SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Remember Ed,
You can pick your friends,
Or you can pick your nose,
But you mustn't pick your friends nose....

Same applies for ..ll's. (Is that a file extension?)

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

I believe I had heard that you do t need as much for the color as you do for the luminance. That may be worth looking into.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

I am not too sure I understand your comment....but I wanted a good luminance stack to use for masking more than anything. But I did begin with a RGB combination (substituting Ha for R, OIII for G, and SII for B........then I separated the channels into LAB and then combined the A and B channel with my Luminosity stack instead of the separated L channel. That really eliminated most of the noise and brought a lot of the detail. But with that came some star color that was hard for me to understand. I still don't. I have a lot to learn!!

Oknoder Loc: Western North Dakota

I too have the color issue when shooting narrow band. Only way I found to make it look natural is to shoot a few RGB images either with RGB filters or a OSC cam then blend the stars in. It's clumsy and a PITA, so if you figure it out Ed, maybe throw out a shout and let us know.

I have Keller's new book on PDF "Inside Pixinsight" but it seems geared more towards people with no knowledge of PI.

Matthew

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

That's probably what I am up against. If you make a global color adjustment - changing the color of one star, changes the color of all stars. So, shooting RGB along with the NARROW band processing both separately and loading both as layers in PS .....and paint them in with a mask would work....or I could using a blending filter using "difference" that might work. But the time it took to get enough NB data was a gracious plenty.....and then to add RGB - wow. I think I can get CLOSE to the same detail with either the Atik383L OSC or either Nikon. What am I saying - this is probably the best detail for the so so 'seeing" nights I had ever. Holy smoke it takes a lot of imaging to get a good image using mono.

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

I have a fair amount of patience but no where near enough to get hrs of mono/filter shots that you guys are willing to put into it. I do appreciate all your hard work and beautiful pictures.
Craig

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

Check out this process to remove stars, maybe that will help with your narrowband stars. http://astro-photography.net/Star-Removal.html

Also check http://bf-astro.com/hubbleP.htm

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

I have no problem removing them....what I want to do is to be able process an image bringing out the star's original colors (color that is relative to the rest of the image). I am not a purist but I like my images to be color balanced correctly - if that is done then I should be getting close to the real color configuration of the global image. True, my colors my be totally different from what is really up there but they will all be relative to each other. For example, if I use the hubble palette, then my colors (when properly color balanced) should be reasonably close to those images taken by the hubble cam. From what I have read - the hubble palette is close to identifying the colors produced by the gases suspected to exist in these DSO. I guess we will never know! True color is the bane of all photographers!

As long as I am using a mono camera (with filters, R,G,B,Ha,Oiii,and Sii) then to get what I want....I need data from all. Glad I have an automated 7 position filter wheel. I have another solution - to mount a tandem DSLR or Atik383L OSC (better option) and take the stars from that camera and scope and take at the same time I am shooting Narrowband. I am still thinking on how I can do this quicker.

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

Hope it works out, I really like the narrowband photos, but takes a lot of work. I've been debating with myself to get the equipment. I found a place in Germany that makes a manual filter insert that can be used on the RASA.

Amazing the cost of filters, I found a set of filters by Baader for 1k, Astrodon is closer to 3k. What brand did you get?

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

I take great exception to all this post processing.
How does anyone "know" what color is correct?
Even the Hubbel group admits their pictures are made, not taken.
It use to be that Photo Shopping pictures was frowned upon.
Now it seems to be the norm.
One might as well steal a picture, then claim it is one they took.
(Disclaimer: I did not make, take, or bake, this image.)



https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Hs-2009-25-e-full_jpg.jpg/170px-Hs-2009-25-e-full_jpg.jpg

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Hi Ed, do you use any filters on your Atik 383L One Shot Color Camera????
I just got the QHY10 OSC Camera and am wondering about filters to use???
Craig

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

Ha, we can tell you didn't take it, no sprinkles...yes, it is somewhat of fake color, it is suppose to represent the composition of the gases in the DSO. I may be wrong, but it's primarily used in Nebula. I like it because it brings more of a 3-D look, and of course, it's more colorful.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

I use an IR/UV cut filter on the Atik but that is it.

This is for Sonny - if you re-read my post - I am in total agreement with you about the "up real colors" but I also refer to the operative word "relative". We know what colors gases emit on the color spectrum - Hubble was the best guess for translating those emissions if hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, iron, helium and on.... into a palette that can serve as a baseline - is it color accurate - I guess we may never know but it allows me to work on my image's relative color to be as close to Hubble as I can. It's part of the fun inherent in photography to strive or color consistency. So if I shoot one part of the sky one night.....and months later, with a different scope, camera, take the same part of the sky....the stars in one, hopefully with consistent with the color of the stars in the other. For me that is important. I am not taking a position on artistic imaging (heavy handed use of PS) vs purist imaging (no retouching)...which is laughable because the choice of the lens alters the image, the in camera settings alter an image - in short there is no way to not influence an image even if you leave the camera settings unchanged - even then you made choices determines the image. I spent a lot of time in a dark room (only developed B/W) but long before photoshop I was making Ansel Adams type changes to image using dodge and burn techniques as well as other dark room adjustments.

We have some pretty interesting debates in our photo guild about this topic......I tell my naysayers, "when they get honest with themselves, they will end agreeing with me" which always serves to piss them off.

BTW, I have a decision to make - go to a star party next Saturday or go to Arizona and photograph the final four - Unversity of South Carolina is playing! Go figure. But getting a floor pass is going to be highly unlikely, the Spartanburg Herald Journal is working on it and I will know later today. I will pay my way there and back, flights - they pick up the rest....and I will get paid for the pics - I will own - I have to provide 50 for the paper the rest our mine to do with as I see fit.......so I can broker them the other outlets. It should more than enought pay for my flights and rental car. Obviously I will go if I can get on the floor.

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

Very cool, it would probably be nice to get some dry air, or at least dryer. Could you squeeze in a side trip tohe canyon? If you do, would like to see your pix.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Fingers crossed, but will probably end up at the star party, hanging with people who wear black socks and sandals and have lots of pens in their shirt pocket - disheveled hair - and only bathe occasionally, and read calculus books for entertainment...... but my kind of people!!!