MaximDL5 Raw to colour questions

[bloodhound31]

Hi gang,

I'm capturing images with my starshoot OS colour camera with MaximDL5.

I'm advised to capture in RAW, (mono) rather than colour, then use a debayering matrix later. Does that basically mean a colour conversion?

If so, do I colour convert each image BEFORE stacking or AFTER?

Does it also limit me to stacking IN MAXIM or can I stack the RAW, (mono) images in DSS then colour convert it after?

Baz.

[LewisM]

There is no FITS format option for this camera?

[multiweb]

The only thing you can do with bayer FITS is basic calibration; dark subtraction, flat fielding. You can't do anything that will destroy the bayer matrix such as resampling, scaling or even star registration.

So debayer should be your first step before stacking. Debayer will give you color FITS to stack. Or you can debayer to mono R, G & B then stack the channels separately, then recombine to color the masters, which is what I prefer to do.

[bloodhound31]

Ah I see. So, I should first convert to colour (which is what debayering is no?)

What about stretching? Should I:

A) colour convert and stretch each one to become a coloured, stretched FITS, save them and THEN stack them in DSS, or

B) just convert all the RAW lights and darks to colour and just stack them in DSS as is?

[multiweb]

B - stretch in the last step.

[bloodhound31]

Thanks mate. I'll do that and see how it looks.

[bloodhound31]

So, in MaximDL 5, I have 20 mono lights and 10 mono darks.

All I have to do before loading them into DSS is to colour convert them?

Can I colour convert the lot or should I do them one at a time? Should I save them as uncompressed FITS?

[multiweb]

Not familiar with DSS. Why don't you calibrate and stack in MAXIM DL?
You can debayer the lot in one go. 16 or 32 bit FITS, whatever DSS supports.

[bloodhound31]

Cheers Marc, I had a crack at it last night and put the result in the image section. I debayered and stacked in MaximDL5, did a bit of curves and levels stuff then output to 16bit TIFF then into photoshop for final tweaking.

I saw wavelets in there with 8 sliders, but no idea what they are for so I didn't use them. There was also Deconvol...something, but I have to look that up to see what that means....