hi guys these are the first milkyway images i took with a canon 1000d and a 18-55 kit lense at ISO 1600 and shutter speed of 30 seconds.




i think i have messed the processing.i dident created a new layer in ps.just did all adjustments on it.dident used any blur or median tool.only increased decreased the levels and contrast and brightness

Lovely start mate, keep at it!

Baz.

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Nice start. I see an obvious coathanger in the second image.

Rather than levels for stretching use curves. Levels is linear, curves non linear. Using a linear stretch is very limiting. Also it often results in clipping as it has in your images. Much faint detail has been clipped off as shown by the histogram. Using curves you can prevent clipping either end and get an image with a lot more zing to it at the same time. It will also allow you to bring up the Milky Way but hold back the brighter stars so they don't saturate and lose color as they have with levels. Just watch the curve to be sure it doesn't flatten along the top or bottom and the histogram won't be clipped. By stretching the bottom more than the top, very non linear at the bottom but top part nearly a straight line to the corner, you will get a lot more detail to pop out of your image. It takes time to learn to use curves effectively. Once you do you'll be amazed what it can do for an image.

Shadow and highlights is another non linear tool that can sometimes be used to advantage though for Milky Way shots I prefer Curves as the main tool.

Stacking several images would also help.

As Baz says, keep at it. You're off to a good start but the journey has just begun.

Rick

That's a good one neelam...
following in the footsteps/footprints of the gurus is fun...and not easy...
thanks for sharing

yah, nice coathanger....i wouldn't've discerned it!

__________________
clear skies

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. CARL SAGAN

Mak: Pass the pepperoni please.
Fazor: "Hail, Bautainia! We pledge our hearts to thee! Science and woo, some babbling too, and astron-oh-meee!"
slang: And it made ash out of yew and tree.

Beautiful.

thanks guyz i will apply these instructions in the next set of images i take.
i want to ask what a "coathanger" is like is it the hanger like V shape of milkyway ?

That is exactly the kit I've got. What did I do wrong? (Apart from doing it at Full Moon. )

Coathanger is an ooh-la-la! cluster in Vulpecula!
at wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brocchi's_Cluster

in your capture, the "milkyway2" image...
it's two finger-widths from left and about three finger-widths down from the top...lacking any other units I can use...

There are many sites you could Google...i just linked at random....
edit:
okay...tempted to put this for you...Christmas 2008....APOD ...A cosmic Coathanger for Dear Santa !

To hang his coat on ...and rest a wee while, while helping himself to milk and cookies, leaving goodies for you...

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081223.html

edit:
following MrJ's post at #10, my incorrect pointing

__________________
clear skies

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. CARL SAGAN

Mak: Pass the pepperoni please.
Fazor: "Hail, Bautainia! We pledge our hearts to thee! Science and woo, some babbling too, and astron-oh-meee!"
slang: And it made ash out of yew and tree.

hi guyz here'z another one i processed lasrt night.this time i dident changed the levels.just the curves and the brightness contrast and colour balance settings.in the curves i only changed the curve in RGB format.and i changed the curve from which was a stright line from 4,5 places and towards the left side.


do u see any improvement or is there something more or i can?

The histogram is severely chopped on the dark side and bright stars saturated on the top. Use Curves for contrast not contrast! Contrast is likely what clobbered the histogram. For increasing contrast use an S curve, not contrast, it loses data. Use curves gently, do it in increments adjusting the curve shape as you go. Or try Shadow and Highlights. Keep the histogram on the screen so you can see what you are doing to it. I've attached your histogram first and second is a good histogram of a Milky Way shot I found on my hard drive. Notice the difference. The shot I used was wider so had more dark skies and thus a somewhat narrower histogram than yours would have been if correctly done. But the shape would be the same. Notice all three colors are similar and how the dark side has room to breathe and the bright side doesn't pile up against the "wall".

Also I see lots of color noise in the image from overstretching limited data. This is why the fainter areas have colored splotches all over it. You also have a large gradient due to light pollution that makes it too green and red. Likely from high pressure sodium lights.

Due to the histogram being so clipped there's little I can do with the image but I equalized what histogram was left to remove the color gradient, used Color Range to select the colored blobs and removed them as best I could. Far better would be to stack many images, aligning on the stars. There are many software programs out there to do this. That gives more signal so you can stretch without the noise problem. Due to the severe clipping at the low end I couldn't compensate for the lost data, especially in the blue which was very weak to start with so color balance is likely way off. Once data is thrown out you can't get it back. Another reason to watch the histogram at every step to be sure you aren't throwing good data away.

I circled the coathanger. It is just an asterism of unrelated stars but sure does look like an upside down coathanger.

Rick

Attached Images

	badhistogram.gif (5.1 KB, 8 views)
	GoodHistogram.gif (6.6 KB, 8 views)
	mway-1.jpg (116.4 KB, 12 views)

Oh, what a lovely extraction!

(besides, I was looking / pointing light-years adrift, for the 'Coathanger'...silly moo)

__________________
clear skies

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. CARL SAGAN

Mak: Pass the pepperoni please.
Fazor: "Hail, Bautainia! We pledge our hearts to thee! Science and woo, some babbling too, and astron-oh-meee!"
slang: And it made ash out of yew and tree.