How do I fix this????

[DaveyLeo10]

Hey guys

I've stacked my first ever image, it's only 10 frames of the Hercules Cluster. The stacked image has no colour and is really bright. I've been fiddling with the balances on DSS but I can't figure out how to get it right.

Here's a print screen of what I'm looking at, now I'm not expecting you to go through step by step or anything I literally just need a nudge in the right direction!

http://postimg.org/image/b8efxnf3t/

Cheers

[JamesF]

Try moving the left-hand pointer on the RGB sliders towards the middle?  Might be easier if you check the "linked settings" box first.

James

[DaveyLeo10]

Hmmmm the sliders only seem to brighten or darken the image. There's 3 sliders and if I move the middle ones (linked) towards the darker end it looks better but it looks like it black and white. The original images had colour. Do you think it has anything to do with my ISO being at 1600?

http://postimg.org/image/tm9pyuok3/

[geordie85]

Move the rgb sliders left until there about a half inch away from the beginning of the curve.

At the top where you can see "rgb" "luminescence" and "saturation" click saturation and move that slider to around 20%

[DaveyLeo10]

http://postimg.org/image/6q3jvsuwl/

That looks so much better, saturation is at 20% is the RGB right? It looks a little green lol.

[spaceman_spiff]

I would say you are losing contrast because your background is too bright. Go to the luminance tab and try to move the curve in the bottom plot to the right. Move it so that the steepest part of the curve occurs in the middle of the histogram peaks. Alter the curve using the darkness, mid tone and highlights controls. Hope this helps.   

[geordie85]

http://postimg.org/image/6q3jvsuwl/

That looks so much better, saturation is at 20% is the RGB right? It looks a little green lol.

Your going to need to move the green slider left abit. Try to make sure the res, green and blue spikes are perfectly aligned

[DaveyLeo10]

http://postimg.org/image/6xqq9571x/Do you mean the dotted line spikes or the solid colour spikes?

[DaveyLeo10]

I think I'm done... What do you think? Anything else needs tweaking? http://postimg.org/image/9l0ffy2wn/

[wxsatuser]

Your still a bit dark.

The steepest part of the curve should run up the centre of the bottom third of the RGB.

You will most likely find the colour balance will be off and needs fixing in post.

Basically DSS just allows a quick and dirty image.

Here is where I try to get the curve.

The saved image with adjustments, btw you would normally save with adjustments embedded or use the Autosave tif file.

My preference is to do intial processing with the Autosave tif in PixInsight.

[D4N]

If you are still struggling to get colour check your background calibration settings in the stacking options. If you use RGB background calibration it tends to kill the colours, you can use per channel background calibration to avoid this.

/Dan

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[DaveyLeo10]

Here's the final image... It's not perfect but it is my first real bash at using DSS. Fingers crossed it will be clear tonight so I will be able to have another go! Really appreciate all your advice, this thread is now my reference guide!

http://postimg.org/image/h75ktdqdv/

[D4N]

You've got really nice star colour there now, really clear reds and blues.

/Dan

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[geordie85]

Very nice image. Hopefully it's clear for ypu tonight and fireworks don't spoil your images too much

[StargeezerTim]

Here's the final image... It's not perfect but it is my first real bash at using DSS. Fingers crossed it will be clear tonight so I will be able to have another go! Really appreciate all your advice, this thread is now my reference guide!

http://postimg.org/image/h75ktdqdv/

That looks really good. As someone else has mentioned, DSS is only really 'stacking' software and once you have got a reasonable image in it, you open it up in other graphics software and the real processing and discovery begins! There are some good free downloads, including Gimp, that can really transform your images. I tend to just open the autosave file and process that. Tim. 

[DaveyLeo10]

I've got photoshop but even then I'm still learning how to process. Had a good session last night got about 4 hours observing before the fog forced me to call it a night. Took 30 frames of Caldwell 30 which is my first attempt at stacking a galaxy pic, I view from a balcony most nights so my view is West/South West.