What I learned from post processing M42 in Paintshop Pro X9.

In my last posting I alluded to simplifying my post processing using M42 as an example. My goal has always been get a aesthetically pleasing image with as few steps as possible. 

I use Corel Paintshop Pro X9 (Standard).  In the past I would thrash around trying various aggressive histogram adjustments, color balance adjustments, brightness and contrast, curves and saturation adjustments. The result would be a history of many steps (often 10 or 12) that if saved as a script would not translate well to the next image. One thing all post processing had in common was my first step started with histogram stretch then histogram adjustment to bring out the faint areas. 

I have found, after applying a histogram stretch, I can apply a gentle histogram adjustment (Gamma: 1.3-1.5, Appearance: between -3 and -5) four to seven times to bring out the faint areas. These initial steps for  7x histogram adjustments were saved in a script that can easily be edited to change Gamma and Appearance values. I also selectively deleted histogram adjustment steps to give 4x and 6x scripts. 

After applying the histogram adjustment scripts I use white balance to eliminate the excessive green cast: more on this below.  The Curves dialog is adjusted to further adjust color balance and contrast to bring out faint nebulosity or the outer parts of galaxies. Color saturation and hue are more subjective and are applied case by case.