Thanks Laurie.
Raymo, I think you are asking a good question, and broaching a topic that is quite complex and that I as a beginner don't pretend to understand. A few observations:
1) I don't *think* the colour difference is down to the different filters in the modded vs unmodded DSLR in this instance. The image by alpal in
this IIS thread has pretty much the same colour balance as mine. So I think it will be something to do with the way we have stacked then processed our images.
2) Using DSS to stack images I get quite different colour results if I check the"Use auto white balance" checkbox; the "Use camera white balance", or neither. Sometimes the result sseem unpredictable, I'm sure it's my shortcomings :-)
3) Using MaximDL to calibrate one-shot colour images likewise seems to give me unpredictable colour results; again, I need to understand what all the setting do.
4) What I currently do is use DSS to apply darks and flats; I then use MaximDL to stack and stretch the image. This seems to get the most "natural" colour outcomes.
5) I then did a little bit of processing in Photoshop. I pushed up the saturation and vibrance a bit, and applied quite a lot of sharpening to this particular image as I wanted to see how much detail I could extract. I have another version that is prettier but fuzzier. However, I didn't alter the colour balance too much; a little bit (+5-10) of red and blue to enhance the contrast between the emission and reflection components of the nebula (at least, that's what I think they are).
6) I think there's heaps of green in my image! More than in any other deep sky object I've tried. Can you post a link to yours so we can compare?
Cheers
Jonathan
