Combining Red and Ha....???

[kirkster501]

Hi, I have seen folk do this with certain Nebula.  Hwo do you go about doing this?   And in what proportion?  And does one use binning narrowband?

Three questions in one!  I have not yet done any NB imaging - not done must mono/RGB either TBH with the weather of late....

Thanks, Steve

[RikM]

Combining Ha with the red channel, I copy the red channel to a new image, add the Ha as a layer on top using blend mode 'lighten', then tweak the curves tool until I get the boost in contrast and detail I want. Then I flatten the layers, copy, and paste back into the original image to replace the original red only channel.

I only have Ha at the moment, Oiii and Sii to come later in the year but no, I don't intend to bin the NB data. I want full resolution as there is no 'luminance' layer to paint with the NB colour, as there would be for normal LRGB.

[ollypenrice]

As above, I paste Ha onto red in Blend Mode Lighten. If it doesn't look as if it's doing much I lift the Curve in the Ha layer till it does. If it looks too active I leave it too strong, flatten it anyway onto red and recombine. If the Ha is overwhelming I then paste the HaRGB onto the RGB and choose the opacity I like best.

I wouoldn't dream of binning Ha. It holds lovely resolution, which is one reason for taking it. Also it can produce blocky stars unbinned. Binned would be worse.

I've made an interesting discovery about the expensive Astrodon 3Nm Ha filter; you can use it as a partial luminance layer without creating the nasty artefacts that arise from doing this with a 7Nm filter.

Olly

[kirkster501]

Thanks for that guys. I got it - I think!

Steve

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