Quick Nebula Processing with Instagram's Surprisingly Powerful 'Structure' Tool

I spent hours in Photoshop working on my first processing pass of this Orion nebula photo I took last year. It was my pride and joy and I even printed out a hard copy of it to have framed. While I still love the look of the photo, I tried punching it up a bit for a new Instagram post - and I was pleasantly surprised how powerful the 'structure' Instagram tool was for enhancing the dust clouds in this nebula photo. It does go a little beyond the more natural look I'm going for in my nebula processing, but it didn't take it too far into cartoon world.

Orion nebula photo from this post, before and after a super quick Instagram edit with the 'structure' tool

While Instagram really isn't suited to do the heavy lifting for astrophotography processing, this quick tweak was definitely a little icing on the cake before posting the image to social media. I used the editing tools 'structure' and added some saturation and darkened the edges with vignetting. It took like 30 seconds!

Instagram has the right amount of editing tools, very powerful tweaks and not overwhelming options

Orion Nebula (M42) with Canon T5i on a Fixed Tripod

Shortly after receiving the Canon T5i for Christmas, I went out and did a series of test shots which quickly filled my smaller memory card with 18 megapixel RAW files. I was really pleased with the results, but only got 42 light frames that night. Recently, I was able to give M42 an honest attempt using the fixed tripod stacking method and my new camera with a larger memory card.

I'm still waiting for nicer weather to break out my motor driven EQ mount. I'm a little intimidated by it, and I don't want to fumble with it for the first time in freezing temperatures. So fixed tripod stacking is still the name of the game!

M42 and M43, stack of 107 subs, 77 darks, 70 bias, ISO 3200, 300mm, f/5.6, 1.3 sec

It came out a little bright. That's the trade off I guess, I like how you can see a lot of the very faint nebulosity - making M42 look as big as I've seen it. On the other hand, the interior is over exposed and sort of washed out. I don't do enough of these to really work on my post-processing skills. All in due time!

New Camera (T5i) Test on Fixed Tripod Stacking Method: Andromeda, Orion, Pleiades

I'm easing in to using my new camera, the Canon T5i, so I did a couple test shots on familiar objects using a technique I already know: Stacking short exposure images from a DSLR on a fixed tripod. I wasn't going for a new personal best or anything, but I wanted to take some short stacks to see how the new camera compares to the Rebel XT.

The first thing I noticed was that my memory card fills up A LOT faster with 18 megapixel RAW files. I only got about 150 shots where with the 8 megapixel XT I was getting closer to 250 in a single memory card. I actually filled the memory card, dumped the files, and went back out to shoot more a total of 3 times to take advantage of what seemed to be the one clear night in December.

Andromeda (M31) stack of 24 subs, 36 darks, 12 bias at 300mm, f/5.6, ISO 3200, 1.3 sec

Orion Nebula (M42) crop from stack of 42 subs, 36 darks, 12 bias at 300mm, f/5.6, ISO 3200, 1.3 sec

Orion Nebula 300mm crop, this time at ISO 6400, 11 subs, 23 darks, 21 bias, f/5.6, 1.3 sec

Pleiades (M45) stack of 34 subs, 23 darks, 21 bias, 300mm, f/5.6, ISO 6400, 1.3 sec

Although I only did short stacks, I may have inadvertently achieved my best effort on the Orion Nebula with very minimal post-processing. Rather than working for an hour to bring out nebulosity, I had a fair amount of gray cloudiness emerge just from the fact that my ISO was higher. I think I like the ISO 3200 Orion better than the ISO 6400 due to the reduced noise. Either way, very promising for just a test shot of less than 50 light frames - and only 11 light frames for the ISO 6400 image!

Adding 112 subs to my Orion stack

In February I stacked a series of 168 subs, 30 darks, and 30 bias frames to create my best attempt at the Orion Nebula (M42). Now, with Orion getting lower and lower in the sky, I wanted to try adding to the stack before the constellation dips below the horizon. Unless I get an exceptionally clear night, this is probably going to be my last Orion attempt of the season.

I added another 112 subs to my stack (no additional dark or bias frames) for a total of 280 subs. Because I noticed quite a few were trailing or out of focus, I kept only the best 70% for a total of 196 subs - which I believe is around 4 min 21 sec total exposure time.

This new set was shot using the same ISO and magnification, but at 1.3 sec rather than 1.6 sec. Deep Sky Stacker gave me a warning message, but handled the difference in exposure times remarkably well.

