Opinions Grayscale or Colour

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Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by RodAstro »

Hi I am just interested in what people can see better in each image.
Are all the opinions the same or is it just down to the viewers personal taste.

The two pictures are the same image just one I have done a final colour on it so all processing is the same until the colour.

Rod
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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Both are really nice but I prefer the colorized version.


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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by RodAstro »

Any reasons James
Is it just a more pleasing colour or do you see more detail?


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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by MAURITS »

I can see more details in gray-scale image, but a colored image is always beautiful to see and it looks a bit more natural, just my two cents.


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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

I agree with both James and Maurits's replies Rod.

Both are excellent and flicking between the two shows me the same amount of detail - as long as the contrast and brightness are the same as yours are..

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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by dhkaiser »

I chose gray-scale image every time.


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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by RodAstro »

This is all very interesting and thanks for the replies.

I will give you my opinion in a couple of days when everyone has had a chance to reply and see if that stirs any opinions.

Rod


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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by DeepSolar64 »

I think the greyscale image may have a bit more contrast but the color image is just more pleasing to the eye. It's hard to pick which one is absolutely the best. You cannot lose on either.


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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by rigel123 »

I always go for grayscale images and have always felt that they reveal more fine details. I am usually in the minority though as colorized images typically get more “curb appeal”. I think it is the contrast that gives me that impression as I can see the same details in the colorized version, but they don’t stand out quite as well.


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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by Montana »

Both have different properties and I always like to present both. The B&W is more technical and easier to see fine details. Sometimes colour can be over saturated/ loss of contrast.

The problem with colour is that everyone's monitor shows a different colour and saturation. I realised this when I got a new computer last year and all my images suddenly looked shocking, really shocking!!! I was so upset I spent loads of money on a colour chuck thing. Once it had reset my monitor everything was more natural but very orange compared to what I thought. I now try to get colour right on the new computer but my images look very bland and yucky coloured on my work computer. So when folks say they hate the colour, they may not be seeing what you see ;) The worst shock was my recent APOTY 2020 win, I thought I had entered a lovely rich golden granulation. When I got my new computer last summer is was a shocking sickly orange. After colour chuck correction it was more palatable and this seems to be a similar colour to what has printed out in publication but it is still not the colour I had wanted.

On my work computer your colour image looks very yellow, but the umbral detail stands out very well. I have no idea what colour you intended it to be or what others see. I have no answer to this problem, maybe I should use my calibration chuck again, but I can't do that on my work computer which is so old it barely starts in the morning.

This is why you see so many different colours on the forum from yellow to a yellow/green/brown to rich red. You also have to remember that some folks are colour blind and seeing a rich red image is not helpful for them.

However, B&W rarely wins competitions or the public heart, but the scientists love it :) The main thing is, do you love it :)

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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by ffellah »

Both great images, Rod. In my opinion mono images reveal more detail, color images have more impact but are very arbitrary. Color is more fun but the true test of an image is in B&W.

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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by RodAstro »

Hi thanks for all the replies

As I said I would give it a while before giving my opinion so here goes.

I have always been one for grayscale images of the sun because I can just see more detail but have done colourised pictures because people seem to like them.
Since I have been imaging in Ha there has not been a great deal of activity but now we have had a reasonable size sun spot and it was this that made me change my mind a little.
Everything around the spot I can see best in grayscale but the spot itself, as Alexandra noted, shows far more detail in the colourised image.
I have had a look around at other peoples images in grayscale of the same spot and they all show the same, just a very black spot with little detail.

I just found this interesting and a little baffling why it should do this so thought I would share.

Rod


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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by rigel123 »

RodAstro wrote: Sat Jul 10, 2021 8:56 pm Hi thanks for all the replies

As I said I would give it a while before giving my opinion so here goes.

I have always been one for grayscale images of the sun because I can just see more detail but have done colourised pictures because people seem to like them.
Since I have been imaging in Ha there has not been a great deal of activity but now we have had a reasonable size sun spot and it was this that made me change my mind a little.
Everything around the spot I can see best in grayscale but the spot itself, as Alexandra noted, shows far more detail in the colourised image.
I have had a look around at other peoples images in grayscale of the same spot and they all show the same, just a very black spot with little detail.

