DSS, Is my image B&W ?

[SAW]

Hi,

I've been working on M45 a lot and after DSS stacks all my lights, darks and bias It looks B&W ? It definitely has some colour on my 600D after it takes an image. I am stacking only RAW images. When I open the image in Pixinsight and do the first stretch it goes B&W and not like a green colour I've seen on all the tutorials ?

Is it my 600D or something set wrong in DSS ?

I've not had this problem before, I've always seen some colour in DSS after it's stacked, is it just M45 that's doing it as there isn't much colour ?

Thanks.

[Scooot]

There’s a default setting in pixinsight that opens raw files in pure raw which means they’re mono. I can’t remember where it is but I’ll look this evening if no one else comes to the rescue.

You can either debayer them & colour correct etc to add colour back into the image, or change the setting so the image opens in a sort of coloured raw file. 

Edit

The setting is in Format Explorer, Dslr-format, edit preferences. Select the rgb image

[SAW]

Thanks I’ll have a look this evening when I get home. 

[wimvb]

Do the calibration and stacking in PixInsight. Use either the bpp script or follow the lightvortexastronomy tutorial. Forget about dss.

Make sure you check the CFA box in bpp. And use the correct Bayer matrix for yor camera.

[geordie85]

4 hours ago, wimvb said:

Do the calibration and stacking in PixInsight. Use either the bpp script or follow the lightvortexastronomy tutorial. Forget about dss.

Make sure you check the CFA box in bpp. And use the correct Bayer matrix for yor camera.

With calibration and stacking in PI will it align and resize binned files to match unbinned luminance? 

Sorry for a slight thread hijack 

[wimvb]

I think it will, but I've never tested it. Just try it with a few subs.

[geordie85]

5 minutes ago, wimvb said:

I think it will, but I've never tested it. Just try it with a few subs.

I will when I finally learn how to use it haha. I just find it so confusing 

[SAW]

11 hours ago, wimvb said:

Do the calibration and stacking in PixInsight. Use either the bpp script or follow the lightvortexastronomy tutorial. Forget about dss.

Make sure you check the CFA box in bpp. And use the correct Bayer matrix for yor camera.

Only just started using the trial version of Pixinsight, it's hard work learning as I don't work with computers although I use them a lot. I can see why people like it though, I have been using LR and Affinity but I am preferring Pixinsight and I've got a book on it. I'll try and spend some time over the weekend learning to stack with it.

[Rico]

I find the batch preprocess in pixinisght really temperamental, and as wimvb suggests, lightvortexastronomy has a really nice description of how to manually calibrate, register and stack your images in pixinsight. I can't find a setting in DSS that removes the colour from a raw dslr image. Have you tried converting the .cr2 files to DNG before plugging them into to DSS. I find that can sometimes help. Also, run an automatic background extraction in pixinsightafter the fact. When you save the master file from DSS as a tiff file and you open it in pixinsight, does it say RGB next to the image header?

[Scooot]

When stacking moon images I always use the FFT registration script because there are no stars on which to align the images, which is necessary if using image integration to stack. I found it works very well. I guess it would also work well for planet images although I haven’t tried it. 

[The Admiral]

I haven't used DSS in a long while now, but I recall that the results appeared to be monochrome until I started stretching and doing other PP. In my few early attempts with PI I couldn't for the life of me see how to get much colour to show, but it isn't a problem with StarTools. But, this was with short exposure subs (30s), so the subs were quite feint. The only time I recall seeing colour after stacking was with an image of M42, being so much brighter.

Ian

[SAW]

I've just stacked my images in Pixinsight and final light image it has given me is in b&w ? When I try and do a background neutralization it does say can only be applied to colour images.

Even with the screen transfer function open the G, B and L have a red X next to them.

Is it something set wrong on my 600D ???

I've loaded an old DSS stacked image of the dumbbell nebula into Pixinsight and that does show colour but it was shot with the same camera so I'm thinking it's something in my camera ?

I've attached a jpg straight from the camera of what I've been stacking it looks like it's in colour, I'm stacking the RAW though !

