Why do People Colour Nebulaes etc in Post Processing?

[sabana]

I don't get it. You spend hours getting an incredible image with expensive photographic images. Then go and ruin it with photoshop. Ok, I'm an analogue photographer using film for my work most of the time. I love black and white and the higher tonal values over colour. I even prefer black and white movies lol. But I don't get why adjusting curves and adding complimentary colours which aren't true to the real thing is necessary. Ok it looks pretty. But if your going to invest thousands of pounds on atrophotography equipment and then ruin it all by colouring in like a child does at school its kinda sucks. This is just another opinion. But I'd rather have the truth.

[malc-c]

Sabina, good point. But then what are true colours. Everyone perceives colour differently, and as such sees the world slightly different to each other. Similarly I would bet that each camera manufacture will set their camera's up differently with biasing towards one side or another of the visible spectrum. Same way I guess that a 200ASA film from Kodak will give different colours or bolder colurs than the same rated film from Agfa ? Having said that I agree that in most images there is a lot of artistic license.... I can process an image of M42 and make it blue and violet, or orange and yellow...when I took an image with slide film with my old Vixen and Pratica film camera the result came back with blue and violet colouration, but when I used traditional Kodak prints it was more orange and brown !

[Sam]

I don't know if people change colours in their images, I certainly don't. I do understand why colours are assigned in narrowband images and I have no great issue with it as it's all about displaying a visual representation of different wavelengths. As for the natural images (in our visual perception) then stretching the histogram a bit is ok. I'm not a fan of over processing though some folks will go to great lengths for the artistic attributes of their images - nothing wrong with that, just not my cup of tea.

[SaraG]

Why do people desaturate the Lunar images?

The Moon is full of colour, shame to waste it and perpetuate the myth that the moon is colourless and grey.

In fact people go into shock when you tell them the moon has colour, or show them a colour picture so much is the spread of this myth.

[Kai]

But I'd rather have the truth.

Isnt the truth that the universe is full of color in a multitude of wavelengths , its just that when we look at the night sky all we see is grey tones due to the design of our eyes.

I wonder what a Honeybee sees when it looks at the night sky , i bet its no the same as us

[RobH]

But I don't get why adjusting curves and adding complimentary colours which aren't true to the real thing is necessary. Ok it looks pretty. But if your going to invest thousands of pounds on atrophotography equipment and then ruin it all by colouring in like a child does at school its kinda sucks. This is just another opinion. But I'd rather have the truth.

Who changes or adds colour....where do you get this idea?

When shooting using RGB filters, most of us spend a lot of time trying to get correct colour balance.

With narrowband filters, colour mapping is down to the tastes of the particular photographer, although there are commonly used approaches such as the Hubble pallette.

Looking at your posting history, I see that you haven't posted a single image, so your ignorance is understandable.

I would suggest that considerably more research on your behalf is needed before effectively accusing some imagers of ' ruining it all by colouring in like a child does at school'

Rob

[Tinker1947]

Isnt the truth that the universe is full of color in a multitude of wavelengths , its just that when we look at the night sky all we see is grey tones due to the design of our eyes.

I wonder what a Honeybee sees when it looks at the night sky , i bet its no the same as us

No the Honeybee doesn't see the night sky, cause its sleeping...

[SaraG]

I think there is 2 camps basically, 1) Artistic and 2) Scientific.

One wants aesthetics the other wants correctness.

I like both camps But I would clearly state on the image what is and what isn't so there is no doubt.

[RikM]

I adjust the saturation and colour balance to compensate for my local light pollution to give (I hope) a true representation of the object. It certainly isn't 'colouring in'.

[Kai]

No the Honeybee doesn't see the night sky, cause its sleeping...

What about the insomniac bees

[SaraG]

What about the insomniac bees

What about Coffee Bees?

[SamAndrew]

I don't get it. You spend hours getting an incredible image with expensive photographic images. Then go and ruin it with photoshop.

find us some before an after examples where images have been ruined ?

most poeple don't post their pre-processing images so i'm not sure where you've got this idea from.

[SaraG]

I have yet to see a good "unprocessed" image, ever, of any kind, lunar, solar, astro, party, pets.

Every GOOD picture is processed. Fact.