I just found this interesting and a little baffling why it should do this so thought I would share.

Rod
More than likely the way you are adding color to your images you may use an adjustment layer after turning your image into an RGB image and then you are basically stretching the different channels to adjust your color. Basically you are changing the histogram and bringing up shadows or midpoints which you could do the same with your B&W image as long as you haven't clipped your black point. You'll notice sometimes that proms seem to suddenly appear better in a colorized image but again, it is typically due to the stretching you do to different channels to get the color you want, and typically this means stretching the red channel which will bring out more in the darker areas.


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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by Rusted »

Rod,

Both are fine images but I always prefer B&W.
I might add colour to my own images just to break the monotony.

Colouring an image takes much longer using simple image handling software. [PhotoFiltre7]
I find I cannot just colour an image. It needs much more work not to lose detail and impact.
I can't use PhotoShop. My brain can't cope with incongruous symbols. FireCapture has them too.

Alexandra's discussion of monitors is more important than many realise.
I use an AOC hi-res 27" in the observatory driven by a fast, higher-res laptop with SSDs.
I do all my processing on the fly. A couple of minutes from capture and I am finished.

After I have posted to a forum, or my blog, I usually check my images on the standard Samsung 28" HD monitor indoors.
Almost always I find them muddy and boring. :D They vary across different forums [fora] too.


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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by eroel »

Rod:
Beautiful image with a color version.
I prefer the B/W it shows a more detailed image.
Best regards,
Eric.


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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by RodAstro »

Hi
I still like grayscale the best as it just has more detail to my eye always has, I just have to be a little more carful with the contrast like this.
Cheers Rod
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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by AndiesHandyHandies »

Hi

Here is hoping with your help I get some images like this.

Cheers. Andrew


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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by Martin_S »

Hi Rod, when I first started doing solar Imaging my preference was colourised images, these days I am biased towards monochrome images as I feel that a colourised image is a distraction to perceiving the finer details in a solar image.
Colour images look nice , but what constitutes a true representation of the suns natural colour in a specific wavelength?. When I colourize an image it's what I think the sun would look like on my monitor, as viewed through my 63 year old eyes. Another person may look at my image on their own monitor and have a completely different perception of my image.

So to close my reply I'd have to say that monochrome would be my preference . This is a great topic Rod thanks for starting it.

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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by RodAstro »

Thanks Martin
I agree it is interesting and what I wanted to highlight was how some information is lost in some processing processes especially processes like contrast boosting. Sometimes the image can be made to look more dramatic by boosting some information but in the process you can inadvertently cover up some subtle information.
This just became apparent to me when I colourised this image, through whatever process I did the spot regained its detail, I will be aware of this now and more carful.
I may just colourise my images to check this.
I actually tend to process my images live at the telescope whilst other captures are being taken and then finish them off later.
I like to do this to confirm what I am seeing through the eyepiece.

As an aside Martin do you ever go to the Brisbane observatory and use their telescope as it is the same as the one I am using for my solar imaging.

Cheers Rod


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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by Martin_S »

RodAstro wrote: Mon Jul 12, 2021 10:43 am
As an aside Martin do you ever go to the Brisbane observatory and use their telescope as it is the same as the one I am using for my solar imaging.

Cheers Rod
Hi Rod, I go to Mt Cootha Botanic Gardens about once every 10 years, It's a bit of a drive from where I live.

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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by viewer »

I think both are good. Can imagine I will alternate between the alternatives. Maybe wise from this thread I will be putting at most a light hue on my hopefully coming images, so the color can't be very badly distorted...


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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by RodAstro »

That is a pity Martin it seems like there is an opening for you there as the planetarium director/astronomer has not long retired.

Cheers all
Rod


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Re: Opinions Grayscale or Colour

Post by Martin_S »

RodAstro wrote: Mon Jul 12, 2021 7:09 pm That is a pity Martin it seems like there is an opening for you there as the planetarium director/astronomer has not long retired.

Cheers all
Rod


Thanks for the suggestion Rod. I would have thought that some of the members from B.A.S would have stepped up to that role.
Mark Rigby has done a fine job over the years, I remember him as science writer for the Courier Mail.

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