LRGB M8 first go, please be kind!!

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

Frozen Space-iods!
This is only the second time I have attempted LRGB imaging - having a steep hill to climb re using the software and the stacking. Being a person that never reads "TFM" before I try it!
Had to though as could not work out why Maxim would stack my Luma frames and my RGB but never the twain should meet.
Good on line tutes sorted that out.
Anyhoo-
Approx 15x 5 minutes of Lagoon, RC8, QSI683, LRGB filters (amazingly!)
Acquired earlier this month -ambient temp was 4'c according to my observing diary.
T shirt flats+ darks and bias frames calibrated, stacked in Maxim.
Processed in Star Tools.
I know it's a bit brown but hey! I'm on the steep bit of this LRGB stuff.
Thanks for looking/ advice/ tips...
Cheers
Graz in Taz..

[LucasB (Lucas)]

Hi Graham,

Great first up effort! It is a little clipped in the shadows of the blue channel and just needs a colour balance tweak and you will find it is not too bad at all.

Lucas

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

Lucas, That's exactly what I mean. I have no idea what to do to unclip my blue channel etc, sounds a bit photoshop?
How did you tell that from looking at a reduced jpeg?
I must be colour blind or something!
Cheers
Graham

[rmuhlack (Richard)]

As Lucas said, a bit blue clipped and the colour balance is a bit wonky, but the data overall looks pretty good i reckon. I have attached a histogram of your original, as well as a quick attempt of mine (using Pixinsight) to adjust the colour balance and contrast.

re the histogram, you probably should be aiming to have the beginning of each histogram for Red, Green and Blue to all start at the same point, rather than being staggered like your original. Notice too how the beginning of the blue histogram is missing - this is where you've clipped it.

Guiding and focus all look great. I reckon after a repro this will come up tops

[LucasB (Lucas)]

Graham,
It's not that your colour blind at all. I had photoshop give me a hand. You could see the colour cast with your image so your eyes are fine. I knew there was a problem with the blue Channel so I had a look at the histogram and saw that the blue channel was hard up against the left hand side which indicates clipping (see attached pic). I have never used Maxim so I am not quite sure if it is calibration or processing. Hope you don't mind but I had a little play in photoshop with the colour and although my effort is not perfect I think it shows that colour balance in post processing can help. I used colour balance, levels and curves in Photoshop.

Lucas

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

ahh! that makes sense- will give it a go. Cheers chaps- very useful info.
I can do the acquisition ok, still really learning the processing stuff.
good tips
Graz