Soul Nebula

Gear

Acquisition

  • 47 Light Images at 120 gain, 300s exposure 
  • 30 Dark Images
  • 200 Bias Images
  • 62 Flats

The Soul Nebula. AKA LBN 667. AKA S2-199. An emission nebula to be around 7500 light years away.

 For some reason it took me 4 tries processing this image. The first attempt I over adjusted on the curves. Everything that followed after the over curve adjustments resulted in a flushed, cloudy mess. I just wasn’t satisfied with the results I was getting on my second and third attempt processing.

On the fourth attempt I adjusted the curves for red, green, and blue individually. That really helped in keeping all 3 colors under control. The red is still a bit dominate using the L-Enhance but it’s not as bad as my first attempt which I will keep un-posted and maybe trash.

Another change in my current process is I minimized stars before I did some adjustments using Camera Raw Filter. In Camera Raw Filter I do some noise reduction and slight curve adjustments. I like the slight touches and results when doing changes in that filter.

Processing Steps in Photoshop:

  • Color Balance
  • Individual red, green, blue curve adjustments
  • Gradient correction using GradientXTerminator
  • Saturation Boost
  • Vibrance Boost
  • Noise Reduction using Astronomy tool – Space Noise Reduction action
  • Noise Reduction using Astronomy tool – Deep Space Noise Reduction action
  • Sharpening
  • Minimized stars in Photoshop, 2 rounds
  • Minimized stars using Astronomy tool – Make Stars Smaller action
  • Noise reduction and curve adjustment in Camera Raw Filter
  • Astronomy tool – Enhanced DSO and Reduce Stars action
  • Astronomy tool – Less Crunchy More Fuzzy
  • Smart Sharpen filter
  • Luminosity overlay

 

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