Took me 3 attempts to finally capture a clean Orion Nebula core shot

I kept seeing these gorgeous astrophotography posts where the Orion Nebula had that bright core still looking crisp, not blown out white. But every time I tried, my stack would come out with a big white blob where the core should be. I figured I just needed better gear or darker skies. Then I noticed something after going through my raw files: other beginners were also posting those blown out core shots and calling it a win. The secret? I finally tried shooting separate short exposures just for the core, like 30 seconds at ISO 800 instead of my usual 2 minute ones. My latest stack merged those short exposures with the longer ones using a simple layer mask in GIMP, and boom, the core actually has detail now. Has anyone else figured out a trick for preserving nebula cores without spending money on an expensive filter?

3 comments

3 Comments

wesley38528d ago

Wait, have you tried taking even shorter exposures like 10 seconds just for the core?

james_campbell1228d ago

Right, so the trick is basically taking two sets of photos like you're back in grandma's overpriced photo studio. I guess my ADHD just wasnt gonna let me sit through that extra step of short exposures. But hey, at least I know the secret now; its just tedious.

terryk2828d ago

Have you tried bribing yourself with a snack halfway through the exposures? Works for my short attention span.