Color Masks for Narrowband Processing

A color mask will help you to precisely alter the color balance of your image. For those shooting H-Alpha + Oxygen (or Dual-Band filters) this can be a great way to enhance the blue colors in your photos!

Peter Zelinka

PeterZelinka

October 11, 2022

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A color mask allows you to precisely target each color channel in Photoshop. When combined with a Levels or Curves adjustment layer, this is a very powerful way to alter the color balance of your image. This workflow is great for nebula photos captured in H-Alpha Oxygen, although you can use it for any camera and filter combination.

Jimmy McIntyre has lots of great Photoshop tutorials, and his Raya Pro plugin is crucial to this workflow. We'll use the InstaMask feature to quickly create our color masks. You can find Jimmy's Raya Pro here:

https://www.shutterevolve.com/raya-pro-the-ultimate-digital-blending-workflow-panel-for-photoshop/

To learn more about astrophotography, check out my Deep Space Course on howtube:

https://www.howtube.com/series/eUVHB9fI

00:00 - Intro

01:46 - Layer Mask Refresher

03:34 - InstaMask Workflow

08:23 - "Apply Mask" Alternate Workflow

13:10 - Selective Color Adjustments

14:14 - Outro