Why are my colors so weak!!!

Hello guys

has anyone an idea of why my color channels are so weak?

These are the average combine of 12 10min subs taken with my TEC180 at F7 with the SBIG STL11000XM unbinned. I know I should have probably binned the exposures, but I wanted to keep the star size as small as possible to match what I considered a good h-alpha luminance.
However, I thought that 2 hours of color would have given me a pretty good result, but I was evidently very wrong :C

Any help/suggestion would be greatly appreciated: I'm loosing sleep over it, while I should loose it imaging

Ciao
Luca

Attached Image:

Hi Luca,

I think your color data looks not so bad
Color data always seems to appears weaker,at least to me.I guess because we are isolating the one specific wavelength.

After you combine them it should be pretty strong data considering the amount you have.
Adding Luminance data to the RGB using layers in photo shop will help beef up the color data too.You may have to do several layers and add saturation as necessary.

I would suggest either taking some Luminance or creating a Luminance from your color subs and some of your Ha data to mix in with your RGB color image if looks weak by itself.This should help strengthen it up.

Of course you could always take longer subs or bin too


Good luck!


Jason

Luca, your data seems fine.... have you combined them already? how does it look after you did?

A luminance shot would definitely make your object brighter, but I would bet that your image is good as it is now...

Losing sleep over it? naaaah, you should not...

Hi Luca,
I agree, the color data seems fine to me. They are usually strongest in Red and weakest in Green. You would normally stretch the data somewhat to enhance the amount of color with photoshop or other means with the histogram.
I would say that you have plenty of data, now it is just combining them with the proper weight to get a good balance of color.
I just separated the three shots, made them color fits and combined them. Not the best because they were JPG to begin with, but it does show the results.
I think that there is a good picture here with good saturation too.

Attached Image:

Gianluca Valentini said:

Hello guys

has anyone an idea of why my color channels are so weak?

These are the average combine of 12 10min subs taken with my TEC180 at F7 with the SBIG STL11000XM unbinned. I know I should have probably binned the exposures, but I wanted to keep the star size as small as possible to match what I considered a good h-alpha luminance.
However, I thought that 2 hours of color would have given me a pretty good result, but I was evidently very wrong :C

Any help/suggestion would be greatly appreciated: I'm loosing sleep over it, while I should loose it imaging

Ciao
Luca

Hi Luca:

The linked article by master astrophotographer Robert Gendler helped me a lot. Often the luminance data initially overwhelms the color channels. This article is very helpful in dealing with this phenomenon, note though that the technique described is very Photoshop specific.

http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/LLRGB.html

Good Luck, Jim