M51 First stacked AP

[Oslet]

My first stacked astrophoto of M51. I have to learn how to use the histogram properly. Can't get any colour balance. Comes out black and white. 23x60s ISO 800. Equipment: 200PDS, HEQ5, canon EOS 1300D.

[RolandKol]

Nice shot! And not so noisy as I had

As per colour, try increasing Saturation in Curves, if it does not show up, -  check your stacking routine

[Oslet]

6 minutes ago, RolandKol said:

Nice shot! And not so noisy as I had

As per colour, try increasing Saturation in Curves, if it does not show up, -  check your stacking routine

Thank you. I'll play around a bit. I can see blueish colour in the raw's. I have a lot to learn   

[sloz1664]

Really nice image and nice crisp detail. Agree with Oslet, check the RGB status in your processing software and the RGB level;s are there then adjust to suit. If there is no RGB shown check your stacking procedure.

Steve

[sloz1664]

5 minutes ago, Oslet said:

Thank you. I'll play around a bit. I can see blueish colour in the raw's. I have a lot to learn   

The bluesh colour will most likely be light pollution. dependant on your processing software there are ways to get rid of it. Remember youtube is your tutorial friend

Steve

[Oslet]

2 minutes ago, sloz1664 said:

The bluesh colour will most likely be light pollution. dependant on your processing software there are ways to get rid of it. Remember youtube is your tutorial friend

Steve

Yeah you are right. If i turn the saturation way up it all turns blue.

[sloz1664]

1 minute ago, Oslet said:

Yeah you are right. If i turn the saturation way up it all turns blue.

Don't forget to post the colour balanced image

Steve

[RolandKol]

I guess, it needs to be re-stacked... The more I look at it, the more I am sure it has no Colour in it at all... My Pixinsinght tweaks on the .jpg (curves and levels) have not given any "positive" results

Did you use DSS or any other software? if DSS, - your stack should end up with a brownish background color n(if no filters used)...

My 1300D subs been stacked perfectly with the default DSS settings (last 64bit version), check if you have not changed anything

[Oslet]

25 minutes ago, RolandKol said:

I guess, it needs to be re-stacked... The more I look at it, the more I am sure it has no Colour in it at all... My Pixinsinght tweaks on the .jpg (curves and levels) have not given any "positive" results

Did you use DSS or any other software? if DSS, - your stack should end up with a brownish background color n(if no filters used)...

My 1300D subs been stacked perfectly with the default DSS settings (last 64bit version), check if you have not changed anything

You are right wise one. Can't see any brownish colour after i have stacked. I'm using DSS. I'll go trough the settings on DSS and try again. Thanks for the help.

[Oslet]

The pictures are loaded as Gray 16-bit. That must be it. How to fix this? Have I accidentaly got only black and white trough APT?

[MarsG76]

Nice detail...

 

Convert your RAW camera files to 16 bit TIFFs before stacking, than you will have your color.

 

[RolandKol]

14 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

Nice detail...

 

Convert your RAW camera files to 16 bit TIFFs before stacking, than you will have your color.

 

Never had to convert my Canon 1300D raw files before stacking...

17 minutes ago, Oslet said:

The pictures are loaded as Gray 16-bit. That must be it. How to fix this? Have I accidentaly got only black and white trough APT?

A bit confused... Do you talk about a single sub? And, in fact, I have no idea how to picture in APT to get black and white result only...
Unless your APT saving all your images in .fits format, - in such a case you will need to debayer them during stacking, probably.. never tried it.

simple canon raw format should contain color in it.

 

 

 

[Oslet]

2 minutes ago, RolandKol said:

Never had to convert my Canon 1300D raw files before stacking...

A bit confused... Do you talk about a single sub? And, in fact, I have no idea how to picture in APT to get black and white result only...
Unless your APT saving all your images in .fits format, - in such a case you will need to debayer them during stacking, probably.. never tried it.

simple canon raw format should contain color in it.

 

 

 

Yes, colour is present. I did not change any settings after this shot. I think I'm on the right track in DSS now. I found some tips in another forum.

[RolandKol]

keep us updated!

[Oslet]

EUREKA. Turn the saturation all the way up, move the histogram to the left. Maybe a bit to red yet, done in a hurry. I'll take screenshot of my DSS settings so I don't have to bother you guys to much

[Oslet]

[feilimb]

It is recommended not to do any post-processing within DSS simply to use it for stacking (I assume that when you mentioned "Turn the saturation all the way up, move the histogram to the left." you did this inside DSS itself).

When you say " The pictures are loaded as Gray 16-bit. That must be it. How to fix this? Have I accidentaly got only black and white trough APT? " - again I assume this is what you see inside DSS in the window which show all of the frames which you are stacking, and in one of the columns to the right hand side.  This is totally normal / expected as the images have not been Debayered yet.

The one setting you need to be sure you get right in DSS : in the RAW/FITS settings of DSS if you are capturing images as FITS files, then choose the 'FITS Files' tab and choose the correct Debayer pattern (for Canon cameras I think it is 'RGGB').