HOO palette - when to combine masters in workflow

[Hughsie]

Hi,

I have recently started taking narrowband images in Ha and OIII and have a question regarding the process workflow. At this time I have both sets of data aligned, integrated and I have undertaken a dynamic crop. In essence I have a master Ha and master OIII.

Now I am unsure what to do next.

Reading Warren Keller’s Inside PixInsight 2nd ed. page 347 provides a workflow for SHO masters and I wanted to know at what point do I combine my two masters in SHO-AIP?

Do I combine them as ‘unprocessed’ masters in SHO-AIP and then work with the resulting HOO image through DBE, deconvolution, MLT then stretch to non-linear and continue the workflow?

Or do I process each master separately through DBE, deconvolution, MLT then combine in SHO-AIP to produce the HOO image and then stretch to non-linear and carry on with the workflow?

It’s kinda got my head spinning and it would be really helpful if there is some consensus on the best way forward.

Thank you all in advance.

John

[Kinch]

Hi John,

I said it to someone recently....I failed miserably at astro-photography class. I never seem to do things "right"....I always just went off and did things the way I was comfortable with.

Having said that - probably means my images will never win top prize....but hey! I enjoy what I do.

just so happens that my last image was an HOO image and I did it no differently that how I did my other narrow band images. I always finish each master as an image in itself....and then combine the master in all manner of combinations....just to get what I want.

See my last one here:  http://www.kinchastro.com/veil-nebula.html

[Hughsie]

Thank you for the reply Kinch and what a fantastic image. In fact my HOO is of the Western Veil, one of my favourite night sky objects.

So, I will do just that and work on the masters until done then combine at the end and tweak if needs be.

John

[dave_galera]

Hi John,
This is the standard process workflow as per Vincent Peris:

1. ChannelCombination
2. Gradient removal
3. Background neutralization
4. Color calibration
5. Delinearize
6. Colour saturation

This is also a video of a process workflow using colour masks which I normally follow, and it gives good results:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZZ4UlIQk0s

[Hughsie]

Thank you Dave. That is helpful too.

I have watched Chris Gomez YouTube video previously and was impressed by the Colour Mask script. I just kept on wondering how he got up to that point 

[John_Gill]

Hi,

After I have created my masters (Ha, Sii, Oiii), I then use LRGBCombination.  I normally set L=Ha, R=Ha, G=Sii and B=Oiii and then play with the "Weighting per channel" and Saturation.  For bi-color, I set L=Ha, R=Ha, G=Oiii and B=Oiii.  After the combination, I continue with noise reduction, curves etc etc.  I do the same for L,R,G,B images.

space is not black
John

[stevek]

I use Pixel Math tool to do this combination.

[sharpie78]

Hi Hughsie,
Both methods have their merits.
I've just finished the Cygnus loop in HOO and worked both Masters through to completion before combining them, with a few tweaks post combination.
When processing my previous 3 images I combined them first and then processed them.
check out broadlandastro on facebook or instagram for a comparison.

Long and the short of it is.....try both I guess. Sorry to sit on the fence.
Jack

[dave_galera]

This is the standard process as used by Vincent Peris on his PixInsight courses

1. ChannelCombination
2. Gradient removal
3. Background neutralization
4. Color calibration
5. Delinearize
6. Colour saturation