I have not been happy with my results on this previously...tonight was the first effort that I'm at least mildly pleased with. I still think there's more data and detail, particularly in the top right of the image...but this is at least moving in the right direction.
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- Began with an Autodevelop, standard settings, to identify the gradient and artifacts.
- Then a wipe, Gradient mode, 97% aggressiveness, 256x256 precision
- Manual develop, Gamma to 2.2, DAF to 18.4 px
- Cropped out the remaining gradient at the edges, ~ 150 pixels per side.
- Contrast, default settings, to bring some of the brightness back.
- Binned to 50%
- Created a mask using the "seed-growing method" and used the Life module in isolate mode. ADS 256x256, ADR 20px, Saturation 150%, Strength 81%, Mask Fuzz 10px
- Another trip through contrast, mask in place.
- Filter, mask in place, to nudge some of the greens/blues at the edges a bit.
- Wavelet Sharpen, defaults.
- Disabled tracking, Denoise at 15%, 9%, 4%, 2%, 0%.
- Star mask with Auto Stars, Repair module, Warp
- Color (star mask in place) saturation bumped to 163%
- Synth, Refractor mode, seasoned to taste.
- Loaded nebula mask, Fractal Flux to give some "pop" to some edges.
