IKO - LBN487 Iris Nebula LRGB - Processing Competition

[Grant]

We've just released the latest set of data from the Ikarus Observatory project here.

Following the wonderful entries from the first and second processing competitions we are running another to see who can get the most from this data and create the 'best' image! The winner will receive £150 of First Light Optics gift vouchers and two runners up will receive £50 of gift vouchers.

Details below:

• Closing date: 3rd May 2021 @ 22:00
• Please post your entries into this thread
• Please only use the data we've released - don't blend it with other data or add to it with other sources
• Use what ever processing software and techniques you like, potential bonus points for sharing your workflow and techniques with others - that way, we all get to learn as well 
• Multiple entries are allowed but, please refrain form posting multiple attempts that are very similar - better to update an earlier attempt if it's just an incremental improvement but, it would be interesting to see totally different attempts using different narrowband blends etc...
• If you win or are a runner up, we would really like to use your creation in future marketing materials, on our website etc.. so by entering the competition, you are giving us permission to use your image in this way.
• Judging will be done by a small team of judges from the FLO team - It's completely subjective  but will be based on what image(s) we think do the best job of extracting the most from the data released and, look the 'prettiest' 
• We will announce the winners by the 9th May 2021 live on StarGaZine then on SGL

Thanks all and look forward to seeing your entries!

[Graham Darke]

Here is my effort processed in StarTools 7. Auto Dev, Bin 50%, Wipe (basic), Film Dev to 96.58%, Contrast (DSO dark preset), HDR (basic and reveal core), Sharp (DSO dark) 400%, Colour ( reduced green and red bias 1.60 and 1.44 respectively), Noise Reduction (2 pixels), Flux ( sharpen 18%) converted to jpeg in GIMP. 

Edited April 13, 2021 by Graham Darke
Processing workflow added

[Luke Newbould]

Here's my go, really nice data to work with!

done in PixInsight

 

 

A bit more colourful touch on this one

Edited April 21, 2021 by Luke Newbould
adding colour revision

[billhinge]

All PI LRGB, wavelets, curves and masks

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2021 by billhinge

[Budgie1]

I had a couple of attempts in PI.

Workflow: LRGB Combination - Dynamic Crop - Background Extraction - Background Neutralisation - De-noise using MMT & MLT - SCNR to reduce the green - Stretch - StarNet to remove the stars - increase saturation on the stars - increase saturation on the nebula - a bit of CIE c* - darked background and reduce the core (second image I played about with CIE b* to put some yellow into the cloud and more blue into the background for a little Hubble entertainment   - HDR - and finally recombine background & stars with PixelMath.

[Graham Darke]

Second attempt. Workflow same as first one but this time used the "Legacy" colour setting. 

[masjstovel]

Here's my try. Incredible data. Now i know what round stars look like

Workflow:
PI: DBE division, DBE subtract, LinearFIT, LRGBcombination, BackgroundNeutralization, ColorCalibration, SCNR, MultiScaleLinearTransform, ACDNR, 
CameraRaw: Color calibration for more saturation,
PS: Dodging & burning based on luminosity masks.
 

[carastro]

Here is my effort.  Processed in Photoshop, mainly using levels and curves, and some selective colour.

 

[alacant]

Hi everyone and thanks for looking. Cropped to remove distractions.

st 1.7.459

 

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by alacant

[Anonymous Astronomer]

Hello everyone! 

Image processed in PI:

-LRGBCombination (RGB combine)
-DBE
-BackgroundNeutralization
-EZ Denoise
-ColorCalibration
-DBE on Lum
-Stretching using HistogramTransformation
-Applying Luminance Image with LRGBCombination (adjust saturation and check off chrominance noise reduction)
-SCNR
-MultiscaleLinearTransform
-CurvesTransformation
-Reducing Star Sizes with MorphologicalTransformation
-Dark Structure Enhance

[Neko]

As always, thank you for such awesome data!! 

here goes my first try

 

StarTools 7 and Lightroom 

 

[JSeaman]

I went dark with this one, the process was:

- DBE on each RGB layer
- MLT noise reduction on RGB
- Stretch RGB and L
- Combinatoin and Levels/Curves
- Starmask/light reduction (0.2)
- Selective colour on L
- Selective colour on RGB
- Combine and brightness/contrast
- Removed some green (curves then level offset) from the final image for a moody feel
- Finally some selective light blurring to remove any speckles

[LuckieEddie]

Here's my attempt...

My processing was entirely using StarTools (which I've only started with in the last week), other than final format conversion in GIMP.

Workflow was: Compose>AutoDev>Bin50%>Wipe>AutoDev>Contrast>HDR>Deconv>Colour>Shrink>Entropy>SuperStructure>Denoise>Flux. Full processing log (minus mask data - default auto masks used) is attached.

