Color Module Tends to Eliminate Faint Nebula

[midwayexpress]

I have developed kind of a love hate relationship with the color module. On one hand it fixes blue background noise but on the other it tends to be hard to use and forces color from faint areas to brighter areas especially in "scientific mode". This alone isn't bad but I still want to be able to have some color in the faint areas as well. Consider these versions of the same underlying data.

http://www.astrobin.com/108616/

http://www.astrobin.com/108651/

If anyone wants to take a shot at the data you can get it here.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/386 ... tm20v3.TIF

[admin]

I have developed kind of a love hate relationship with the color module. On one hand it fixes blue background noise but on the other it tends to be hard to use

Hi,

Could you tell me what in particular you find hard to use? I'm getting reasonable results without too much trouble (I used a star field calibration, selecting the 'Fat Stars' preset, sampling them for color then , using that). The LP filter seems to be throwing the color balance off though.

and forces color from faint areas to brighter areas especially in "scientific mode". This alone isn't bad but I still want to be able to have some color in the faint areas as well.

Have you tried the The 'Dark Saturation' slider? It should do what you want (e.g. have some color in the faint areas) by increasing it.

[midwayexpress]

To make sure I understand what you did. I made a fat star mask and hit sample. Then I noted the values in my case reduce green and blue by 1.66. I canceled out of color. Went back into color and hit fill mask and applied those values.

Is this correct?

[admin]

To make sure I understand what you did. I made a fat star mask and hit sample. Then I noted the values in my case reduce green and blue by 1.66. I canceled out of color. Went back into color and hit fill mask and applied those values.

Is this correct?

Actually, yes, that's one way! (I actually never though to do it that way ).
Easier is to launch the Color module, click Mask, Auto->Fat Stars preset->Do, keep the mask (you could possibly grow the mask 1 pixel depending on your image prior to 'keep'ing), click Sample (you do all this).
What I would then do differently is to, once the new ratios have been established by clicking 'Sample', launch the Mask editor again and click Clear, Invert. This selects the whole image again. 'Keep' the mask and back in the Color module, the module will have remembered the ratios, which are now applied to the full image.

[midwayexpress]

Ok its looking a little better. I'm really having trouble keeping the blue in the reflection nebula so I toned down the reduction from 1.66 in green and blue to 1.33 and I also moved up the dark saturation.

http://www.astrobin.com/108651/B/

[admin]

Nice!

[bjdietrich]

Hi, thank you very much for making your data available. I think it's excellent and had lots of fun trying to find out how far I could push it...

testm20v3_BJD.jpg (510.81 KiB) Viewed 10931 times

Clear skies
Benedikt

[admin]

Very nice interpretation Benedikt!

[midwayexpress]

Hi, thank you very much for making your data available. I think it's excellent and had lots of fun trying to find out how far I could push it...

testm20v3_BJD.jpg

Clear skies
Benedikt

Wow that is a lot better than even I ended up with after learning how to use colors.

http://www.astrobin.com/108651/B/

If you don't mind me asking what steps did you use to draw that much nebulosity out?

[bjdietrich]

Thanks for reminding me! I actually meant to include the log in the first place, but apparently just forgot...

