This very useful document crafted by J. Scharmann, contains suggested workflow charts for beginners and advanced users.
It is robust in the presence of severe noise, as well as natural singularities (e.g. over-exposed star cores) in the dataset.
The two aspects - colour and luminance - of your image are neatly separated thanks to StarTools' signal evolution Tracking engine.
You can convert everything you see to a format you find convenient. Give it a try!