[SAW]

Just checked my camera and my settings are,

• Manual Mode
• Bulb
• ISO 1600
• Picture Style - Neutral Could it be this as I think I used Auto before ?
• AWB - I normally use this, sunlight or tungsten
• Auto Lighting Optimizer is Standard, don't think I've altered this
• MF
• Single Shooting
• Evaluative Meteriing
• Raw + L

[Scooot]

24 minutes ago, SAW said:

I've just stacked my images in Pixinsight and final light image it has given me is in b&w ? When I try and do a background neutralization it does say can only be applied to colour images.

Even with the screen transfer function open the G, B and L have a red X next to them.

Is it something set wrong on my 600D ???

I've loaded an old DSS stacked image of the dumbbell nebula into Pixinsight and that does show colour but it was shot with the same camera so I'm thinking it's something in my camera ?

I've attached a jpg straight from the camera of what I've been stacking it looks like it's in colour, I'm stacking the RAW though !

What setting have you in format explorer - DSLR_Raw - edit preferences

At the bottom you can select pure raw or de-bayer RGB. With the latter selected a raw file will open in colour I believe.

If you then Enable Stf you should see the colour in the stretched image

Edit

If you’ve already stacked them with Pure Raw selected it will have produced a pure raw result so if you want to stack the colour images you’ll need to reload the lights and stack with debayer rgb selected.

Or you could follow the light vortex tutorial and debayer the individual lights before stacking

[SAW]

Which of these do I need to select ?

Does this just effect how it opens my image or all the stacking as well, ie have I just wasted my time stacking lol

[Scooot]

13 minutes ago, SAW said:

Which of these do I need to select ?

Does this just effect how it opens my image or all the stacking as well, ie have I just wasted my time stacking lol

If you select pure raw before stacking the images, they are loaded as such which means they’ll be black & white.

If you loaded the lights with de bayer selected you’re loading colour images, and could then stack as such.

but for deep sky processing I think most load in pure raw and then add the colour back in by running the debayer process on each light as per the light vortex tutorial.

I usually prefer to have the de bayer selected when I stack my moon images, & therefore in colour, because there’s not much colour in the moon anyway and it’s quicker than loading in black & white and then adding colour back in

[Scooot]

You can see the difference by opening a non Astro coloured daylight image to test it. With pure raw selected it’ll be in mono

[SAW]

3 minutes ago, Scooot said:

non Astro coloured daylight image

How in Pixinsight ?

[Scooot]

1 minute ago, SAW said:

How in Pixinsight ?

Yes, if you take them in raw

if jpeg no good

[SAW]

I meant how as in how do I do it in Pixinsight :-)

[Scooot]

1 minute ago, SAW said:

I meant how as in how do I do it in Pixinsight :-)

What open it? Just go file - open etc 

sorry if that’s not what you mean  

[SAW]

10 minutes ago, Scooot said:

You can see the difference by opening a non Astro coloured daylight image to test it. With pure raw selected it’ll be in mono

It's ok I see what you mean now LOL it's getting late.

[SAW]

Ok so just tried opening an old raw image of the dumbbell nebula with pure raw selected it did open in in b&w, I then chaned it to de-bayer rgb and reopend the same image and it was in colour.

But the one I've just stacked in Pixinsight is still in b&w even in the de-bayer setting ?

[Scooot]

1 minute ago, SAW said:

Ok so just tried opening an old raw image of the dumbbell nebula with pure raw selected it did open in in b&w, I then chaned it to de-bayer rgb and reopend the same image and it was in colour.

But the one I've just stacked in Pixinsight is still in b&w even in the de-bayer setting ?

I think that’s because when you added the lights for stacking you had pure raw selected. If you want to stack colour images you’ll need to do it again with de-bayer selected before you add the lights for stacking. And flats etc as well maybe, presumably they’re in colour as well.

[SAW]

Didn’t have any flats, just stacked lights, bias and darks. 

So the easiest way is to select de-bayer and then re-stack so I get a colour image or 

the other option for a better image is to use the raw option then run de-bayer process ?