Re: [APML] Gamma-Cygnus taken with FSQ-106N

[Chuck Vaughn <aa6g@aa6g.org>]

Wade,

Your mouse-over image looks better but the green and blue channels  
are still chopped off. I wrote an article years ago covering this  
common problem. You'll probably find something useful here:

http://www.aa6g.org/Astronomy/articles.html

Click on "Adjusting Your Astrophotos with Photoshop Levels"

It's very tempting to fall into the trap of adjusting your images so  
that they look like there's more nebulosity than there really is. I  
have to watch _myself_ even. It's crushing when half that red or blue  
stuff disappears when you make the proper adjustment. If it's real  
though, it won't disappear. It's pretty rare in a widefield image for  
there not be at least some spot that you can adjust to be neutral.  
Another thing to consider is if you don't make something dark in the  
image then the contrast is low and the whole thing looks washed  
out..... not an attractive presentation.

A dead giveaway that something isn't right is if an image has a large  
area of absolutely uniform "nebulosity." It just doesn't seem to  
occur that way in nature. There's always some variance in brightness.

Wei-Hao's image isn't adjusted correctly either. It has a yellowish  
cast to it. It looks MUCH better if you take it into PS and in Levels  
move the green slider up to 17 and the red slider up to 28.

Try it, you'll like it!

Chuck

---------------------------------------------------


> Chuck,
>
> Thanks, I really appreciate your expertise.  Although your starting
> points did not work on the original file.  I did make several
> adjustments which hopefully helped. Please, let me know what you
> think.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/9qq8l
>
>
>
>> there is quite a bit of area with little or no nebulosity.
>>
>>
>
> You should check out Wei-Hao's deep image of this area.  It is
> filled with nebulosity with very few if any areas that are neutral
> (i.e. no nebulosity).  Hopefully, he want get mad, but here's a link
> to his spectacular mosaic of this area.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/9tdpe
>
> His higher resolution image is just breathtaking.
>
> Wade

_______________________________________________
Astro-Photo mailing list
Astro-Photo@seds.org
http://seds.org/mailman/listinfo/astro-photo