Combining RGB and Narrowband

A common question is how to combine RGB and narrowband data in a single image. This short video show a technique using Photoshop and layer groups. If you don't use Photoshop, whatever image editor you're using probably has similar features and functions so the overall approach should still work.

[@yervantparnagian5999]

A very simple and effective way to bring it all together. Thank you.

[@RigoFromSpain]

Nice Craig !

[@palaback]

Thanks for this. Looks like a great way to do this. I was getting weird colors by using default blending mode. this works way better.

[@rodneymiller9439]

Question. How do you insure that everything aligns properly, especially if your narrowband and rgb sessions are a month apart? Is this accomplished during the stacking process, perhaps? Or is it best to align in post with photoshop?

[@utahdesertremoteobservator8328]

Normally all of the light frames are processed together in the same WBPP run so they are all alignred to the same frame. If you want to process a set of lights separately you can choose Manual as the reference frame selection process and specify the same frame that was used in an earlier run. You can find the reference frame chosen in the log file.

[@rodneymiller9439]

​@utahdesertremoteobservator8328 Unfortunately I used Sirilic to stack my narrowband data and it appears as though it doesn't use a reference frame during its processing. I'll do more research, but I might end up just eyeballing it in photoshop.

[@utahdesertremoteobservator8328]

@@rodneymiller9439 I'm sure it uses a reference frame for registration, but the frame it selected may not be readily available. You can align frames in Photoshop. Sometimes Auto Align works, but it's also easy to manually align them using either Lighten or Difference blending modes.