Some colour at last...

[eyepod]

I have been re processing my image from the 10th August and have at last got a more colourful M31.The mistake I made (using photoshop cs5) was selecting equalise histogram when it converts from 32bit to 16bit. This gave instant results but burns out all the colour as in the first image. On the second image I have selected the option using exposure and gamma, this doesn't seem to make any changes to the tiff and makes for a better starting point before you start changing levels and curves etc. It just shows clicking on the right option makes all the difference

[xtreemchaos]

there both amazing images mate,stunning detail.thanks for sharing. charl.

[Ohan Smit]

I have to agree with Charl, both images are great, but I like the newer version, the background is nice and neutral as opposed to the first which is over saturated in the blue channel.

Regards

[davefrance]

Very nice, agree with above comments.

[swag72]

That's looking very good indeed, especially the second version. You've got star colour in there too - Well done

[laudropb]

Very nice images. Your colour version just looks more natural and sharp.

[Astrosurf]

Excellent job!

I've been using a technique that a friend taught me, but I'm at work so can't exactly remember. I create two images at 16 bit. Convert one to Equalize Histogram and the other to Highlight Compression. I slide one over the other and change the blending mode of the top one to colour, after I've processed it. But I can't remember which one! I'll check when I get home.

Alexxx

[Astrosurf]

Yep, with the Highlight Compression pic active, use the Move tool, hold down Shift and drag its layer onto the Equalize Histogram one. After Blending Mode Colour on the EH layer, you can use Hue & Saturation to boost up the colour if necessary.

[ollypenrice]

For low noise colour boosting try this;

Two copy layers.

Top layer set to blend mode soft light and flatten that onto the second layer.

Set the second layer to blend mode colour, give it a slight blur of maybe 0.6 Gaussian, and flatten. Repeat to taste.

Olly

[steppenwolf]

So many ways to do this! This is my favourite:-

Duplicate layer and name 'soft' then change the blend mode to 'Soft Light'.

Duplicate this new layer again, setting the name to 'lum' and change the blend mode to 'Luminosity'.

Select 'History', right click on the last entry and ‘create a new document’. Flatten all three layers, select and copy the entire image and then delete this new document.

Paste this data onto the original image and delete the two layers called 'soft light' and 'lum'. If the colours are too extreme for your taste, change the opacity of the top layer to get the effect that you want.

[Alien 13]

The real key is that a single image can be processed in different ways to preserve tight stars/nebulosity/colour etc and added together as seperate layres this often negates the need for differing exposures of an object.

Alan

[ollypenrice]

So many ways to do this! This is my favourite:-

Duplicate layer and name 'soft' then change the blend mode to 'Soft Light'.

Duplicate this new layer again, setting the name to 'lum' and change the blend mode to 'Luminosity'.

Select 'History', right click on the last entry and ‘create a new document’. Flatten all three layers, select and copy the entire image and then delete this new document.

Paste this data onto the original image and delete the two layers called 'soft light' and 'lum'. If the colours are too extreme for your taste, change the opacity of the top layer to get the effect that you want.

Must try this!

Olly

[Astrosurf]

Marvellous! Thanks Olly, Steve.

[eyepod]

Thanks for all the advice, lots of things to try.

Much appreciated

Jason

[Knight of Clear Skies]

I'll have to give these techniques a try sometime, mostly I've just been boosting saturation and sometimes tweaking histograms or adjusting individual colour sliders.

[glowingturnip]

I use softlight for colour too, using pixelmath in Pixinsight using the formula here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blend_modes#Soft_Light

You can try using colour-burn blending mode instead of soft-light blending mode too, but it's usually too strong and would need to be transparency merged back in with the original