Processing of Orion Complex - High Dynamic Range Processing Question

[jwaters125]

Its time to start planning the imaging of Orion.  I want to get as much dynamic range as I can during imaging.  What's the best way to combine imaging sessions of different exposure lengths within PixInsight?

I will likely be using a Sigma ART 85mm F1.4 lens with my Ha mod Canon 6D or stock Canon 5DMkIV.  Not sure yet.

[pfile]

usually you prepare a master for each exposure length and then use HDRComposition to merge them together.

rob

[jwaters125]

Understood.  But I am not sure how much processing gets done on each "master" before they are combined.  Are each BPP linear images combined then post processed?

When should HDRComposition be done?

[pfile]

minimal processing and HDRComposition wants linear images.

i would probably just do DBE and some kind of color balancing to the masters. the color balancing could be difficult on the shorter masters since there may be few stars in the short exposures. you might try without doing DBE and see what happens - very small portions of the shorter exposures are going to contribute to the final image anyway, so it may not matter.

rob

[jwaters125]

Thanks Rob.  This is the info I need.

[pfile]

sorry - i meant to say "might try without doing color calibration" although its likely that DBE won't be necessary before HDRC either... when you run HDRComposition it will spit out several masks and you'll be able to see how much of each image participated in the final image. for M42 it will just be the trapezium area which shrinks down successively thru each mask.

rob

[jwaters125]

Thanks for the update.