Need some help with Processing

[light]

I recently Had my T3i Modded. I took 15 subs of M42 and processed them in DSS. I ended up with this image, I tried to play with the RGB curves in Photoshop and Gimp but I'm unable to get any type of "good" looking image out of it. Can someone point me in a direction of what I'm doing wrong, the original stacked tiff can be found at...

http://s106876613.onlinehome.us/apo/M42.2.TIF

[Quatermass]

Have a read through the tutorials that can be found in the imaging section here

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-image-processing-help-techniques/149442-photoshop-basics-astrophotographers.html

lots more in the imaging section and have a look at my tutorials here hopefully that lot should keep you busy for while and get you sorted..

Using the historgram levels and curves - YouTube

[Star Gazer]

Looks like your image will be very nice when you get some colour in there. I have had trouble with DSS in the past where it creates black and white images, or other times ultra low saturated results. This might be your problem. Check out the RAW file settings, as well as play with the saturation settings

I've got to be honest though; I messed around with these settings and got no colour at all. Other times DSS would give me a white image. In the end I gave up and now use PixInsight.

[Shibby]

Hi light,

I don't know why it came out of DSS so grey looking (I don't think I've ever had to play with saturation settings), but the colour is there you just need to boost the saturation up a bit in Photoshop. This isn't the best ever processing jobs, but does at least show that the colour is certainly present:

[Quatermass]

In deep sky stacker when its done line up the RGB channels then boost the luminance slider up by 15 or 20 that really helps bring the colour in.

[Spikey]

In deep sky stacker when its done line up the RGB channels then boost the luminance slider up by 15 or 20 that really helps bring the colour in.

I think you mean the saturation slider

[Quatermass]

Yes thats the one spiky

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[rokkerz]

I have this old document regarding image stacking in Photoshop, may be of some help.

[ATTACH]Image stacking[/ATTACH]

I use Gimp too with Linux (Mint Debian), and have a number of tutorials, will try and upload them to SGL if they are not too large. I think this is the link that should enable you to find them

http://www.tuxradar.com/gimp

Image Stacking in Adobe Photoshop.pdf

[Derick]

In deep sky stacker when its done line up the RGB channels then boost the luminance slider up by 15 or 20 that really helps bring the colour in.

Should we be using the align RGB channel in the stacking options?

[Quatermass]

You can if you like I tend to do that in photoshop once its all stacked up in deep sky stacker

[Derick]

Ok.. but nnow... the best option for me is per channel RGB align... the calibrate RGB background gives results i dont like....

[Quatermass]

I tend to do all my work in Photoshop after deep sky-stacker has finished but I do think using the luminance sliders as mentioned helps a great deal, having said that I am a bit rusty having not produced an image since last October.

[Quatermass]

OK just been back to double check and what I normally do is line up the rgb channels when dss has finished on the final image. I then use the saturation slider boosted to about 17-18 to bring out more colour. You have to experiment a bit to see what looks best but once in Photoshop the real work begins.

[Quatermass]

Had a crack at it for you plenty of colour in there but you could do with some shorter subs for the core which gets burned out with normal subs of a minute or more I normally have a few done at 15 seconds and 5 seconds just for the core of this Nebula.

[Derick]

Thanks Mark,

I did actualy use the RGB channel background option and set it to minimum.. i also used the align RGB in final image also in stacking options in the light tab!!! Gave me good results that i finaly can get a good go in Photoshop... I do use de saturation a bit but in PS not in DSS.... it seems that the opinion on that one is realy spreaded...

Here is a 7 X 20 sec picture post processed in photoshop with all the settings I just described:

http://www.astrobin.com/full/51361/?mod=none

[Quatermass]

I like to boost the saturation in DSS before saving the final tiff but it depends on the image. When its in Photoshop my work flow is normally levels to balance out the rgb channels then curves to bring out the data more followed by star selection and adjustment. Then I work with hide all layers and high pass filters ect to complete the final image. All takes a few hours normally but great fun seeing your efforts come to life. There are so many ways to do this that everyone develops there own style of processing data I now have a very large note book on all my methods which is invaluable. I noticed your stars in the image are a little egg shaped but great image of the dumbbell nebula a wonderful subject.

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[Derick]

Thanks... yes my setup is pretty limit so some times the tracking isnt that good and very sensitive to wind... =( For the processing.. like you said.... so many waysto develop... gotta lot of catching up to do

[Quatermass]

If I can be of any help with the processing let me know

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