Orion Nebula reprocessed

I have been working on processing this again on and off for a few weeks now. I finally got it to the stage where I was happy with it.

FS152, modified Canon 20D.

Greg.

Attached Image:

Wow, Greg! I have never seen so much depth in an image of M42 before. That's fantastic. It looks 3-dimensional.

Jim

Nice work Greg. 8)

Nice one Greg! The detail you captured is excellent.

In my opinion, you are pushing your data a little too hard. Examination of the image histogram reveals that the background is clipped to black. The result is that the subtle details of the clouds between the Orion Nebula and the Running Man appear completely black, when they should appear as dark reddish brown clouds. This object is a very hard one to process correctly because of the huge range in brightness between the elements of the image. Perhaps you could try another version where you are careful not to clip anything to black. I think you would be amazed at the level of subtle detail that could be teased out.

For reference, I am including a pointer to Rob Gendler's excellent image of this object. His work is always a great place to check to see that you are processing correctly.

http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/M42mosaicNMportrait.html

I hope you will take my comments in the spirit they were offered: one of assistance. I really enjoy your images, especially the southern gems. Keep them coming.

Cheers,
Tyler