Leo Triplet

[mackiedlm]

This was way shorter integration than intended ending up at just 2 hours.  With the 80 ED FL of 510mm its really a bit on the small side so a moderate crop included. I really struggled with the background - I think because of high haze and short time on target

SW Evostar 80ED, NEQ6, ASI2600MC 40 x 180s

C & C appreciated.

Edited May 7, 2021 by mackiedlm

[ParallaxPete]

Nice image, I like these wide field galaxy shots. The galaxies and stars have nice colours in them.

I'm no expert, but the background doesn't look too bad in my eyes. However, I do feel your pain, making the background look good in my images drives me mad due to never having enough imaging time.

[ollypenrice]

You may have struggled with the background but, as it stands, it is even and of a good colour and brightness (not too dark.)  However, I wonder if you might not have lifted it in post processing after having slightly black clipped the image. I say this because the faint outer parts of the galaxies are missing. This could be due to lack of integration time. You wouldn't expect to see the tidal tail in this exposure length but, still, I just wonder if you might not have clipped the outer faint stuff before raising the background. Maybe not, I'm just guessing. It's still a good Triplet, maybe a little colour-saturated for me but that's personal anyway.

Olly

[mackiedlm]

28 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

You may have struggled with the background but, as it stands, it is even and of a good colour and brightness (not too dark.)  However, I wonder if you might not have lifted it in post processing after having slightly black clipped the image. I say this because the faint outer parts of the galaxies are missing. This could be due to lack of integration time. You wouldn't expect to see the tidal tail in this exposure length but, still, I just wonder if you might not have clipped the outer faint stuff before raising the background. Maybe not, I'm just guessing. It's still a good Triplet, maybe a little colour-saturated for me but that's personal anyway.

Olly

Thanks Olly, I really appreciate the feedback.

I dont THINK I clipped the blacks. I'm using PI now and I'm very careful when I do the Histogram Transform not to clip black. What I tend to do is stretch it up to a reasonable level but short of clipping the blacks on the histogram then mask and bring up the galaxies more with Curves Transformation. Maybe I need to leave the black slider even further left on the initial Histogram Transform to give me more headroonm then bring it up right at the end.?

I had really hoped that I would get more of the outer parts of the galaxies - particularly the hamburger, but I just dont think it was there. But, I'm out of astro-dark now for a couple of months so I guess I'll just need to go back and try again!

 

Thanks again,

 

David.

[ollypenrice]

42 minutes ago, mackiedlm said:

Thanks Olly, I really appreciate the feedback.

I dont THINK I clipped the blacks. I'm using PI now and I'm very careful when I do the Histogram Transform not to clip black. What I tend to do is stretch it up to a reasonable level but short of clipping the blacks on the histogram then mask and bring up the galaxies more with Curves Transformation. Maybe I need to leave the black slider even further left on the initial Histogram Transform to give me more headroonm then bring it up right at the end.?

I had really hoped that I would get more of the outer parts of the galaxies - particularly the hamburger, but I just dont think it was there. But, I'm out of astro-dark now for a couple of months so I guess I'll just need to go back and try again!

 

Thanks again,

 

David.

Maybe the mask holding down the sky was too tight around the galaxies so that it held down the outer parts? It really does look to me as if something did. I prefer to do this stretch just above the background sky by using Curves and pinning the curve at and below the background level then lifting the curve just above that. I do this in Photoshop as a bottom layer then erase the top layer only where I want to keep the extra stretch - so I don't want it for the stars, for instance.

Olly

[mackiedlm]

3 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Maybe the mask holding down the sky was too tight around the galaxies so that it held down the outer parts? It really does look to me as if something did. I prefer to do this stretch just above the background sky by using Curves and pinning the curve at and below the background level then lifting the curve just above that. I do this in Photoshop as a bottom layer then erase the top layer only where I want to keep the extra stretch - so I don't want it for the stars, for instance.

Olly

Hi Olly,

Yes I can see how that could happen now you point it out. I'm not sure how I'd do the "erase the top layer" in PI but I do use PS also so can try it there. Can you feather the erase in PI? My way of doing that would be to to put a "hide all" layer mask on the adjustment layer then paint in the areas I want with a soft brush. Would that work or is there a reason erase would be better?

Thanks again

David

 

[mackiedlm]

I went back and tried this again from first stretch following the @ollypenrice 's suggestions and was able to get this, definately more of the faint areas, particularly in the hamburger. Also toned dow the saturation a bit.

and the crop

 

Definitely an improvement I think

Thanks Olly

[ollypenrice]

10 hours ago, mackiedlm said:

I went back and tried this again from first stretch following the @ollypenrice 's suggestions and was able to get this, definately more of the faint areas, particularly in the hamburger. Also toned dow the saturation a bit.

and the crop

 

Definitely an improvement I think

Thanks Olly

I certainly think it's better and you have the start of the much sought-after tidal tail from the Hamburger. That's an object which just takes time. Regarding saturation you can, of course, colour select the background in Ps and simply reduce its saturation. I often do that. To my eye you have a really good background now.

Olly

Edited May 9, 2021 by ollypenrice