Merging multiple images (as separate color channels) into one RGB image

[EZarrel]

Hi all.  First off, thanks for all the work on what is clearly an excellent resource - I am new to Paint.NET and extremely impressed!  I'm hoping you can help me with a color channel question -- I've dutifully searched the forums for over an hour and can't find what I'm looking for, so I'm sorry if I'm posting an already-solved problem.

 

Part of my job involves using a fluorescent microscope and camera to capture images of cells in multiple fluorescent channels.  What I've done in the past is to take those RGB pictures to Photoshop, create a new RGB image, and copy/paste the red channel from one picture, the blue from another, and the green from yet a different file into the respective channels of the new image.

 

The result is an image that combines the red, green, and blue fluorescence into a lovely merged image of those cells -- so the nucleus is one color, the cytoplasm is another, etc.  It takes me about 2 minutes in Photoshop.  (I apologize for the tedious explanation, but I want to be absolutely clear that I'm not looking to recolor a single image, nor do I want to simply blend existing images)

 

Is there any plugin that would enable me to do this as quickly and easily in Paint.NET?  Has anyone created a channels palette?  I'd like to convert the entire lab to Paint.NET but this RGB work is our bread-and-butter...it would have to be easy for the non-techies.

 

Thanks for any help you can give me!

[Cc4FuzzyHuggles]

Hello.

 

I haven't tried this plugin yet, but since it's called "channels", maybe it will be useful to you.

http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/9308-channels-v20-formerly-invertcolours/

 

Also, you might want to check out several color plugins, many of which can be found in the plugin index under C for colors.

http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/15260-plugin-index/

 

Just a warning on plugins though, some don't work in paint.net 4.0, which will become the standard paint.net version. Because of this, you may want to take caution on which plugins you come to favor. See this incompatible plugin list to know which plugins work and don't work in 4.0.

http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/27661-incompatible-plugins-an-incomplete-list/

Edited April 7, 2014 by Cc4FuzzyHuggles

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Also worthy of consideration if you're running 3.5.11 (not 4.0) is Channel Mask

 

more options:

 

ColorExchange

 

Color Channel Mixer