Flying Bat and Squid (2024) - Behind the Scenes and Sneak Peek
Added 2024-12-29 14:30:01 +0000 UTCThe Flying Bat (Sh2-129) and Squid (OU4) is one of my favorite scenes to photograph in the night sky. This is my third time capturing it, and probably not my last. The current rendition ended up being an 80 hour integration, and I'll release it publicly tomorrow. Technical details are already up on my astrobin here: https://app.astrobin.com/i/u8p79m
The 11 minute video above is a Patreon exclusive that covers some of my processing choices, and walks through (at a high level) my processing steps in Photoshop to blend the Ha, OIII, LRGB, and stars. If you have any questions, you can comment on this post.
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year with plentiful clear and steady skies!
~Nico
Comments
Yes, the SCNR:green process in Siril or PixInsight just saves me the step of building a complex mask so I would normally rather use it then other tools when the problem is green noise in the shadow areas, but for other kinds of more general color noise I do use Camera Raw a lot
Nico Carver
2025-01-02 20:13:31 +0000 UTCIt really depends on the scene. In this case, the Squid Nebula is so dim it is invisible in the blue and luminance filters. It is ONLY possible to see it in narrowband. The brightness of the sky even in Bortle 1 will not provide enough contrast with broadband filters to ever pull it out that way. The Flying Bat is a much brighter emission source so it did come across very strongly in the Red filter, but I supressed it relative to the dust in making the LRGB image since otherwise it would overwhelm when I combined the LRGB image with the narrrowband HaOIII image. This was done through experimentation, but like most things in astro processing, over time you start to get a sense for how things will work and what a particular image will need in processing.
Nico Carver
2025-01-02 20:11:42 +0000 UTCYep, you got it
Nico Carver
2025-01-02 20:06:17 +0000 UTCAwesome Nico, I'm finally getting everything I need to start using filters, I'm very grateful that you made me realize how important is to learn 1 thing at a time. It's been fun. And I think I have the best teacher in the field.
Darren M. Coleman
2025-01-02 19:54:58 +0000 UTCVery entertaining watching your process take shape step by step. You are a true artist. Thanks for the video Nico. Happy 2025.
John Phillips
2024-12-31 16:46:12 +0000 UTCMany thanks for your inspiring video. Luckily, I also had this target on my list this summer and could use your approach for image processing. Here is my result: https://astrob.in/anpo5m/0/ Thanks again for sharing and Happy New Year!
Wolfgang Reissenberger
2024-12-31 16:15:18 +0000 UTCMy two cents…PS is a general photo-enhancing and editing tool. Pixinsight is specifically for astrophotography, so the routines are more for correcting in that specific field. As far as masks, you can mask just by selecting an area and then working on that area. But there are color-driven masks. Bill Blanshan, the Pixel Math Wizard, has routines to create masks based on colors for Pixinsight. In Photoshop, you can select a color range to create a mask based on your selections. I love Pixinsight but I always finish up with Camera Raw to put the final touches on my photos.
Todd Tucker
2024-12-30 00:30:01 +0000 UTCGreat project. Thanks and Happy New Year
Jan
2024-12-29 23:30:11 +0000 UTCyes my question too; why Camera RAW is not sufficient to fix noise or color? I also would like to learn how do you apply masks for colors...
Jan
2024-12-29 23:29:45 +0000 UTCNico, that is awesome. I love the delicate squid colors, very similar to the Dolphin Head Nebula texture. FYI, you mentioned taking your composition back into PI to perform the SCNR routine. In PS, if you go into Camera RAW, under the Color Mixer, you can adjust specific colors according to hue, saturation and luminosity. If I find I have too much green, I can reduce the saturation on the green channel only. Or if just an area needs to be reduced, I can add a mask and then go into Camera Raw / Color Mixer. Thank you for sharing and giving us a preview before the public release.
Todd Tucker
2024-12-29 23:00:26 +0000 UTCHi Nico - What an inspiring photo. Unfortunately, I don't have such dark skies, but I'm going to give it a try. Could you name the star in the lower right-hand corner? I'd like to get an idea of scale in Stellarium. Thanks for all your great work. Ahhh... I think I figured it out: HD200205
craig marks
2024-12-29 22:42:45 +0000 UTCExcellent work.
John Tomawski
2024-12-29 21:35:38 +0000 UTCGreat image. The process in PS is awesome.
Chuck T
2024-12-29 17:24:57 +0000 UTCFabulous image, Nico. It's interesting to me that the LRGB layer didn't seem to contain either of the two main structures, but just added complementary elements. I recently obtained my first set of narrowband filters (and of course it has been cloudy since) but I assumed they would provide more detail to an LRGB image, rather than reveal something totally different. Looking forward to trying them soon.
Nina Kirienko
2024-12-29 16:01:04 +0000 UTCFabulous image Nico.... thanks for sharing and the process walkthrough: fascinating. Happy New Year!
Ian Moore
2024-12-29 14:55:33 +0000 UTCLoved it, thanks and happy new year!
Mark
2024-12-29 14:43:51 +0000 UTC
