The color grading on JWST photos is getting out of hand

I was reading a thread where everyone was praising the latest nebula shot for its 'stunning' oranges and teals, but nobody mentioned the raw data is mostly invisible light mapped to colors we can see. Last week I compared the released image to the public filter data on the MAST archive and the difference is huge, like someone turned the saturation dial to 11. I get that false color helps us see structure, but calling it a true portrait of space feels misleading to newbies. Has anyone else tried pulling the original FITS files and been disappointed by how much artistic liberty is taken?

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umar5921d ago

Wait, you actually pulled the FITS files and compared them side by side? Thats a whole other level of homework than most people do. I figured the public images were tweaked but I didnt think the gap would be that massive. Its wild that they crank saturation so hard it turns a mostly gray data set into something that looks like a candy commercial. Newbies are gonna look at that and think space is neon-colored, and then they get a telescope and see a faint smudge and feel cheated. I get that false color helps show structure, but at some point its less about science and more about making a pretty poster for clicks. They should put a tiny label on the bottom saying "colors are fake" so people know what theyre actually looking at.