 

Iris.log

[Neko]

Second try  

This time StarTools 1.7 only. 

Similar workflow but less aggressive and cropped a bit. colors came out better too

So didn't think the need of exporting to lightroom this time 

Edited April 17, 2021 by Neko

[Anne S]

Here's my version. All processed in Pixinsight.

RGB image produced from original colour stacks then DBE and Photometric colour calibration. Luminance image just DBE.

Both images permanently stretched then luminance had HDR at level 5 applied. RGB image colour saturated before combining with the luminance image. Light noise reduction using MMT.

Finally check sncr and background colour, gentle curves applied to bring out the dust and brighten slightly.

 

[Anne S]

Here's my version. All processed in Pixinsight.

RGB image produced from original colour stacks then DBE and Photometric colour calibration. Luminance image just DBE.

Both images permanently stretched then luminance had HDR at level 5 applied. RGB image colour saturated before combining with the luminance image. Light noise reduction using MMT.

Finally check sncr and background colour, gentle curves applied to bring out the dust and brighten slightly.

 

[Anne S]

1 minute ago, Anne S said:

Here's my version. All processed in Pixinsight.

RGB image produced from original colour stacks then DBE and Photometric colour calibration. Luminance image just DBE.

Both images permanently stretched then luminance had HDR at level 5 applied. RGB image colour saturated before combining with the luminance image. Light noise reduction using MMT.

Finally check sncr and background colour, gentle curves applied to bring out the dust and brighten slightly.

 

It hasn't posted my image!

[Anne S]

9 minutes ago, Anne S said:

Here's my version. All processed in Pixinsight.

RGB image produced from original colour stacks then DBE and Photometric colour calibration. Luminance image just DBE.

Both images permanently stretched then luminance had HDR at level 5 applied. RGB image colour saturated before combining with the luminance image. Light noise reduction using MMT.

Finally check sncr and background colour, gentle curves applied to bring out the dust and brighten slightly.

 

It hasn't posted my image!

 

Edited April 18, 2021 by Anne S
remove image which has now posted 3 times

[Dean Hale]

Affinity Photo.

Recolour, Levels, several Curves, Clarity, Noise reduction and Selective colour.

Second image same initial process then moved into Photoshop and then used Photokemi and Annies Actions - Space dust, star reduction, dust lanes and noise reduction.

Edited April 27, 2021 by Dean Hale

[Neko]

Last try for now 

Similar as before, but with a more conservative process (less HDR in the core..) and different color

StarTools and LightRoom. one with aggressive noise reduction and one without 

hope you like!  Really impressive data to work with!

[Spikey]

Here's my effort. Pixinsight and Photoshop hybrid.

Histogram equalistion of B & G to R channel then RGB combination. ArcSin then Masked stretch and RGB as a tiff for photoshop.

Lum just a tiny histogram and then a masked stretch saved as tiff.

RGB saturation boost and gaussian blur then lum added as luminosity.

Noels smaller stars and increase star colour then local contrast enhance.

Back to PI for dark enhance.

Saved as a PNG for faster loading on site.

 

[happy-kat]

The data is super clean thank you for sharing and this is my favourite subject. I didn't rush this I took my time enjoying reviewing each step and tweaking adjustments.

StarTools_1.7.458MR3, highlights of settings used,  Compose loading all four but with lum as 20m of the others 60m | Bin 70% | crop reducing by 30 pixels | Wipe | Auto Develop with ROI inset by 45 pixels ignore fine detail 1.1 pixels and outside ROI influence 2% | HDR reveal DSO core strength 1.3 | mask on core area Deconvolution primary radius 1.4 iterations 23 | mask of large central area Wavelet Sharpen , then a second smaller mask used for a wavelet pass | mask cleared Colour scientific colour, bright saturation 2.6 dark saturation 5.2 | star mask used Shrink mode set dim classic | mask of large central area Fractual Flux | mask cleared Unified De-Noise grain 5.3 pixels | Photographic Film Development Emulation skyglow 1% | file save as tiff, opened in Irfanview and saved as png for upload

 

[Spongey]

Fantastic data once again, and on a beautiful target. I found this one very difficult to process but after a few iterations managed to get something I was happy with

Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom.

Cheers

[Aramcheck]

Here's my attempt - processed in Pixinsight.

Cheers
Ivor

[AstroExploring]

Thanks for the amazing quality data! Really enjoyed processing this one. Here's what I did in Photoshop:

• Created RGB image
• Lots of curves/levels adjustments
• Made stars slightly smaller
• Used a few actions with the Astronomy Tools Action Set
• Processed Lum data separately and then blended with RGB data