank you for sharing. 

[LooseFur]

1 minute ago, Philip R said:

The re-edited image is a lot better. Thank you for sharing. 

Thanks very much!

I am just learning this really. 

[Andy R]

1 hour ago, LooseFur said:

Thanks guys, that's the sort of feedback I was hoping for - I am not an astrophotographer per se, though I am a veteran landscape photographer - what applications do I need to perform SCNR?

If you use photoshop then have a search for a plugin called HVLG , hasta la vista green, it does the same thing more or less as SCNR. 

 

Hth

e2a:http://www.deepskycolors.com/archivo/2010/04/26/hasta-La-Vista-Green.html

Edited August 31, 2020 by Andy R

[toxic]

and if you use photoshop you can get a free set of plugins from google called NIK collection they are very good i used it on your image as well as HLVG as andy r said.

[LooseFur]

Thanks Toxic, I'll have a look at that - I hope these plugins work in Photoshop CS2 as I don't have a later version - do you know if they do?

[Pryce]

11 hours ago, LooseFur said:

Thanks Toxic, I'll have a look at that - I hope these plugins work in Photoshop CS2 as I don't have a later version - do you know if they do?

Glad to see there's other old farts rocking older PS versions! I'm still holding on to my trusty CS3!  From my experience a lot of the plugins out there nowdays don't work with CS2/CS3 as theres a lot of functions that just arent present in older versions.

 

That said, it's still possible to reach the same result, it just takes longer and you have to do it "manually" using the tools available. 

[happy-kat]

As long as you get the plugin in the right bit then it's worth trying, 64bit plugin won't work on 32bit install and vice versa.

If I'm time pressed I go for more light frames, and if you've got in camera dark subtraction on that's doubling the time to take one light frame.

[toxic]

14 hours ago, LooseFur said:

Thanks Toxic, I'll have a look at that - I hope these plugins work in Photoshop CS2 as I don't have a later version - do you know if they do?

yes they do that's the version i  used to have but now on cs6 but there is not much difference tbh

[toxic]

2 hours ago, Pryce said:

Glad to see there's other old farts rocking older PS versions! I'm still holding on to my trusty CS3!  From my experience a lot of the plugins out there nowdays don't work with CS2/CS3 as theres a lot of functions that just arent present in older versions.

 

That said, it's still possible to reach the same result, it just takes longer and you have to do it "manually" using the tools available. 

yes but when you get your flow down you can create your own actions then that will speed up  the process and make it all a bit faster but faster is not all ways better

 

[LooseFur]

Thanks for all the info guys, you are very helpful!

Yep - I am an old time user of cs2, I also have many 'actions' under my belt for landscapes already. I am loathe to pay for new software that doesn't really bring anything new to the table, especially these 'pay monthly' schemes. I'd rather spend the money on new hiking boots or a new lens etc. Of course, software is a large part of imaging but as you said - you can do most things in CS2, you just need more knowledge of the tool. 
Anyway, I got the plugins working, I'll have a look later. Thanks again all!

Edited September 1, 2020 by LooseFur
typo

[LooseFur]

On 31/08/2020 at 18:52, toxic said:

and if you use photoshop you can get a free set of plugins from google called NIK collection they are very good i used it on your image as well as HLVG as andy r said.

Hi Toxic, 
I was looking at the nik tools last night and I couldn't figure out which tool you used to increase the saturation here - it looks really good! Can you please let me know which one you used?

[toxic]

yes it is called color efex pro and in that select detail extractor and use the sliders to increase or decrease but not to much in the detail or contrast as it will show more noise you just have to play with it till your happy but there is so much more in these tools just go gentle with the adjustments hope this helps

[LooseFur]

thanks a lot!