Soul nebula - bi-colour with RGB stars

[ollypenrice]

I like all of these! I wouldn't put RGB stars into Carole's, though, because it isn't trying to look like RGB so you'd be combning two palettes. Lovely image though.

Something I tried for the first time with Steve about 18 months ago was to make an HOO blend and an HaOHa blend and paste one on top of the other, so allowing the use of the opacity slider to vary the amount of Ha in the blue channel while seeing the result in real time. In fact they were not pure NB blends, they had the NB blended into the three colour channels, but the principle ought to be the same.

Olly

[theo]

As others have mentioned the detail is great Chris. As far as the colour goes then yes we have a wide range to play with using narrowband and I think a lot comes down to personal taste but for me Carole hit the sweet spot here. Lovely image!!

Pete

[carastro]

Quote

You are not witholding your 'secret sauce' recipe, are you?  

No secrets, just practice and experimentation using the methods I described.  Except for a method of trying to reduce the halos which partially worked,as described by another member on here Martin-Devon:

Go to Filter --> Noise --> Reduce Noise --> Reduce Colour Noise --> now set this to 100% and click OK

Carole

 

[carastro]

Quote

 Sadly the link is a video which I will have to download and watch sometime - internet speed won't allow direct watching!

That's a real shame, you obviously have problems with internet speeds.

Basically, make sure all the filters are registered to each other, you can combine unprocessed or processed.  if RGB probably best to combine before stretching.

I normally process first if in narrowband.  

Duplicate one of the images, then convert to RGB (image/mode) - label this as whatever you will call the final image. 

Then go into channels and paste Ha into the Red channel, Oiii into the Green Channel and Oiii into the Blue channel.  Activate the RGB channel at the top of the channels list and hey presto a coloured image.  Then fiddle around with selective colour until you get something that pleases you.  

Just follow the same method for RGB, SHO etc etc

Carole 

[cfpendock]

Thanks very much indeed Carole.  In fact I have now managed to download the video which looks excellent.  If it leads me to be able to produce an image approaching yours then I will be ecstatic!

Chris

[sloz1664]

5 hours ago, carastro said:

I use the very simple method taught to me by Anna Morris (of Annie's actions), for LRGB, and then for Bicolour, I simply put the Ha and Oiii into either HOO (as I did here), or SHO if doing Hubble Palette, substituting Ha for Red and Oiii for green and blue in your image.

http://www.eprisephoto.com/create-lrgb

I did have to do some jiggery pokery to enhance detail in High Pass filter (without affecting the stars), and blurring of the colour image to reduce the stars and re-layering the Ha on top once again blending as Luminosity, plus various adjustments in selective colour.

Generally when I do High Pass filter, I take a copy of the image and paste it back over the HIGH pass version as this often has an adverse effect on the stars, and then rub out the bits where I want the detail to show through avoiding the stars. 

HTH

Carole 

Great processing Carole, love the colour tones.  Annie's actions are a good investment for PS.

Steve

[carastro]

Quote

Thanks very much indeed Carole.  In fact I have now managed to download the video which looks excellent.  If it leads me to be able to produce an image approaching yours then I will be ecstatic!

It's not really the channel combination method that produces the result, it is what you do with stretching and processing in the individual channels that makes the difference, and then choice of colour palette.  All the best processing in the world is not going to make a purse out of a sow's ear if the captured data is not good enough, and here the data was good in the first place, you just need to learn what to do with it and what not to do with it:

Don't over stretch, don't stretch too much in one iteration, do it in small steps.  Watch you don't overstretch the stars, try to get them close to matching size in each filter, Still something I struggle a bit with.  Stretching detail in layers and then combining the best bits.  One thing I have found for myself is that I often do a complete Dust and Scratches to smooth out the combined image sometimes as much as 5 points, this blurs the image and takes out any noise, and then I paste over the Ha image for a 2nd time blending it as Luminosity.   Practice practice and practice, and by all means experiment and see what works best.  

Keep a list of tips you read on the forums in a file so you can refer to them as necessary.  I originally bought a DVD by Adam Block called "Making Every Pixel count" which gives a lot of processing technique.  Much of it went over my head to start with, but it was archived in my mind and when I was ready for it I went back and learnt some of the more advanced techniques.

Carole

 

[gnomus]

19 hours ago, cfpendock said:

Sorry - I should have said - OAG with loadstar - and yes - it may have been sticking out a bit too far: - 

But I'm not sure.  In any case, I've since moved the mirror slightly - after  I took these subs.  That's a nice image you've produced, Steve, in no time at all....Pixinsight or PS?  Personally, I prefer a bit more contrast, and it is a bit red for me.  I know, Ha is red....

Thanks for the play, Chris

 

 

I tried to match Carole's colours but couldn't even get close - so hats off.  For what it's worth, here is my 'less red' version (no saturation applied):

[cfpendock]

18 hours ago, gnomus said:

You are not witholding your 'secret sauce' recipe, are you?  

 

Well, I think so.

 

 

26 minutes ago, gnomus said:

I tried to match Carole's colours but couldn't even get close - so hats off.

I am afraid that I haven't yet found the time to try Carole's approach myself, but I like your second version, Steve. It seems to me to have brought out more of the delicate details which on my own ham-fisted attempt were almost non-existent, despite lots of "un-natural" contrast.

I have to say that when I first posted this image I had no idea I would get so much help on the processing side.  But at least it was nice to know that at least the data was not so bad - although you did notice that there were no flats.....  So it seems that 99% is down to the processing and I have certainly received plenty of help for that! 

Thank you all very much!

Chris

[gnomus]

11 minutes ago, cfpendock said:

I am afraid that I haven't yet found the time to try Carole's approach myself, but I like your second version, Steve. It seems to me to have brought out more of the delicate details which on my own ham-fisted attempt were almost non-existent, despite lots of "un-natural" contrast....

Thanks Chris

I used the same technique as Carole.  I turned the greyscale Ha into an RGB image, copied the OIII greyscale and pasted it into the Green and Blue channels of the Ha.  I didn't really change the colours much after that.  I did try extensive playing with the Selective Colour tool, but I couldn't get my reds to go gold like Carole did and I couldn't get my pale pinks to turn blue either.  

For contrast enhancement, I like Local Contrast Enhancement in Noel's Actions.  But, mask it all off and just paint in the contrast where you think it needs it - not the background obviously.

That was it really.

[carastro]

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 I couldn't get my pale pinks to turn blue either.  

It was a struggle to turn the Oiii blue, several iterations of various selective colour.

Carole