M20: Hi, my name is Trevor, and I am a processing-a-holic.

[Trevor Woodrow]

Hi All,

See the attached. Took this the weekend before last.

36 x 5min
St2000xcm
Explore Scientific 102 ED Triplet
Astronomick CCD LPR

I cannot put this down. The lower right is version 7, and the other three are panoramic stitches combining two or more of the previous 6 "finals" of this image. Shot in Maxim. Calibrated and Combined using Sigma Clip. DDP's in Maxim. Converted to Tiff and taken to CS2. Played with the Histo to balance the color (but kept it leaning redish as a preference) Carboni lightened and enhanced. HLVG. Did some hi-pass filtering via layers at 15 and 60. Also layered in a surface blur. Moved to microsoft added diffuse glow, enhanced the color, removed some blemishes and lightened the background. Converted to jpeg.

All images went through same process but in different order and or intensity. Oh yeah, forgot to mention, I did Hopp's little fake Alpha H thing too. Hopp, don't know where you got it from or how well known it is but have to credit you as you showed me.

Okay gents...hit me with it. Did I go too far, not far enough? I know there is other stuff in there, how do I bring it out without killing something else. I am pretty tough and will be able to handle anything short of "this is the worst piece of %$#@ I have ever seen."

t

[Trevor Woodrow]

Hi Steve,

I like the effect. I think you are right....for the mosaic, I think the red will look nice....but these...I acted on them as you suggested...look pretty cool!

[Steve Coates]

I like it! You were able to bring out the nebula more and I think the star colors are showing up more too, all while keeping a faint amount of background nebulosity.

[Trevor Woodrow]

Thanks Steve. I knew that I could do something like that, but just didn't think to do it. That's why I love having a forum like this to swap ideas and what not.

[Marc Basti]

The red thing is funny, it seems to want to be red (from my go in reprocess group). But, like Steve mentioned it's all blending together, I liked my repro better when I took out some (maybe too much) of the red-personal call. One thing I see is the gaseous area surrounding the neb is tending towards green, maybe go towards neutral/blue (?) Any time I've done a neb w/both emission and reflection light, I'm pulling my hair. I like the red you get in your pics (in the nebula) nice non eye hurting shade. Is this pic cropped? Nice pic dude. Marc

[Trevor Woodrow]

Thanks Marc. Nope...that is the bummer...relatively small chip. No crop, that is the whole ball of wax.

[Marc Basti]

After I went back and reread this I should clarify; I liked my 2nd repro better than my 1st repro when I took out some of the red. Thanks, Marc

[Derek Baker]

Trevor I like the image on the bottom left the best, although they are all very good and well-processed..... and the differences are at the most rather subtle.

I am nitpicking here when I say the following feedback: I do think that you should be able to get more of the bluish reflection nebula that wraps around the HII region. Right now the faintest stuff has a greenish/brownish tone to it and doesn't look like a continuation of the brightest blue area directly above the HII region. I wonder if this is a result of one of the challenges that one-shot colour ccd cameras present. I have heard that you need a huge amount of data in order to have the faintest regions have sufficient colour fidelity.

SoTrevor, the only suggestion I would make is to get more data from a dark site if you can. Nevertheless, you should be very pleased with this image!

[Trevor Woodrow]

I appreciate the input Derek! Sad thing is, I am like five minutes from some of the darkest skies...well at least that I have ever seen...but kinda partial to shooting from my suburb backyard. I really should stop being lazy and pack everything up and go.

Thanks for taking a look and commenting!