If you saw last night’s SHO v1 post and gallery image, you probably realized it needed work. After “sleeping” on it overnight and thinking about how I had deviated from Ann Chavtur’s instructions and suggestions, I decided to create a v2…
Read (and FOLLOW) the instructions and suggestions!
Last night I posted my first foray into SHO (a.k.a. Hubble Palette) processing. Stating…I’ve called it good enough as my first attempt, knowing it can only get better from here…
After posting that and “sleeping” on it overnight, I decided to redo the SHO processing. This time strictly following Ann’s instructions and suggestions. Particularly the suggestion of using data captured with a dual narrowband filter (i.e., just the data captured on 26-27Nov2023 with the LeX rather than the combination across the 4 session of data captured using both the LeX and LPro). Also heeding her suggestion to use a minimally stretched version of the .fits files going into the post processing (i.e., rather than the 20% stretch that I used in v1 that drove me to the struggles with background neutralization).
Right out of the chute, I learned two things. First, I have never used the APP tool for star color correction – it’s amazing! (I read, but did not follow that instruction step). What a fabulous job it does of correcting the star colors in an image that was collected using the LeXtreme filter that is filled with red “hot spots” instead of correctly colored stars! Second, I have never saved the FITS files in 32 bit, since in LR/PS conversion to 16 bit is needed to enable most functionality. But I learned the error of my ways when APP created the 32bit SHO fits file – the colors are much more vibrant and rich. Duh, 32 bit color space vs. 16 bit color space will do that! Then as I save as a .tiff for the LR/PS processing that is where I can scale it down to 16 bit without losing the color.
Much better result without the struggles – THANK YOU Ann!
The Gallery at: https://beersastrophotography.com/gallery/ngc2174-monkey-head-nebula/ has been updated to only show the SHO v2…