I am looking to produce Hubble pallet images from Ha, O3 and Sii filtered images in Photoshop CC. I have the filters but not used all 3 yet so I have been looking at Photoshop techniques on Utube and trying very hard to emulate a few and all I get is grey images after stacking one on top of another. Starting from each of the 3 images copied into Photoshop on the top row as greyscale I need an idiots guide of copying and pasting into the respective RGB channels. Any help would be much appreciated. I am new to using channels. The exact blending amounts can wait as I just need to see the final image in colour and nor grey. Thanks in advance.
Help needed with narrowband imaging processing in Photoshop
Open the three mono image TIF files (Red, Green and Blue) and convert them to Greyscale by selecting Image - Mode - Greyscale for each image. Open the Channels palette by selecting Window - Channels. Click on the Channels palette menu and select 'Merge Channels'. Select 'RGB' from the drop down list box, set 'Channels' to '3' and click on 'OK'. Using the list box, specify which file applies to each of the three colours and click on OK. Your RGB colour image will immediately appear.
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I do it differently. If you are doing a Hubble palette image of an emission nebula, the Ha channel will be lot stronger than the OIII or SII. I stretch/process each image a little before I combine them. You will need to stretch the OIII and SII more than the Ha so that they will not be dominated by the Ha green channel. You want to make sure the left side of each histogram is near the same black point.
Bring all three images into PS. Open the OIII image and select all. Edit-Copy. Open the Ha image and make it a RGB image. Open the Ha color channels and un-check all except the blue channel. Click on the blue channel. Then Edit-Paste. That should paste the OIII image into the Blue channel. Do the same with the SII into the red channel. That will leave the Ha in the green channel. You should now have a Hubble Palette RGB image. More likely it will still be dominated by the green Ha channel. You will need to use "Selective Color" from the Layers palette to alter the color weights.
Lynn K.
Bring all three images into PS. Open the OIII image and select all. Edit-Copy. Open the Ha image and make it a RGB image. Open the Ha color channels and un-check all except the blue channel. Click on the blue channel. Then Edit-Paste. That should paste the OIII image into the Blue channel. Do the same with the SII into the red channel. That will leave the Ha in the green channel. You should now have a Hubble Palette RGB image. More likely it will still be dominated by the green Ha channel. You will need to use "Selective Color" from the Layers palette to alter the color weights.
Lynn K.
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Thanks a lot both of you and much appreciated. I now have colour in both versions though the colour balances are quite different. I can see that adjusting the colours is quite an art and that will be a big learning curve when I take some narrowband images, when the sky eventually clears for long enough, which it hasn't for months here in Devon UK. There was 1 step missing in the Utube video I had watched and that made all the difference.
It's hard for people to produce videos for people that do not know much as they are so familiar with what they are doing.
It would be very nice t0 sit down with someone that knows what they are doing and ask questions.
It's hard for people to produce videos for people that do not know much as they are so familiar with what they are doing.
It would be very nice t0 sit down with someone that knows what they are doing and ask questions.
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when the sky eventually clears for long enough, which it hasn't for months here in Devon UK
Is it that different from Lincolnshire? I wouldn't have guessed...
There is a third way: creating an image with a grayscale layer for H, S, O each and then clip a color layer to each of the mono layers. Provides you with a lot of flexibility to tune each layer and to blend the layers together. Since I'm working with PixInsight I can't provide you with more details but I'm sure someone here at astrobin can point you to a good introduction video.
Probably the only way to get one-on-one instruction is to attend a tutorial at an imaging conference. I have no idea what UK has, but in the US there is the North East Astronomy Forum which has a imaging instruction componet. Maybe the UK has something simular. However, due to Covid the NEAF has not happened since 2019.
These types of Imaging Instruction events have dried up in the US. They are very expensive. Not because of the Session cost, but the 3 or so night at a hotel, food and travel. And, everyone has moved on from Photoshop to PixInsight.
There all kinds of expensive tutorials for Professional use of PS, but those will probably be of little help for AP.
I found Adam Block's tutorials very helpful. He has also moved on to PisInsight now, but you can still get his older PS tutorials. The upgrades to PS may have move features around abit, but the basics are still the same. I still use PS v5. However, at 74, I have to move on to PisInsight also.
Lynn K.
These types of Imaging Instruction events have dried up in the US. They are very expensive. Not because of the Session cost, but the 3 or so night at a hotel, food and travel. And, everyone has moved on from Photoshop to PixInsight.
There all kinds of expensive tutorials for Professional use of PS, but those will probably be of little help for AP.
I found Adam Block's tutorials very helpful. He has also moved on to PisInsight now, but you can still get his older PS tutorials. The upgrades to PS may have move features around abit, but the basics are still the same. I still use PS v5. However, at 74, I have to move on to PisInsight also.
Lynn K.
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