Colorblind astrophotography - Forums

Topic starter

Jul 21, 2023

Hi to everybody,

As colorblind, sometimes I have had some funny comments on my photographs (also with "normal" photography), most times about "color flaws" on the images or regarding how saturated I usually get my images (most of the time…), so I was wondering how many of you are also colorblind here.

Luckily, I haven't really suffered any issues in my "real life", and I hope this is not any offense to anyone but I thought it could be fun to share some of the fun things that we have processed ( i.e. I had a "purple" Júpiter on my first and only try of planetary… Or a great amount of green, when I thought it was yellow, in some astrophotos). Also, we could discuss any advice or tricks that could be used for processing (i.e. to avoid weird colors in an image).

I really like when people talk to me about something regarding the colors on my images. And although I try to get "natural" looking images (or at least pleasing looking), I get that sometimes people don't see what I see (or vice-versa).

Cheers!

Respectful Engaging

Ed Litoborski

Jul 21, 2023

I have the same issues. especially with my green stars or purple Oiii (which I see as blue) the struggle is real!
I need to have someone double check my images as I can unknowingly screw colors up quickly.
When shopping for clothes by myself, I ALWAYS need to have someone confirm the colors or what does or does not go together.
Just life.

MikeY_Astro

Jul 21, 2023

I struggle as well. What has helped me is to use the "Color Mask_mod" script in PixInsight. You can select an area in your image, and on a color wheel it will show you what the general color is - with text too! I also just recently had my monitor color calibrated, so between the two, I now finally have images that more closely resemble other's colors.

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Vitali

Jul 21, 2023

Hi, this topic pops up from time to time

You may want to read this forum thread too:
https://www.astrobin.com/forum/c/astrophotography/deep-sky-processing-techniques/color-blindness-request-for-hintstricks/

Best regards,
Vitali

astrogrumpy

Topic starter

Jul 21, 2023

Mikey_Astro, I didn't notice that tool!! Thanks a lot!

Hi Vitaly, I searched in forums for "colorblind" and I couldn't found anything, but we could use that post and close this one, so keep all tidy!

Vitali

Jul 21, 2023

astrogrumpy:
I searched in forums for "colorblind" and I couldn't found anything, but we could use that post and close this one

Right, the old thread does not have the "colorblind" word

I did not mean to suggest to close your thread. I just thought that information from the old thread could be useful too.

BTW, I also really like when someone comments about good colors of my images. It means that my approach to color calibration is most likely correct

Best regards,
Vitali

AstroDarkSky

Jul 21, 2023

MikeY_Astro:
I struggle as well. What has helped me is to use the "Color Mask_mod" script in PixInsight. You can select an area in your image, and on a color wheel it will show you what the general color is - with text too! I also just recently had my monitor color calibrated, so between the two, I now finally have images that more closely resemble other's colors.

I second this. This script is a complete game changer for those of us who see the world differently. I can get lucky and pick the right hue based on histograms, but I would never be able to go into Photoshop and adjust the colors by hand without skewing something into a weird palette. This script lets me pick something I 'can' see and gives enough range to bring similar colors along the ride on the Curves train.

Otherwise, I would be randomly picking browns(to me) hoping I grabbed a red or vice versa. Then just a quick SCNR and I don't have to worry about whether or not there's any green left in the pic if green is a flaw for the target.

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AstroDarkSky

Jul 21, 2023

Ed Litoborski:
I have the same issues. especially with my green stars or purple Oiii (which I see as blue) the struggle is real!
I need to have someone double check my images as I can unknowingly screw colors up quickly.
When shopping for clothes by myself, I ALWAYS need to have someone confirm the colors or what does or does not go together.
Just life.

The trick I learned for purple stars is to invert, SCNR, invert back again. I test it with my wife and she always is amazed that I can get rid of purple when I can't see it to begin with(color intensity shifts it to either blue, red, or black for my un-color vision). I don't know how to do this without Pixinsight though. The ability to do more mathematical changes to colors instead of by eye in Photoshop is a major reason I adopted Pixinsight and never looked back.

It may shift some other undesired colors too with this trick, but probably not by a lot and... well... I can't see it anyways lol! If worried about this side effect, just Starnet/StarXterminator it, then invert, SCNR, invert back on just the star image by itself instead of the whole stars + background. Combine stars+starless back again. The tooling did all the magic without borrowing someone else's eyes to manually adjust the color and use an annoying series of eye test like questions with them - which one is better, before, after, repeat until one of you runs out of patience

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astrogrumpy

Topic starter

Jul 21, 2023

Vitali:
astrogrumpy:
I searched in forums for "colorblind" and I couldn't found anything, but we could use that post and close this one

Right, the old thread does not have the "colorblind" word I did not mean to suggest to close your thread. I just thought that information from the old thread could be useful too.

BTW, I also really like when someone comments about good colors of my images. It means that my approach to color calibration is most likely correct

Best regards,
Vitali

Thanks Vitali, the information in that thread is valuable, soo it would be good not to be lost in the forums!

Ed Litoborski:
I have the same issues. especially with my green stars or purple Oiii (which I see as blue) the struggle is real!
I need to have someone double check my images as I can unknowingly screw colors up quickly.
When shopping for clothes by myself, I ALWAYS need to have someone confirm the colors or what does or does not go together.
Just life.

The trick I learned for purple stars is to invert, SCNR, invert back again. I test it with my wife and she always is amazed that I can get rid of purple when I can't see it to begin with(color intensity shifts it to either blue, red, or black for my un-color vision). I don't know how to do this without Pixinsight though. The ability to do more mathematical changes to colors instead of by eye in Photoshop is a major reason I adopted Pixinsight and never looked back.

I use this invert+SCNR too! Always work for me

Cheers

Oscar H.

Jul 21, 2023

Isn't it possible to wear enchroma glasses while processing?

Nicholas Warner

Jul 23, 2023

Hey Astrogrumpy,

I attended the Oregon Star Party this last week and got to attend a talk on 'Color determination in imaging'. The presenter (Jim) had worked at HP for ~40 years and shared that the best color scientist they had was totally color blind.

His methodology was that you do not need to see the colors to have them be accurate. As long as you establish that the blacks and whites are right, using a form of background neutralization, you can make an accurate assessment of the RGB values. His recommendation was to use the SPCC tool, as this also takes into account the atmospheric extinction and your camera sensor/filters.

This gives a good base line to processing the rest of the image, although there is plenty we do to muck it up afterwards 😂

Best of luck!

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