First attempt at using PI at all

[fmazzanti]

Dear forum,

This is my second post here as I'm barely getting used to the buttons in PI, so go figure how skilled am I at this 
But just because of that, I'd like to show you my first image, for you to tell me everything I did wrong. This is a stack of 8x600secs image of m65, taken from my home in Gavà (at 15km  from Barcelona = lots of light pollution), using a TEC140 and a SXV-H9 CCD camera.
I processed it using DBE, Wavelets for noise removal, and a bit of histograms. I see I tend to make gright backgrounds, so bear with me on that. Still please tell me if that's too much.
I know I have to learn a lot, so let me get good adivces from you experts

Best regards and thanks,

Ferran,

[JoLo]

Hey Ferran, good job for first attempt with PI.  I was a strictly Maxim / Photoshop fellow, so I know how intimidating the move to PI can be.  Keep pluggin', it will be second nature to you in no time.

Actually, i think the background looks pretty good.  Are these taken with a luminance filter?  Any RGB data in there?  One shot color?  I would recommend using BackgroundNeutralization and ColorCallibration after DBE.  What did you use for noise reduction, ATWT, MMT, TVGDenoise?  I usually use MMT on the linear image, then ATWT or TVG later when you are non-linear.

I find a gentle saturation curve on the linear image works well, I use ColorSaturation later if I need more boost.

Finally, the image is oversmoothed IMO.  Try an inverted luminance mask to smooth the background and go lighter on the galaxy.  As a last step, use MMT to sharpen the image (after you have done any resizing of the image).  You can reinvert the mask from above to sharpen the galaxy and leave the background alone.

Good work!

Joe

[Josh Lake]

If that's your first composition, you have a bright future ahead of you -- congrats!

Have you jumped into the tricky world of deconvolution? It looks like your data would support it. Also, after the stretch, have you tried HDR Multiscale Transform? You may recover some detail from the bright core.

[fmazzanti]

Thanks Joe and Josh fornthe comments
I can tell you both that everything I know in PI has been applied there... Which I can tell you, it's not that much anyway. Histograms, DBE and WaveLets for noise reduction, but I certainly. Want to learn more and to get more out of my data.
I will try to learn more and use HDRmultiscale to get something better (if I can) from my images. still I'm amazes to what I got so far with just 80mins luminance from my light polluted enviroment...
Time to learn more, and your comments are more than welcommed
Thanks a lot,
Ferran.