M42 Orion with a DSLR

[Coolhandjo]

I thought I would give this target a crack with the Moded Canon 350D.

This image was taken a few nights ago.

SWED80 Canon 350Da guided LX200 10"

5 x 6min, 5 x 3 min (tossed out 5 x 30 sec as it was still too bright for the core - should of went 15 sec)

ISO 400

Calibrated flats/Darks and stacked in DSS

High Res Version (way less noise) http://i594.photobucket.com/albums/t...alibrate-1.png

PS curves, levels, saturation

Comments welcome

Thanks for viewing

[jgs001]

Very nicely done indeed.

[adamsp123]

lovely picture indeed

[kev 102 42]

Good pic Cool...................kev

[russ]

Very nicely done. And the Hi-res version is a beauty.

Russ

[Coolhandjo]

Thanks to all for the comments. Clear Skys!

Regards

Paul

[TakMan]

Nicely framed and processed - better than my attempt with a DSLR anyway!!!

Clear skies...

Damian

[RobH]

Very nicely captured and framed image

I couldn't resist a bit of a play!

Using levels, I equalised the background as you had a colour balance issue which showed up as 2 peaks on the histogram, so I reset the values to 20/20/20 in photoshop. This means an even aamount of red, green and blue, but by no means totally black (black is 0/0/0)

I then boosted the colour a bit using ....

IMAGE/ADJUSTMENTS.MATCH COLOUR

This boosts the colours that are already there without adding the colour noise that HUE/SATURATION can add.

I then went to IMAGE/ADJUSTMENTS.SELECTIVE COLOUR

This allows you to look at any particular colour, red, yellow, blue, magenta etc etc, and adjust the amout of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and black in that particular colour.

Play around with this, it's very powerful when used with layers masks.

The last thing I did was to remove the background gradient by selecting tha background only, and running a single pass of Russel Cromans' 'Gradient Xterminator' on it.

Cheers

Rob

[Coolhandjo]

Wooow! Its way better! Thanks for the instructional step by step too! I have learnt something new! Much appreciated and once again, the image is way better. The dust is starting to come through more too!

[TakMan]

Excellent tips there Rob - just making an electronic 'sticky note' of them before I go and have another go at processing!

Made a good shot even better...

Damian

[cloudbuster]

thats a lovely image Paul...well done! Much better than mine! talking of which, can anyone do anything to improve this, my first ever go at M42?

Hope someone can help.

cheers

Bob:icon_salut:

[RobH]

Hello Bob,

Post the image in its own thread in the Imaging - Image Processing, Help and Techniques section

At first glance....more subs to get the noise levels down

Cheers

Rob

[cloudbuster]

will do Rob, and thanks for the advice

cheers

bob

[Coolhandjo]

Thanks Bob for your comments. Re your image - yes it looks like Signal to Noise ratio is not favourable. More subs required and maybe dark subtracting also.

[cloudbuster]

thanks 4 that Coolhandjo, much appreciated. by the way, i love how rob enhanced your image.....next time I'll shoot in RAW, and not listen to the sky at night magazine!

cheers

Bob:)

[FranckiM06]

Very nice shot but I think your image process is too Pink colour! The little process of Rob is much better. But I like your image.

Franck