Help with Leo triplet processing

[dzso.bacsi]

Hi,

Could someone please give me some hints about what I do wrong?

I use a modded Canon 600D. I have 31 * 360" lights of Leo triplet, besides the flats, darks and biases, light pollution and a somewhat hazy night.
After the BatchPreprocessing I followed Kayron Mercieca's tutorial for DSLR postprocessing http://lightvortexastronomy.blogspot.hu/2013/12/tutorial-post-processing-pixinsight.html (I did it before with reasonably good results considering I am at a beginner level of PI and astrophoto processing)
I started with a double-run DBE and followed the tutorial step-by-step as usual - trying different parameters and for example leaving out the HDR step 'cause I did not see pleasing results from it.
However, throughout the rgb part of the processing I had the feeling that I have somehow lost the "colors"
I checked other photos of Leo triplet and I have got the structure but not the colors.
Is there a big mistake and/or misunderstanding of my processing (loosing somehow the colors) or the capturing went somehow out of regular loosing color info?

Here is the .xisf after DBE - the starting point of the processing - and below is the best I was able to come up with...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BymFNAdr5ObebUVGODltb1RvZHM/view?usp=sharing

Thanks

[FunTomas]

Create process history container (http://www.pixinsight.com.ar/en/docs/31/pixinsight-history-explorer-extract-process-container.html) and share it. I will try to look for step, where colors are missing.

[chris.bailey]

I think the key step to getting the 'right' colours in your image is Colour Calibration. See this excellent tutorial for getting the right parameters.

http://www.harrysastroshed.com/pixinsight/pixinsight%20video%20html/pixinsighthomenewbie.html

After that a simple stretch and saturation boost in curves should give you what you are looking for.

Chris

[dzso.bacsi]

Hi,

Thanks for the answers, sorry for not having been able to react earlier.

FunTomas - I have no history of the process (don't even know ho to make a proper projekt save and redo, my fault.) But I started with DBE - the result is the shared .xisf. After that BN with background preview and CC with white and backgound previews, SNCR and the rest was noise reduction, exactly (ATWT/MMT/HistT/ATWT/ACDNR) as in the tutorial. If you try just the first steps BN/CC/SNCR, maybe you could tell me wether my file does contain at all the colors or not (especially missing the blue, I don't know why)

chris.baily - I think I would know Harry's voice anytime/anywhere if I heard it, from the hundreds of watching session of his tutorials in the last year...  I did CC this time also according to Harry, even setting the minimums as it is explained on the video.

Thank you all!

[FunTomas]

Hi dzso.

I try to continue with your image. Background neutralization and color calibration was succeed. Your image is still colorful. Problem is in your other steps. Please, make them again, and create history process from your final image. Save this process icon and we can analyze it.

FunTomas

[Zocky]

Hi dzso!
First what you have to do, is color calibration. Take a look at the attached screenshot.
Galaxies are set as the white reference. Use the preview aggregator, to aggregate galaxies and background, then use values as on the screenshot. Furthermore, attached you can find history process icons, so you can see what I was doing with the image.

[Zocky]

And here is the final result.

[FunTomas]

Zocky, something is wrong. Your stars looks like donuts.

[Zocky]

Zocky, something is wrong. Your stars looks like donuts.

Yes I know, HDRMT tool caused a darker center of the stars. Since the discussion is about color calibration, I didn't bother with perfect stars.

[dzso.bacsi]

Zocky, FunTomas,

Thank you all for your kind help. When I get back to my computer on Tuesday, I try to use all the suggestions and redo the whole process.

Zocky,
Great idea, the aggregation. I only used one background and one white preview in my CC. I'll definitely start with preview aggregation. I am happy to see the blueish part of the galaxy. In my try the blue was simply nowhere. Thank you for the process history.

[dzso.bacsi]

I reprocessed the image (and reprocessed and reprocessed... ) and came up with this. I seem to "find" the colors, the rest (noise and curves and all the other thing), well it is a long, long way ahead of me to Tipperary...

Thank you guys for your kind help!!!

[Zocky]

Dzso, when you boost color saturation in galaxies and in the stars, you have to apply mask to protect the background. Without mask you will also boost background color. Furthermore, you have to be careful with intensity. It is always better to make a few small steps, then one big. In your case, it looks you have apply to much saturation.
Did you try to follow history steps that I have provided?