Orion and the Pleiades

Just took a shot in the general direction of Orion.
Details: Canon EOS 300d; 30 sec exposure; ISO 800; 18mm lens; f3.5
Processed In Photoshop. Sized down significantly for the webpage.


Clear skies,

WOW ... that is an excellent shot!

I think I've found a new background for my desktop!

Bart.

Michael,
You've got a great sky there :mrgreen:
nice pic

Thanks lads!
The original image had a bit more light pollution in it and the stars weren't as clear. However, what I did was:
1) I saved the original image as "Original"
2) Then I saved a copy of it as "Dark Frame"
3) With the "Dark Frame", I applied a strong gaussian blur (of approx 100 or so) to it so as to completely blur the image. Then I reduced the brightness of it a little. As I had trees in the image, this produced too much of a constant shade of a dark blur in the corner of the image so I adjusted the contrast upwards a little so as to balance the contrast across the image.
4) With "Dark Frame" saved but kept open, I opened up "Original" in the same session of Photoshop.
5) Now I went to "Image"-->"Apply Image". With "Original" maximised on the screen, I subtracted the "Dark Frame".
6) Now I tweaked the brightness and contrast a little and applied an unsharp mask on it with a pixel size of about 2.
7) I now selected the magic wand and clicked on the screen. This selected all the stars, but just the stars - none of the background. I then went into "Image"-->"Adjustments"-->"Levels" and tweaked the levels a bit so as to slightly brighten the stars.
I find following these steps fairly useful. I'd be interested in hearing how others process their images.

Just took a shot in the general direction of Orion. Details: Canon EOS 300d; 30 sec exposure; ISO 800; 18mm lens; f3.5 Processed In Photoshop. Sized down significantly for the webpage.

Fabulous pic Michael. I wrote an observing article on the Pleiades and the Hyades for the Jan A & S issue just published this week. I would have loved to use this shot instead of the Starrynight Pro representation of Orion and the two clusters I did use.

Gordon

Hi Michael,
lovely shot!
If you look closely at it you have also picked up the comet?

Johnmc.