Initial stacked but otherwise unprocessed color RGB image.

Stretch | Digital Development is used for the initial brightness increase. First the Break-Point Highlight slider is moved to the left to increase brightness. Next the Background Weight slider is moved to the left so that the background is dark gray and not black. HDR pre-stretch scale function is set to nth Root and the Root slider is moved to the left to increase brightness of the faint areas without increasing brightness of the lighter areas of the image. For details on using Digital Development see Initial Digital Development Stretch.

Color emphasis on the Color and Sharpeness tab of Digital Development is used to increase color.

Special Functions | Multi-Point Flatten Background is used to neutralize the background level and set it to dark gray. See Multiple Point Background Color Balance & Flatten Tool for a tutorial.

Smooth Sharpen | Multiresolution Smooth-Sharpen is used with an inverse luminance mask to smooth the background and maintain detail and color. A tutorial can be found at Feathered Background or Highlight Smoothing & Sharpening With Local | Multiresolution Smoothing & Sharpening. See Basic Steps for Creating & Modifying Image Masks for details about making many different kinds of masks.

Stretch | Micro Curves is used to fine adjust brightness and contrast. Soft Light blend mode with 100% opacity is set on the Process History layer window to increase contrast. Details for using Micro Curves can be found at Micro Curves - Increase Contrast and Reduce Background and Core Brightness.

Color | Hue-Saturation-Luminance is used with a luminance mask to increase color saturation of the brighter areas with little change to the dark background areas. See Basic Steps for Creating & Modifying Image Masks for details about making many different kinds of masks. A tutorial for using Hue-Saturation-Luminance is at Shift hue and enhance saturation and luminance.

Multiresolution Smooth-Sharpen is used with a luminance mask to sharpen the brighter areas with detail.

The Selective Color Mask tool is used to create a mask of the blue areas of the image. The mask is the used with the Color | Additve Color Balance tool to increase blue of just the blue areas of the image and maintain detail and color. See Basic Steps for Creating & Modifying Image Masks for details about making selective color masks. A tutorial for using Additive Color Balance is at Adjust color balance of the background, midtones, or highlights.

Stretch | Histogram Contrast Stretch is used to perform a high dynamic range stretch of the image to make the faint areas brighter without making the bright areas of the image too bright.

Mild color saturation increase applied to the entire image.

Color | Color Balance tool is used to neutralize the color of the dark black areas. Check the Neutralize Background box on Color Balance then left click on one of the dark black areas of the image. See Neutralize background, midtone, or white point color balance with optional luminance level control. for a tutorial on using Color Balance.

Final processed color RGB image without H-alpha image data.

Initial stacked but otherwise unprocessed H-alpha image.

Initial brightness and contrast increase performed with Digital Development. The image could use more exposure time but is still useful for boosting red in the color RGB image.

Darker areas smoothed with Multiresolution Smooth-Sharpen. Note that a feathered luminance range is set using the Min Max Apply sliders on Multiresolution Smooth-Sharpen.

Mild brighness increase is applied using Micro Curves.

The gray H-alpha image is converted to red data using Color | Interpret & Mix Color. The red H-alpha image will be layered on top of the final color RGB image to enhance red.

Special Functions | Combine Images & Mosaic is used to layer the red H-alpha image on top of the processed color RGB image to enhance red. Screen blend mode with opacity = 0.51 is used to blend the color RGB and H-alpha layers. See Quick Guide to Combine Images & Mosaic Layers for examples and details on using layers with blend modes, opacity, and masks. Tutorials on multiple luminance layering, combining H-alpha with color, and many other topics can be found at the main image process tutorial page.

Color RGB image with H-alpha layered on top to enhance red.

The red data added noise to the dark background. Smooth Sharpen | Smoothing & Noise Reduction is used with an inverse luminance mask to smooth the dark background.

Mild contrast and brightness increase is appled with Micro Curves.

Final image with H-alpha and RGB data.

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