196 frames at ISO 1600, 300mm, f/5.6, 1.3 and 1.6 s frames

This is a fairly quick pass at processing, I'm a little rusty since I almost never do deep sky stuff! Not much in the way of color, but the dust cloud is large and clearly visible. I also captured a whiff of the Running Man Nebula about 1/2 degree above the Orion Nebula. The running man is actually a combination of 3 objects (NGC 1973, NGC 1975 and NGC 1977) separated by some dark space in roughly the shape of a person. In my image you can only see a little blob of gray.

Reprocessed M42 with larger dust cloud

After watching a couple stellar video tutorials by Anna Morris, I decided to put some of her techniques to work on my M42 stack from last month.

Here is my reprocessed image, with emphasis on bringing more of the dust clouds forward.

And here is the same image with an insert comparing my previous processing attempt to this one. I'd say there's some improvement!

Practice makes... Orion visible without a tracking mount

Check out my deep sky progress using the same camera (Canon 350D) to photograph the Orion Nebula. It's an easy target in the winter, and I've definitely been improving! It seems like every new technique I try produces the "best one yet!"

My first successful image in Deep Sky Stacker (DSS)

Well, here is my best Orion Nebula yet! It's a stack of 168 subs, 30 darks, and 30 flats bias (I finally figured out what those are). Each was shot in RAW at 1.6 sec, f/5.6, 300mm, ISO 1600. I stumbled through a couple tutorials on Deep Sky Stacker (DSS) and ended up stacking this a few times. The first time it removed all the color for some reason, the second time it wouldn't let me adjust the TIF in Photoshop, and the last couple times I actually got a workable image.

I blew the color and contrast way out because I'm new and I still think that looks impressive - even though it's exaggerated to the point of looking kinda fake.

All taken with the same camera and different amounts of knowledge

Here are a couple tutorials that I found EXTREMELY helpful! I really can't stress that enough - I went from zero to DSS in about 24 hours! I never thought I'd be able to take photos like these without a tracking mount. I'm so pumped!

Update: I believe my 'flats' were actually 'bias' frames, I'm not sure how that may have affected my DSS session but I might try re-stacking with my bias frames in the appropriate spot.

Manual image stacking in Photoshop for the Orion Nebula

I don't have a tracking mount, so the only way I can add time to my exposures of deep-sky objects is by stacking. Unfortunately, when I have my 300mm lens maxed out, the objects begin to create light trails in as little as 6 seconds - not much exposure time at all!

To clean up my images, I'm trying a manual stacking technique in Photoshop that involves stacking 5 images into bundles, and then stacking the bundles. The first image is the background, followed by semi-transparent layers at 50, 33, 25, and 20 percent opacity.

That's how I created the image below! I used 10 total images (each 6 sec at ISO 1600), and stacked them by hand in Photoshop into 2 bundles of 5, and then stacked the bundles. The hardest part is lining up the nebula in each frame because as it moved toward the edge of my field of view there was some lens distortion. My next step is to learn how to use Deep Sky stacking software so I don't have to spend 30 minutes getting the frames to line up!

Final product stacked and aligned by hand in Photoshop

Here is a side by side comparison of one 6-second frame next to the final product.

Single 6-sec exposure (L) and final product (R)

Here is a crop of the Orion Nebula - my best deep sky photo yet!

Stack of 10 images each 6 sec ISO 1600

P.S. Happy 100th post to me!! I'm so glad I started this blog, it has kept me motivated to learn and serves as a great archive of my process and content!

Orion Nebula, Jupiter's moons, and the Pleiades on an early Winter morning

At around 5:00am ET on November 6, 2012 I was taking my new puppy out to piddle. When I looked up, I saw a brilliant clear sky with Orion, Taurus, and the Pleiades just over the roof of my apartment complex. It was about 30 degrees out, but I figured since I was up I'd jump on the opportunity. I went back inside to get my Canon with 300mm lens to take my first night sky photos since September.

My biggest problem the last time I tried using the Canon was the inability to focus on the stars. Through trial and error, I know it's possible to get the focus right after shooting a picture, viewing it and zooming to see the result. Luckily, I had a 25% moon that allowed me to auto-focus at a good distance, so these steps were not required.

I snapped a few pictures at a lower ISO and longer exposure time, and noticed since the zoom was so tight, the stars would form trails much sooner than in a wider frame. I cranked the ISO up to 1600 and reduced the shutter time to just 3.2 seconds. This gave me almost round stars (rather than lines) and a clearer view of the nebula clouds.

Orion Nebula, ISO 1600, 3.2 sec, 300mm

Orion Nebula, Jupiter, and the Pleiades, ISO 400, 10 sec

Pleiades, ISO 1600, 3.2 sec, 300mm

Jupiter and 3 moons, ISO 1600, 3.2 sec, 300mm

Crop of the Orion Nebula with HDR and filter on Instagram