RCC: Elefant Trunk Complex - Forums

pmneo

Topic starter

Dec 5, 2022 · Edited: Dec 5, 2022

I'm a bit sad and wondering about the few views of my latest mosaic Project:

https://www.astrobin.com/dyqlaw/

With starting of this thread I got only 72 Views but at least 52 likes and 2 Bookmarks

So I'm asking myself for the reasons ...

Is it the Object?

Is it the Framing?

Is it my edit?

Please help me to understand this and let me make nicer Images

Thank you for your advance!

CS
Philip

Pedro A. Sampaio

Dec 5, 2022

Hi Phillip, that's a beautiful image you got there, and certainly a labor intensive project.

But first, I would strongly advise you against falling prey to the "social media" pressure with this hobby - in other words, don't feel bad that a certain image "didn't do well" (whatever that means), or that it didn't get many favorites or likes… That's a recipe for frustration, and quite frankly, an image's quality can't really be measured by likes, views or favorites.

That being said, on the the RCC - I like the hue a lot - tha's quite a difficult target to get the colors "right", or a well balanced hue. I quite enjoy the deep blue contrasting with the deep red!

As a criticism, I think that you may have overdone with noise reduction - I find that to my taste, the image seems a little soft and waxy when pixel peeping.

Oevrall, a very beautiful image! Congratulations!

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pmneo

Topic starter

Dec 5, 2022

Hey Pedro!

Thank you for your response

Yes, you're right about social media. On the other hand, it's usually the only feedback we get about our hobby, right?

I have denoised ( and sharpened ) the background and the stars separately, but the stars actually are not sharpened at all. Maybe that's where the soft look comes from.
In addition, I scaled the image down to 66%, because you had not seen too much in the zoom function of Astrobin otherwise ;)

Thanks a lot already!

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Szoomer

Dec 5, 2022 · Edited: Dec 5, 2022

Philip,

As one of the initial set of people who liked the image, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. The equation to solve the inscrutability of social media valuation is not worth doing in my opinion. Some people dole out likes as if they are granting a knighthood, others as though it costs them money to do so.

Astrobin is my only experience with social media. At first, I was probably less likely to like an image as if I granting an imprimatur. I quickly realized that this sense of pride had no basis in reality. Many, many photographers produce images of superior quality to mine. Some, I know I will never be able to equal.

We all love capturing photons and recording the cosmos. It’s an expensive, time consuming, challenging, and sometimes frustrating hobby. When you think about what we’re doing, however, it is pretty mind blowing. The thought that the photons recorded by my camera sensor were emitted millions or even billions of years ago is awe inspiring. I suspect that we all joined Astrobin to share that love, to learn, and to hopefully get better at it.

To me, likes are encouragement. If I find an image aesthetically pleasing, like. If it’s an image I couldn’t produce myself, like. A DSO I particularly enjoy seeing pictures of, like. An object I’ve never seen someone take a picture of, like. An image of an astronomical event that I missed because of the permaclouds where I live, like. An image from someone who’s obviously starting out and could use some encouragement, like. I find that I enjoy my time on Astrobin and the hobby as a whole by spending my likes more freely. (They are free after all.)

So don’t be discouraged by recalcitrance. I don’t think I have ever posted an image that I thought couldn’t be better. You obviously poured a lot of yourself into that image. Don’t second guess its quality because the fickle crowd passed it by. It’s a fine image of which you should be proud.

Clear skies.

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Jared Holloway

Dec 5, 2022

I've found that on this site, you can get a lot of views if it hits at the "right time" and not get a lot it it doesn't. Every time someone likes your image or comments on it, it moves to the top of the front page. This obviously cycles. Saying that, your view to like ratio is good, and I think your image is excellent!

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Steve Perry

Dec 5, 2022

Philip, You are a brave soul to open yourself up as you have. I congratulate on your sticking to the joy of AP. I too wonder why what I think is one of my better photos does not get the marks of a fine piece of work. Oh Well. I simply enjoy the the fact that at 80 yrs old, I can still put together something as beautiful as what the night sky offers me to love and enjoy. The photos I process are mine to enjoy and love, hopefully there are people out there that can do the same. If not, so be it. Keep up you fine work. Steve

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pmneo

Topic starter

Dec 5, 2022

Thank you all for the kind words

I will keep pushing my skills and never give up ;)

What do you think about this enhancement? It is a bit brighter and more contrast edit and I have sharpend the stars a bit:

Thank you a lot!

Szoomer

Dec 5, 2022

The enhancement is great! It’s a quality image with or without it.

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Die Launische Diva

Dec 5, 2022

The nebula color of the bottom right quadrant differs from the rest of the image. Compare the top right quadrant with the bottom right quadrant of your image: The reds of the top right quadrant are brownish-red (which I prefer, but this is subjective of course) while the reds of the bottom right quadrant are pinkish-red.

Some may say that the trunk looks over-processed but overall it is a nice mosaic.

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pmneo

Topic starter

Dec 5, 2022 · Edited: Dec 5, 2022

Thank you Diva ;)

I have adjusted the colors a bit:

pmneo

Topic starter

Dec 5, 2022

And another Color tweak:

Manuel Peitsch

Dec 5, 2022

Pedro A. Sampaio:
Hi Phillip, that's a beautiful image you got there, and certainly a labor intensive project.

But first, I would strongly advise you against falling prey to the "social media" pressure with this hobby - in other words, don't feel bad that a certain image "didn't do well" (whatever that means), or that it didn't get many favorites or likes... That's a recipe for frustration, and quite frankly, an image's quality can't really be measured by likes, views or favorites.

That being said, on the the RCC - I like the hue a lot - tha's quite a difficult target to get the colors "right", or a well balanced hue. I quite enjoy the deep blue contrasting with the deep red!

As a criticism, I think that you may have overdone with noise reduction - I find that to my taste, the image seems a little soft and waxy when pixel peeping.

Oevrall, a very beautiful image! Congratulations!

I can only agree with Pedro's (and other's) comments about SM and the quality of your image. Really great and pleasing!

All t he best
Manuel

Guillermo de Miranda

Dec 5, 2022

It's a great image and you've put in a lot of work into it. If you're worried about views and likes, consider joining more groups and be more active in the community. Increase your exposure, like you are doing right now. If it wasn't for this post, I probably never would have seen it.

But personally I wouldn't get too hung up on likes. A good image is always subjective. I've seen crappy images with hundreds of likes and great images with only a few. What's important is how your work makes you feel. Are you satisfied with the result? That's what counts.

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Arun H

Frequent contributor

Dec 5, 2022

You'll see IOTDs and Top Picks with fewer than 100 likes. And you'll images with obvious flaws with over 200 likes. Depends on what you want to achieve. I would say based on your portfolio, you already know what is or isn't a good image, so any critique we give will be minor and more a matter of taste than something that will be an obvious and major improvement.

If you are really going for likes, you need to spend a lot of time liking and commenting on other people's images to make yourself known to them and get likes in return. I personally think this is a silly game that I don't have time for, but that's my opinion. It can be a lonely hobby, so whatever means you employ to derive satisfaction from it, whether achieving a personal goal you set for yourself, or getting a lot of likes by investing in the social aspect is all totally fine. Just know that "likes" are not necessarily an indication of the quality of an image - nor even bookmarks, because once you start getting a lot of likes, bookmarks will naturally follow. I personally value a like or a bookmark from someone whose work I respect rather than just go for a large number of bookmarks which is meaningless.

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