Reworking Sola Milkyway Aug 2017 (into true color cosmos asccording to Clarkvision)

Some may argue that the night sky is a muted cool blue, however not so according to Clarkvision. This is my attempt at tweaking the usual muted coolblue Milkyway night into true color cosmos as per workflow prescribed by Clarkvision. Though not exactly the same, these images  were tweaked to see what colors are lurking under the high dynamic range captures from the Raw image files from the Canon 6D.

These Milkyway shots were originally imaged at Sola Beach next to Sola airport back in August 2017. The LP you see is from the airport lights. That night Milkyway spanned majestically above Olberg in a NorthEast-SouthWest direction.

From this point of view, Viste looks to be a good spot for Milkway sandwiched between Sola LP to the north and Sele/Bore LP to the South.

Original pp image from Aug 2017

Several shots taken around the same period  at Orrestrand with an even more severe lp from warmhouses from the south were completely unrecoverable. Shots in Hinna using CLS lp filter from Astronomikk were also found to be unrecoverable due to the shifted colors.

Shooting at Daylight WB (4000-5200) without filters showed greater chance of rescue to achieve true cosmic colors. In these shots the RGB, Red, Green, Blue curves tend to clump together which makes tweaking Red, Green, Blue curves individuslly possible thus exerting greater control over each of the color band. It's harder to tweak the colors when the Red, Green, Blue curves are spread out over different ranges of the x-axis of the color curves especially if they don't have overlaps.

I'm still discovering the nuances of these cosmic true color tweaking ... from mucking about thus far the possibilities are rather extensive as well as subjective. A cosmically active night sky may not have the same colors of a relatively quiet night (cosmically speaking).

Reworking Sep 2017 nightsky following Clarkvision (true colorful sky instead of coolblue sky)

Post processing astro photos can be a tiresome business. Depending on the activities of the cosmos during the night of the shot there can be many variations to the outcome. Clarkvision goes against the many conventional wisdom about post processing astro shots that you find in mainstream photography magazines and/or over the numerous sites on the internet.

"30 secs, f/2.8, Iso 6400, cool blue tungsten corrected night sky" are typical recommendations you find. Our man Clark is pretty adamant about how wrong these assumptions are and he's got sound scientific reasoning, detailed workflows and great images he's made himself to back it all up. If you have a resilient mind and strong desire to learn pop over to his domain : www.clarkvision.com

He broke many of my long held vision about how the nightsky should look like and along the way I learnt quite a few nifty things about astro post-processing from his website. Though I've been reading his websites for a couple of years I still have a small headache from trying to digest the points he's putting across. Don't do it in one go and be ready to blow your mind!

For a long time I always have intended to modify my Canon 40D and now 6D to get rid of the IR filter and get true reds from my astro shots just as I have seen them from many others on the forum. Then Clark came along ...

"Modifying digital cameras is not necessary to obtain great astrophotos. Many stock cameras have good hydrogen-alpha response, e.g. recent Canon DSLRs. More important than a modified cameras is proper post processing methods that will bring out and not suppress hydrogen alpha emission, and cameras with good sensitivity and very low thermal dark current. The best digital camera for deep sky astrophotography that I have evaluated has good sensitivity, including hydrogen-alpha, and amazingly low dark current is the Canon 7D Mark II 20-megapixel digital camera. A great full frame digital camera for astrophotography is the Canon 6D 20-megapixel digital camera." - Clark

And what do you do know : I have both the 6D and the 7D Mk2!

Original Raw Shot.

Raw processed in CaptureOne, tweaked in Photoshop.

Key differences (during Raw processing in CaptureOne) from previous post-processing are: 

1. Tweak curves for RGB, Red, Green and Blue individually

2. WB 3800, Tint 1,1

3. Chromatic correction according to lens 20%

4. Highlight 50%, Shadow 50%

6. Luminosity 80%, Detail 20%, Color 20%

Further tweaking in Photoshop (PS12) are for these minor tweaks:
1.  Adjust Colors : Hue 0% Saturation 40-60%, Lightness 0%
2.  Adjust Color Curves : Increase Contrast
3.  Adjust Lighting : Tweak to lighten or darken to taste
4.  Resize Image (no sharpening done)

All these shots were taken with Sony A7S in combination with a Sigma Art 35/1.4 or Canon EF 50/1.2. I have some shots from the Canon 6D as well at the end for comparison. Canon 6D and 7D Mk2 were specifically mentioned by Clark as the best cameras for astrophotography, I didn't notice whether he made a mention of Sony A7S ... apparently Sony is a star eater according to some users.

I put through these Milkway shots from Maudal taken 23rd Aug 2017 with Canon 6D +EF 24/1.4 through the same paces of Raw post processing in CaptureOne and the remaining tweaks in PS12.

Different nights produce different atmospheric activities, it's great to be able to record these subtle differences in color. Airglows galore especially during those active nights, definitely better than just light pollution!