Using a (very) fuzzy mask to process nebula with faint outer areas

The image of the Cocoon nebula had a very bright core and a large area of fainter outer areas. When making adjustments (e.g. bringing out details in the core) I needed a mask that:

1. Does not protect the bright core of the nebula
2. Slowly faints out to the outer layers of the nebula
3. Does protect the darker areas

I used the RangeSelection process for this.

The best way to do that was to first create a Preview over the nebula and the outer layers:

Then I open up RangeSelection and open the preview:

In order to get the transition between the core and the dark areas, I use a very high value for "Fuzziness" (I used 0.7). Now, when I move the "Lower Limit" slider to the right, I can see that the mask is very fuzzy:

The advantage of using a preview for this step is not only that I can zoom into the nebula, but also, that instead of creating a new image, the process overlays the resulting mask over the preview:

Now, I can toggle easily between image and mask (using the preview toggle button) to see exactly what parts of the nebula are strong protected and how it faints out. This first attempt was a little bit too large. I increase the "Lower Limit" a little and apply again:

Now, the brith parts are covered, but the mask isn't fuzzy enough (it doesn't cover the dark lanes enough). So, I increase Fuzinness - which decreases the cover of the inner parts. Upon which I decrease "Lower Limit" again to protect more. I play with these two settings until I have a combination that covers the bright parts and slowly degrades over the dust lanes:

Finally, I create the mask on the whole image and apply the mask:

Now, with this mask in place, I use LocalHistogramEquilization to bring out more details:

The process works very strong in the bright areas and then gradually fades towards the fainter regions!