Code: Select all

--- Auto Develop
Parameter [Ignore Fine Detail <] set to [5.0 pixels]
Parameter [Outside ROI Influence] set to [15 %]
--- Crop
Parameter [X1] set to [81 pixels]
Parameter [Y1] set to [65 pixels]
Parameter [X2] set to [1532 pixels (-87)]
Parameter [Y2] set to [1146 pixels (-73)]
--- Wipe
Parameter [Mode] set to [Correct Color & Brightness]
Parameter [UNKNOWN] set to [Yes]
Parameter [Precision] set to [512 x 512 pixels]
Parameter [Dark Anomaly Filter] set to [10 pixels]
Parameter [Drop Off Point] set to [2 %]
Parameter [Corner Aggressiveness] set to [97 %]
Parameter [Aggressiveness] set to [72 %]
--- Auto Develop
Parameter [Ignore Fine Detail <] set to [4.5 pixels]
Parameter [Outside ROI Influence] set to [7 %]
--- Deconvolution
Parameter [Image Type] set to [Deep Space]
Parameter [Mask Behavior] set to [De-ring Mask Gaps, Hide Result]
Parameter [Radius] set to [1.8 pixels]
Parameter [Iterations] set to [10]
Parameter [Regularization] set to [1.20 (smoother, less detail)]
Parameter [Mask Fuzz] set to [6.0 pixels]
--- Contrast
Parameter [Expose Dark Areas] set to [No]
Parameter [Compensate Gamma] set to [Yes]
Parameter [Precision] set to [512 x 512 pixels]
Parameter [Dark Anomaly Filter] set to [2 pixels]
Parameter [Aggressiveness] set to [77 %]
Parameter [Dark Anomaly Headroom] set to [8 %]
--- HDR
Parameter [Small Detail Precision] set to [Max]
Parameter [Channels] set to [Brightness Only]
Parameter [Algorithm] set to [Optimize Hard]
Parameter [Dark/Bright Response] set to [1.00]
Parameter [Detail Size Range] set to [32 pixels]
Parameter [Noise Suppression] set to [5 %]
--- Life
Parameter [Detail Preservation] set to [Linear Brightness Mask]
Parameter [Compositing Algorithm] set to [Multiply, Gamma Correct]
Parameter [Inherit Brightness, Color] set to [Off]
Parameter [Output Glow Only] set to [No]
Parameter [Airy Disk Sampling] set to [256 x 256 pixels]
Parameter [Airy Disk Radius] set to [24 pixels]
Parameter [Glow Threshold] set to [0 %]
Parameter [Detail Preservation Radius] set to [15.0 pixels]
Parameter [Saturation] set to [150 %]
Parameter [Strength] set to [60 %]
Parameter [Mask Fuzz] set to [1.0 pixels]
--- Wavelet Sharpen
Parameter [Intelligent Enhance] set to [Yes]
Parameter [Scale 1] set to [95 %]
Parameter [Scale 2] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Scale 3] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Scale 4] set to [85 %]
Parameter [Scale 5] set to [60 %]
Parameter [Mask Fuzz] set to [13.5 pixels]
Parameter [Amount] set to [150 %]
Parameter [Small Detail Bias] set to [95 %]
--- Color
Parameter [Cap Green] set to [To Brown]
Parameter [Bias Slider Mode] set to [Sliders Reduce Color Bias]
Parameter [Style] set to [Scientific (Color Constancy)]
Parameter [LRGB Method Emulation] set to [RGB Ratio, CIELab Luminance Retention]
Parameter [Dark Saturation] set to [9.50]
Parameter [Bright Saturation] set to [5.00]
Parameter [Saturation Amount] set to [150 %]
Parameter [Blue Bias Reduce] set to [1.19]
Parameter [Green Bias Reduce] set to [1.00]
Parameter [Red Bias Reduce] set to [1.08]
Parameter [Mask Fuzz] set to [1.0 pixels]
--- Wavelet De-Noise
Parameter [Scale 1] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Scale 2] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Scale 3] set to [95 %]
Parameter [Scale 4] set to [5 %]
Parameter [Scale 5] set to [0 %]
Parameter [Mask Fuzz] set to [1.0 pixels]
Parameter [Scale Correlation] set to [2]
Parameter [Color Detail Loss] set to [8 %]
Parameter [Brightness Detail Loss] set to [13 %]
Parameter [Grain Size] set to [5.2 pixels]
Parameter [Read Noise Compensation] set to [3.50 %]
Parameter [Smoothness] set to [35 %]
File saved [W:\___work\testm20v3_BJD.tiff].
--- Magic
Parameter [Mode] set to [Tighten]
Parameter [Mask Grow] set to [3 pixels]
Parameter [Iterations] set to [2 pixels]
--- Magic
Parameter [Mode] set to [Tighten]
Parameter [Mask Grow] set to [5 pixels]
Parameter [Iterations] set to [2 pixels]
--- Life
Parameter [Detail Preservation] set to [Linear Brightness Mask]
Parameter [Compositing Algorithm] set to [Multiply, 2x Gamma Correct]
Parameter [Inherit Brightness, Color] set to [Brightness]
Parameter [Output Glow Only] set to [No]
Parameter [Airy Disk Sampling] set to [512 x 512 pixels]
Parameter [Airy Disk Radius] set to [64 pixels]
Parameter [Glow Threshold] set to [0 %]
Parameter [Detail Preservation Radius] set to [30.0 pixels]
Parameter [Saturation] set to [300 %]
Parameter [Strength] set to [70 %]
Parameter [Mask Fuzz] set to [1.0 pixels]
File saved [W:\___work\testm20v3_BJD.tiff].
--- Color
Parameter [Cap Green] set to [To Brown]
Parameter [Bias Slider Mode] set to [Sliders Reduce Color Bias]
Parameter [Style] set to [Scientific (Color Constancy)]
Parameter [LRGB Method Emulation] set to [Straight CIELab Luminance Retention]
Parameter [Dark Saturation] set to [9.90]
Parameter [Bright Saturation] set to [9.90]
Parameter [Saturation Amount] set to [115 %]
Parameter [Blue Bias Reduce] set to [1.00]
Parameter [Green Bias Reduce] set to [1.00]
Parameter [Red Bias Reduce] set to [1.00]
Parameter [Mask Fuzz] set to [1.0 pixels]
--- Wavelet Sharpen
Parameter [Intelligent Enhance] set to [Yes]
Parameter [Scale 1] set to [2 %]
Parameter [Scale 2] set to [25 %]
Parameter [Scale 3] set to [65 %]
Parameter [Scale 4] set to [90 %]
Parameter [Scale 5] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Mask Fuzz] set to [3.3 pixels]
Parameter [Amount] set to [150 %]
Parameter [Small Detail Bias] set to [0 %]
File saved [W:\___work\testm20v3_BJD.tiff].
--- Magic
Parameter [Mode] set to [Tighten]
Parameter [Mask Grow] set to [1 pixels]
Parameter [Iterations] set to [1 pixels]
File saved [W:\___work\testm20v3_BJD.tiff].

I think what helped most to bring out the fainter parts (especially the blue ones) was the Life module and increasing the [Dark Saturation]-parameter in the Color module.