Re-do of M42 from November

[NickRose2006]

Well since its been raining like cats and dogs in the SF Bay Area, I decided to do some re-work of M42 from my November image session. Having my new Photoshop Elements 9 helps out a lot, you can tell that I need my time with PSE, since the core is not perfectly blended.

I'm ordering a LP filter and it should come before my next imaging session, so that should help me out with the photos.

The First photo is from the first process work and then the next 2 are from today. I don't know how to keep the background dark while brightening the nebula of M42. What I did was process one with the nebula showing as best as it could be and then did one where the background is dark and then pasted the dark on top of the first one and used the brush tool to bring the dark forward, just as you would with the core.

[Shibby]

Hi Nick, may I be brutally honest? I personally prefer the original version! I can appreciate the desire to brighten up the fainter bits (I often have the same desire!) but this has meant stretching the image too far in my opinion.

The fainter bits can already be seen in the original - They are dark because they are only *just* brighter than the background glow, as you have found. This issue should be aided by the LPR filter you're getting.

Anyway, that's just my opinion, I hope you're not offended! Perhaps some of the other members will be able to suggest a good way of bringing out more - if there is a way I'd also like to know!

If you just want the nebula to appear brighter, you might find that a final tweak of brightness / contrast before saving to jpeg helps.

[Earl]

I too prefer the first image it looks far more natural.

[MartinB]

The second one for detail, the first for a pleasing image. The 3rd is starting to look a bit too "processed". Can you use curves? There is a curves plug in which works with some versions of elements.

[NickRose2006]

I'm actually glad you guys like the first one. After the re-do's, I still liked the first one, it looks more natural and the colors are better.

Thanks for the input.