I replicated your workflow and it appears the problem stems from conscious tweaks you are making from the baseline defaults;
Specifically;
- You opt for a conservative manual stretch
- You appear to change the default color balance to somehting that is very green (use MaxRGB mode if you are color calibrating on a screen that is less than ideally calibrated), significantly subduing the many red/pink/purple HII areas.
- You opt for very heavy noise reduction that further removes color and detail.
It's also probably a good idea to crop the stacking artifacts StarTools is telling you about upon load.
I don't personally think, you need any noise reduction at the scale you posted (I skipped it entirely). That said, I used a slightly tweaked Isolate preset in the Life module (these are the default settings in the Life module as of 1.5). This has the effect of pusing back noise and "busyness" and refocuses attention on larger scale structures.
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- widefield.jpg (833.47 KiB) Viewed 6001 times
Log as follows;
Image size is 5496 x 3670
---
Type of Data: Non-linear sRGB source <-- NOT TRUE (it's Linear!)
--- Bin
Parameter [Scale] set to [(scale/noise reduction 25.00%)/(1600.00%)/(+4.00 bits)]
Image size is 1374 x 917
--- Auto Develop
To see what we got. We can see heavy vignetting, trees obscuring parts of the image, stacking artefacts.
--- Crop
Cropping away stacking artefacts.
Parameter [X1] set to [10 pixels]
Parameter [Y1] set to [6 pixels]
Parameter [X2] set to [1366 pixels (-8)]
Parameter [Y2] set to [911 pixels (-6)]
Image size is 1356 x 905
--- Wipe
My first instinct is to do a Vignetting preset Wipe.
This helps visualise any dark anomalies (including giving the trees a nice outline).
I'm going to Keep this result so it is easier to create a mask - I'll use Restore later to restore the image state back to linear un-wiped.
--- Auto Develop
To visualise the linear Wiped data.
This is the mask I used;
Mask used (BASE64 PNG encoded)
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
Now I restore (Restore button) the dataset to its 'Original' state. This keeps the Crop and Mask intact. It's a little bit like time-travel where you have "seen the future" and change the past for a better outcome.
--- Wipe
Vignetting preset. I always try to tweak the [Corner Aggressiveness] parameter (here set to [96 %]) to as low as I can before Vignetting kicks in again.
--- Auto Develop
Like you, I tried an AutoDev, but AutoDev is having trouble locking onto the background nebulosity as the huge number of stars are just so prominent.
--- Develop
Parameter [Digital Development] set to [90.81 %]
Parameter [Blue Luminance Contrib.] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Green Luminance Contrib.] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Red Luminance Contrib.] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Dark Anomaly Filter] set to [3.6 pixels]
--- Color
I mostly trust StarTools' default color balance. MaxRGB shows its a tad on the green side.
In a Milkyway shot like this you'll want all the usual suspects (e.g. HII areas) accounted for in purple, pink and red. The stars should show all color temperatures.
Parameter [Cap Green] set to [To Yellow]
Parameter [Dark Saturation] set to [4.00]
Parameter [Bright Saturation] set to [4.00]
Parameter [Green Bias Reduce] set to [1.35]
Parameter [Red Bias Reduce] set to [1.32]
--- Life
Foreground star "busyness" is a common problem in widefields. The Isolate preset is a perfect antidote to this. I felt adventurous and had it change the color/saturation a little as well.
Parameter [Inherit Brightness, Color] set to [Off]
Parameter [Saturation] set to [150 %]
I turned Tracking off without noise reduction. And that's it!
Hope this helps achieving what you are after!
