Missed the post processing part. First off, I'm bad at post-processing. Usually I just selectively alter the brightness/saturation of my target for a bit of extra detail in photoshop. I have recently picked up some scripts (is that the right term) for photoshop that round the stars near the edge of a photo due to the scopes optics as well.
Changing the images to look more appealing doesnt seem like youre giving a genuine representation. At what point does it become artistic interpretation?
By that definition, taking an picture of anything is an artistic interpretation. There are only a handfull of bayer patterns that exist and they are all merely approximations of colors our eyes can see. I see your point though, and the goal is to keep these changes as minimal as possible as attempting to gain extra detail in dust cloud patterns can easily go overboard. Whats really going to cook your noodle is when you realize that many astro images are composites of monochrome images with separate R/G/B filtered images combined by software.
(post is archived)