Purely Narrowband filters or do I need LRGB also?

Emuhead (Andrew) · #1 24-08-2020, 03:21 PM

Hi all,

I've purchased some narrowband filters and wondering if I can get away with just shooting with those, or will I need LRGB filters also?

Im looking to shoot nebula only at this stage, and know there's some nebula targets that could benefit from RGB, but for the most part would narrowband suffice for majority of targets?

Also, wilI i be able to get somewhat natural looking star colours from combining narrowbands?

Finally, if I do have to get LRGB, do I need L? Can they be a cheaper different brand & thickness from the NB?

Thanks,

gregmc (Greg) · #2 03-09-2020, 10:00 AM

I don’t think you can get coloured stars from NB. Best you can hope for is white stars.
I do RGB for stars and blend with NB because I like that look.
However I’ve seen nice white star images but you may have to learn how to make them white.

Atmos (Colin) · #3 03-09-2020, 10:13 AM

You can make some synthetic RGB stars out of narrowband filters, it takes a little bit of experimentation but it is definitely possible. It'll never be accurate but you can give the perception of them being colourful.

Stonius (Markus) · #4 03-09-2020, 11:32 AM

You can totally create great images with just narrowband. Absolutely!

Cheers Markus

Emuhead (Andrew) · #5 03-09-2020, 11:42 AM

For some nebula like Orion and the reflection nebula right near it, LRGB are preferred right? Ive seen some NB only versions of Orion and lets just say it wasnt for me. So i guess right there, im going to need to get LRGB filters for those targets, and for natural coloured stars.

I did read somewhere that you could use some kind of NB mixture combination (probably in Pixelmath) to get natural looking star colours from only NB images, and ill probably try it out to save imaging time (even if i have the LRGB filters). If anyone knows that formula, please let me know

Finally, how important is the L filter vs the Ha filter? Does an LRGB image more or less look the same as a HaRGB image where Ha provides the L channel. Could i forego the L filter? (again, moot point as ill get it anyway.. but just curious).

Thanks!