M42 - have I gone too far?

[BrendanC]

Hi all,

Here's my M42 with the Running Man above it and some pretty twinkly stars above that. I have a feeling I might have overdone the post-processing so I'd like any constructive comments please.

Details are:

• Bortle 4 sky, moon 78% illumination
• 52x60s, 63x120s exposures at ISO800, guided
• Calibration: 25 flats, 25 dark flats, 50 darks
• Hardware: Sky-Watcher 130PDS scope (F5), Sky-Watcher NEQ6 mount, Canon EOS1000D astro-modded camera with Sky-Watcher 0.9x coma corrector, T7C guidescope (ASI120MC clone), Angel Eyes 50mm guidescope
• Software: polar alignment with SharpCap Pro, guiding with PHD2, capture with Astrophotography Tool (APT), stacking with Deep Sky Stacker (DSS), post-processing with StarTools and Photoshop CS2

Thanks!

[happy-kat]

My mobile isn't the best to look at this with as it eats stars, but you stars look very nicely defined. 

[BrendanC]

Thanks!

I had two major discoveries while processing this:

1. Unsharp mask - I've been using the Google Photos pop slider, and liking it, and feeling guilty that I like it. So, I found out how to do this 'properly', and in Photoshop it's Filter/Unsharp mask. It's a wonderful tool for subtly sharpening things, despite its name.
2. Pushing sharpen, HDR, contrast and deconvolution much further in StarTools, but just keeping the image black and white. Then, in Photoshop, turning it into a Lab colour image, grabbing just the Lightness channel from it, and using that as a luminance layer. It really adds so much detail which you can overlay on top of the RGB exposures.

I quite like the effects, but I'm always wary of going OTT with a new toy, but this seems to have been well received so maybe I haven't. This time.

Edited December 30, 2020 by BrendanC