M42 from High Halden first process

[RobertM]

This is one of the images taken from Marks earlier this month.

Hyperstar 11 with Canon 1000D@ISO 400 and IDAS LPS-P2 filter

18 x 10s + 18 * 60s + 18 * 300s stacked and calibrated in MaximDL with HDR Composition in Pixinsight.  Need to add a touch or NR and iron a few things out.

Would have had more subs but too much live view drained the battery so it ran out part way through.  Plenty of warts but worth posting.



Link to full size image: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6114/6258315181_066845a507_o.jpg

[MarkS]

Cool!  You've clearly got some excellent data there.

The Running Man is full of colour but I think a bit more colour in the main Orion Neb would improve things.

I love the dust in the background.

Looking forward to the second process 

Mark

[Mac]

Fantastic image.

Mac.

[Carole]

Wow, lots of nebulosity showing up there that you don't often see.

Beautiful image Robert.
Is it me or is the background sky a little pink, or is this because your showing a nebulous area not normally seen?

Carole

[The Thing]

Wow is the only word necessary.

There was a few frames put together of M1 Crab over several years which showed how the gas and dust has moved in a relatively short time. Has anyone done the same for M42? OAS images tend to be done on an annual basis for targets like this so it could be interesting to try. The Running Man's left arm seems to have developed a bingo wing! Was it always like this?

[RobertM]

Mark, that's an interesting comment about the colour.  I think that is due to the tonal compression needed to get the HDR image into 16 bits (then 8 for the jpeg).  Technically speaking the HDR part was processed as a 64bit double then compressed down to a 16bit integer tiff and I've found it difficult to extract any more colour from that section of M42.  The running man by contrast is not an HDR object so hasn't suffered from that compression issue.

Carole - could be you're right, I need a calibrated monitor to verify.  In any case who knows exactly what colour it should be - beauty in in the eye of the beholder with these things.

Robert

[mickw]

Fantastic image Robert, really nice detail in the background as well

[Carole]

In any case who knows exactly what colour it should be

Yes I agree with that entirely, could be your colour is right and every-one else hasn't captured it.
I certainly agree with

- beauty in in the eye of the beholder with these things

and this one is beautiful. 

Carole

[MarkS]

Robert,

I agree that it is likely the tonal compression has washed out the colour on the brighter nebulosity.  The hues themselves look correct but they have lost saturation.

My personal opinion on this is that the colours in an HDR image should look very similar to what you would would get if you processed the "old fashioned way" i.e. where you blend separate images together using masks.

Mark

[RobertM]

Mark, It's not that I don't agree, and that is one of my objectives for reprocessing, it's just one of a number of steps I have to get to grips with but ran out of time.

btw, it was merged using masks but that may need some tweeking too.  I really think this area needs more sets of exposures though that poses even more processing issues.

Carole, if I can find some part of the image that is truly black background then I'll recalibrate the image but for now I can't find any.  Also, as I remember from a wider panel in Ha from two years ago, there wasn't any area in that region free from nebulosity.

Robert

[Carole]

there wasn't any area in that region free from nebulosity.

yes that was what I was wondering.

Carole

[Fay]

That is really lovely Robert, beautiful, perhaps a bit more saturation

[RobertM]

Thanks Fay that's very kind of you.

[JohnP]

Looks superb Robert - loads of brown stuff - very impressive indeed. Looks even better on my shiny new 24inch iiyama monitor.... Nice one - John

[RobertM]

Thanks John.  Btw How does the colour balance look on that shiny new monitor of yours ?