DSLR M101 process comparison thoughts?

[Owmuchonomy]

A couple of weeks ago I posted this first image of M101 taken over 2 nights in April.  I used my 'original' image process flow i.e., stacking in DSS and then about 30 minutes work in PS CC.

Today I had a go at processing for the first time the same stacked DSS tif file but this time taking a couple of hours using a well posted DSLR LLRGB technique again in PS CC (some techniques I had to omit from the LLRGB full process flow as it uses software I don't possess).

I would be interested in any comments on further improvement you can glean from the images that I should pursue.  I am not so concerned about which is the preferable image as that is very personal but if you wish to then thats ok.  Many thanks for reviewing.

[andrewluck]

In the second image the outer regions of the galaxy have lost their colour. The luminance lacks matching colour information in these regions of the galaxy. Similarly, the stars have also lost some saturation.

My recommendation is to not process the luminance separately but concentrate instead on getting the colour balance and saturation levels correct. De-noise, contrast enhancement and dynamic range compression are also important. Once you have these mastered then look at other techniques. My personal feeling is that separate luminance processing of an RGB image will yield marginal gains at best. However, I'm sure that opinions on this will differ.

Cheers

Andrew