Especially on Astrophotography, good luck getting an "unprocessed" image to look nice, or see it at all.

[redfox1971]

I am never happy as of yet to post my images,I look at the pros images and Hubble images,and they all look the same,then sometimes you look at a image thats not and you think hmmm thats differ'nt,so i do find myself trying to follow what theirs looks like so i can post it on sites like this,but im not there yet as could be laughed off stage,lol.But im happy just to work on a image and be pleased myself and then try to make a work of art to me,and maybe a pleasure for others to look at,black and white images i like to,I find i look better in photos black and white.

[RobH]

Redfox....don't be scared of posting an image here....no-one will laugh at it or take the mickey...you'll find that you'll get a lot of help from a wide range of imagers....go ahead...post

[Kai]

Ditto , ive posted pretty much everything that ive imaged.

I found that people tend to give feedback depending on your experiance (including the basic mistakes i made lol)

[RikM]

Absolutely...redfox, post away. I have put up some shockers and have never been ridiculed. I have had a lot of very helpful advice from the forum and my images are much improved because of it.

[Rob L]

I have yet to see a good "unprocessed" image, ever, of any kind, lunar, solar, astro, party, pets.

Every GOOD picture is processed. Fact.

Not sure what to make of this comment, at what point do you consider an image has had "processing" applied to it?

Do you mean any image other than the RAW capture has been manipulated in some way?

[SaraG]

Not sure what to make of this comment, at what point do you consider an image has had "processing" applied to it?

Do you mean any image other than the RAW capture has been manipulated in some way?

I mean processed in any way, even holiday snaps can do with a good histogram stretching.

It makes a world of difference in the colour vibrancy whereas it would look washed out and pale or dull.

The very basic thing you can do, histogram levels yet most people don't do that. Same for white balance.

[todd8137]

there is some great black and white ones about on sgl i think some nebs almost look 3D

[RikM]

there is some great black and white ones about on sgl i think some nebs almost look 3D

You are quite right. Some folks have posted some awesome monochrome images. But I don't think they are necessarily better than full colour images of the same, just a different presentation.

[SlipperySquid]

I don't get it. You spend hours getting an incredible image with expensive photographic images. Then go and ruin it with photoshop. Ok, I'm an analogue photographer using film for my work most of the time. I love black and white and the higher tonal values over colour. I even prefer black and white movies lol. But I don't get why adjusting curves and adding complimentary colours which aren't true to the real thing is necessary. Ok it looks pretty. But if your going to invest thousands of pounds on atrophotography equipment and then ruin it all by colouring in like a child does at school its kinda sucks. This is just another opinion. But I'd rather have the truth.

I don't even know what the "true" colours are? Though most people try and give a representation of what the colours would look like to the human eye. That's about it really? and what is the point of an astro photo if not to look pretty?

I don't think you a have a good enough grasp of processing to understand why this and that is done? You could spend a million quid on equipment but if you suck at processing ..your images will be rubbish..fact.

So in a nutshell don't be jealous of us digital freaks, come over to the darkside...you never know ..you might like it :D

[umadog]

I don't understand what colours you're complaining about. Most DSOs are coloured and most photographs of them are derived from RGB composites and so are a good reflection of what they eye could potentially see. What is the "truth", though? The human eye can only see a tiny sliver of the visible spectrum, there's huge amounts of real stuff out there that you can't see but can be conveyed through false colour. This is just as true as a B&W image. Solar images at SDAC

[SaraG]

The human eye is more sensitive to GREEN hence camera sensor's have double Green on the Bayer matrix and only one red and one blue pixel.

[GeorgeH]

I don't get it. You spend hours getting an incredible image with expensive photographic images. Then go and ruin it with photoshop. Ok, I'm an analogue photographer using film for my work most of the time. I love black and white and the higher tonal values over colour. I even prefer black and white movies lol. But I don't get why adjusting curves and adding complimentary colours which aren't true to the real thing is necessary. Ok it looks pretty. But if your going to invest thousands of pounds on atrophotography equipment and then ruin it all by colouring in like a child does at school its kinda sucks. This is just another opinion. But I'd rather have the truth.

But if you take an image that has colour in it and remove the colour so its just black and white...are you not doing exactly what you are saying sucks