MLUnsold Digital Imaging

Narrow Band 4 Color Palette

The Mix LRGB & Hue tool can be used to mix color from monochrome or color images. The goal of this example is to combine 3nm SII, NII, Ha, and OIII narrow band components from an ST-10 and C14 Edge at F6.8. SII is mapped to orange, NII to red, Ha to blue green, and OIII to blue using the Mix LRGB and Hue tool.

The Mix LRGB & Hue tool assumes that the components have already been aligned as shown by the Align DSLR, one shot color CCD, and CCD Color Component example.

Step 1 - Open the Component Images and also the Color | Mix LRGB and Hue Tool

Open the SII, NII, Ha, and OIII components and the Color | Mix LRGB and Hue tool. This example use Mix LRGB and Hue to mix the narrow band components before a stretch of the component data is performed. The Mixing H-alpha and Color from a DSLR or OSC CCD example applies the initial stretch before the data is mixed into a color image.

Step 2 - Select Source Color Components

Press the Select All Open button to select all of the open images. You could also check the Select Source Image Box and left-click on the image area of the source image to select a single image. The small light gray image in the tree to the left of each source image indicates that the source image is a monochrome luminance image.

Step 3 - Assign H-alpha to Blue Green in the Combination Image

Left-click on the H-alpha source image in the tree then from the Map Color control group select to G. Press the Add button then set the factor slider to 0.67x. Now add H-alpha to blue and set the factor to 0.33x. You could also select a single blue green hue from the hue table and set the factor to 1.0x.

Step 4 - Assign NII to Red and OIII to Blue in the Combination Image

Use the Map Color control group to map NII to red with a factor of 1.21x and OIII to blue with a factor of 1.0x.

Step 5 - Select Orange Hue for SII

Select Hue in the Map Color group then press the Hue Table button. Use the Define Custom Colors button to display the hue table then left-click on an orange in the hue table. Make sure you set the luminance level > 0. Press Ok to save the custom orange hue.

Step 6 - Assign SII to Orange in the Combination Image

Select the SII source image in the tree then press the Add button to map SII to orange in the combination image.

Step 7 - Build the Combination Image

Press the Apply button to build the combination image.

Step 8 - Test the Color Map

Press the Release Combination button on Mix LRGB and Hue then apply DDP to test the color combination. You can edit the color mix tree then press Apply to rebuild the combination image and test again.

Finial Processed Image of NGC 7635

NGC 7635 4 Color Narrow Band

See NGC 7635 processing example for a detailed description and initial combination image with ImagesPlus 4.5 project file. The project file can be used with ImagesPlus 4.5 to step through the processing commands to create the final image of NGC 7635.

Use the Map Color control group to map NII to red with a factor of 1.21x and OIII to blue with a factor of 1.0x.

Select Hue in the Map Color group then press the Hue Table button. Use the Define Custom Colors button to display the hue table then left-click on an orange in the hue table. Make sure you set the luminance level > 0. Press Ok to save the custom orange hue.

Select the SII source image in the tree then press the Add button to map SII to orange in the combination image.

Press the Apply button to build the combination image.

Press the Release Combination button on Mix LRGB and Hue then apply DDP to test the color combination. You can edit the color mix tree then press Apply to rebuild the combination image and test again.

NGC 7635 4 Color Narrow Band See NGC 7635 processing example for a detailed description and initial combination image with ImagesPlus 4.5 project file. The project file can be used with ImagesPlus 4.5 to step through the processing commands to create the final image of NGC 7635.

NGC 7635 4 Color Narrow Band

See NGC 7635 processing example for a detailed description and initial combination image with ImagesPlus 4.5 project file. The project file can be used with ImagesPlus 4.5 to step through the processing commands to create the final image of NGC 7635.