American and Pelican Mosiac : Be gentle with me

[Catanonia]

Managed to get the Pelican Nebula IC 5070 merged with the American Nebula NGC7000 together in one mosiac picture.

My 1st attempt at this and really struggled with the separation lines. So apologies as if you look you can see the obvious join. Will have to work out how to do this better. It is a shame as I have spent hours trying to get this right.

I really wanted to capture as the camera sees the region rather than adding in loads of PS work. I have done a few curves and levels on this as well as attempting to breakup the join line, other than this is is pretty much as shot from the DSLR. I even restrained myself from adding in star spikes

Image details

Shot over 2 nights, 23rd and 27th July 2009. Each image was 1hour 40mins in 5 minute stacks and processed with DSS and then merged together via layers in PhotoShop. The final image was then balanced and leveled. Three separate plates were taken and then merged.

Imaged with SkyWatcher ED80 Pro II refractor with a Baader modded Canon EOS 350D with a Astromik CSL LP clip filter.

Guiding was done with a SkyWatcher ED120 EvoStar Pro Black refractor / QHY5 with PHD.

Please be gentle with me, still getting used to this lark.

Full sized image, about 5mb can be found at this link.

(The following link replaces the original at Catatonia's request) Ron.

http://extraview.dnsalias.com/astroc...ed%20Large.jpg

[barkis]

Quite a respectable job. The actual nebs. are very good in fact.

The merging I will let the experts comment on. I don't see much amiss with it, but I'm, not in the expert category.

Your imaging is coming on very well.

Ron.

[Aza]

Well done, it does look like a good job at this resolution.

Your full size image link doesnt seem to be working properly though

[Catanonia]

Well done, it does look like a good job at this resolution.

Your full size image link doesnt seem to be working properly though

New link, it is big.

http://extraview.dnsalias.com/astrocat/Images/Gallery%20Images/JAlbums/Images%20of%20Messier%20Objects/NGC%207000%20-%20IC%205070%20Completed%20Large.jpg

Yeah this is high resolution and causes loads of problems when merging the plates together. So difficult. This was actually a merge of 3 plates to form the 1 image.

I personally think the Pe;ican looks like a Terradactyl

[Aza]

Strange I still cant see the full size version.

Nothing bigger than a 1024px image, and nothing near 5mb!

Nevermind though, the image is really good. I think you have learnt very quickly so far!

[Catanonia]

MY FAULT FIXED

http://extraview.dnsalias.com/astrocat/Images/Gallery%20Images/JAlbums/Images%20of%20Messier%20Objects/NGC%207000%20-%20IC%205070%20Completed%20Large.jpg

asked a mod to fix the initial post. Sometimes hate this 15 min edit rule.

Strange I still cant see the full size version.

Nothing bigger than a 1024px image, and nothing near 5mb!

Nevermind though, the image is really good. I think you have learnt very quickly so far!

[Aza]

Ah thats better!

Its hard to get the balance right on the seperate panes.

Dont leave it as a straight edge though, try to use a softer brush to rub away the harsh straight line join.

[Aza]

Also check here for some more tips:

http://hamiltonastronomy.com/ASTRO_ARTICLES/Building_Mosics_in_PhotoShop.pdf

[Catanonia]

Also check here for some more tips:

http://hamiltonastronomy.com/ASTRO_ARTICLES/Building_Mosics_in_PhotoShop.pdf

Nice thanks, good tips on removing edges

[Catanonia]

Going to re-edit this, can do much better.

[Psychobilly]

Looking good Cat

Peter...

[Deneb]

Catanonia, you should be well happy with that, well done.

[Dave Moulton]

Nicely processed. I like the colour balance you have managed to get

Dave

[minimalist]

Great detail and color in those panes, very nice. Btw, which version of photoshop do you have? I don't know in which version they added Photomerge, but my CS3 has it. It's under Files/Automate. Choose the option to blend the images, and it will generate ragged seams, which are easier to hide.

What I've done with my pics to prepare for stitching is this:

- In DSS I do not use per channel background calibration. I choose the general background calibration instead, that eliminates possible color shifting

- I also use a preset custom balance in the camera. I avoid using auto white balance, as that can again affect the colors.

- I bring each tiff in photoshop and just use the levels tool on each image and raise the black point till it just touches the histogram at the same point in each image. This usually ensures the backgrounds will be close.

- if the images have gradients, I try to adjust so the merged areas match... gradient xterminator saves my bacon on that front.

- then, I apply the exact same levels or curves to each image to achieve a good contrast and brightness.

- after that, it's a matter of manipulating levels and colors to match as close as possible between the panes.

- then I stitch

- then I adjust saturation, reduce stars, etc.

Hope this helps.

Daniel

[Catanonia]

Daniel,

Pretty much what I am in the process of doing now after some reading. Hopefully my next effort in a few hours will be better.

By the way, love your mosiac, gave me inspiration to carry on with this higher res one.

Watch this space or perhaps a new thread with the better version in it.

[Catanonia]

Final edits using the points and advice given. Many thanks all

I am wondering whether to continue on this area as it would take massive amounts of disk and imaging to complete. I miht add around the edges with about 1/2 of the data. What do you think ?

Large file can be found here

http://extraview.dnsalias.com/astrocat/images/gallery%20images/others/america%20and%20pelican%20large.jpg

[minimalist]

Awesome processing, can't find the seam anywhere, even on the large version. Very nice color and rendition too. As to the answer whether you should go on, well, you know what happened to me already... word of caution, once you start those things it's really hard to stop.

You definitely have the skies and the skills to pull a better version than mine. The only suggestion I would make is to reduce the red bloat in the stars. There are several techniques for star selection in PS, I use one created by Noel Carboni in his actions. Once you've selected the stars, expand the selection by 2-3 pixels, select the red channel, then apply the minimum filter on it. Then you can fade it to restore the star colors to a more natural color.

Daniel

[Catanonia]

Daniel, thanks for the Noels tips, i have his actions. Good investment.

To answer a few of your questions, I use CS3 but do not use photo merge.

I use DSS to process each plate, but do not adjust balance in DSS.

I drop each tiff into PS and using transforms, opac's, rotation, etc align each tiff to for the mosiac.

I then for each RGB channel of the tiff balance all the reds / blues and greens so they are the same shade of grey in PS. Sometimes need to change brightness and contrast. This then means all channels match and hence when flattened they will be the same other than depth of subs / images.

I used the lasso and clear technique whilst still in layers to clean the edges and the rest is flatten, levels / curves and a couple of Noels actions to remove gradients if they exist.

That is about it. I did try noiseware, but lost the detail so don't touch it now.

[Herakles]

awesome edit , awesome

[Starstrike]

Superb image. There is a freebie add on for PS called matrix which can colour match and stitch. I used it recently for a similar composite. I used PS to orientate the two images then I cropped the second image to a rectangle then matched colour and stitched with matrix. The join could not be detected the colours matched. Paul

[minimalist]

Cat, that sounds close to what I do, except for the stitching part. I just learned that in CS3 I can load the layers myself, select them and then auto stitch and auto blend them without going through photomerge. The auto blend is supposed to adjust the panes for color and brightness automatically to match at the stiching line. I need to try this on mine and see if the results are better.

Paul, can you post a link to the matrix plugin? I tried to find it but no luck.

Daniel

[Starstrike]

Hi Daniel,

You will find Matrix at this website:

PhotoSynthesis, Inc.

Regards,

Paul

[minimalist]

Thanks Paul!

Daniel

[Catanonia]

cheers for that mate, got it downloaded and saved for next time.

[brendant]

Fantastic mosaic, well done.

Brendan