Three years ago I submitted a photo to this sub and the critique still bugs me

Back in March 2021 I posted a shot of the Veil Nebula I took from my backyard in Tucson. 22 hours of integration, stacked in DSS, processed in PixInsight. A guy commented that my star reduction made it look 'fake and plastic.' I deleted the post and didn't touch the mount for nine months. Last week I reprocessed that same data with zero star reduction, just a mild curve stretch, and I honestly think the original was better. Why is the default reaction here to assume heavy processing means bad data? Has anyone else had a critique that set back their learning curve for way longer than it should have?

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paigep2011d ago

Fake and plastic" sounds like a compliment next to "forgot to remove the stars.