Post Processing blues!!! Ready to call 911

[bradn801]

I guess I am either an idiot or I dont have this tool but how did you select the area around the nebula? I cant weem to find any tools that let you pick an area on the picture? Thanks for the posts by the way Mr. Bailey I apprecaite it more than you know.

Brad

[chris.bailey]

Its not selective, it acts on the whole picture. There is a box marked R/T that gives you a real time preview of what you have done, is that what you mean? You can also zoom in to the histogram in PixInsight. Note that it is quite an extreme Stretch/Mid Tones Transfer as most of the data is in a very narrow portion of the available brightness values.

~chris~

[bradn801]

Yeah I knew about the R/T It just looks like that you were able to select an area that you wanted to edit in your first picture with the histogram. That bubble looking outline in the preview. None of the black outside of it seems to be affected. Everytime I amke a change the whole picture is altered. I noticed when you zoom in with the histogram I assume its in the right corner where teh 1:1 button is..it doesnt let you make changes at the zoomed in level. I dunno ......this is either too sensitve for me or I am a complete moron. I wouldnt think PP would be this difficult to even get a moderate improvement.

Brad

[chris.bailey]

Brad, the bubble is just the fact that the realtime preview is bubble like is due to the fact that it is a low res representation (we are talking a lot of data in one of these images, 60gb Fits files in my case) made worse still by jpg artefacts for posting here. The changes made do effect the whole image. I may well have a darker background than you due to use of a light pollution filter or less light pollution. Just means you wont be able to stretch quite as far. The background should NOT be black. This whole area of Orion is filled with faint nebulosity so even at a very dark site, the background will not be black, probably a faint red but dark grey is good.

You can zoom in (yes the 1:1) and make changes, it is very senstive at 1:1. Remember the LH slider affects the black point, dont move it further than the bottom of the steep part of the histogram. Then move the mid tone carat to the left to somewhere just inside the right hand side of the histogram.

[bradn801]

Well I am getting closer! I have spent more time on this than I did on my resume. Right direction? Any guidance?

Thanks Chris

Brad

[chris.bailey]

Hoorah. Black point looks a little clipped...aim for a dark grey background not black or have you done it to hide general noise in the background. How many subs in that and what length? Did you take some darks?

[chris.bailey]

Also try running DSS again with the Per Channel Background Calibration option checked.