When to remove gradients?

[Black Knight]

When is the best time to remove gradients from your images? Should it be a first step before embarking on any serious processing, or is it best left until you've performed the bulk of levels and curves adjustments?

[JoLo]

I have found dealing with gradients early works best for me. I usually do a color adjustment (if needed), a moderate curve and a level to reset the black point, then straight to the gradient. The curve will help accentuate the gradient so you can get it outta dere. This is always the case with wide fields and shots from home, where LP can set up some nasty gradients.

If I am imaging from my dark site, the gradient is much less evident and, in these cases, will sometimes wait until i am finished with curves and levels. It really depends on the image, but if it is noticable, I get it out early.

[Psychobilly]

Agreed sooner the better for me as well...

[swag72]

It's always the first thing I do - Should I do anything else first? I don't know!!

[ollypenrice]

At source; emigrate!!

Olly

[Black Knight]

At source; emigrate!!

Olly

hehe, would that I could . Thanks for the tips guys. Up until now I've been trying to get rid of my LP gradients first up, although with varying degrees of success. I just wondered if there were any particular pros and cons depending on what stage of post-processing you remove the gradients.

Thanks for the responses

[Earl]

I do DBE in PI after my first crop, which just removes the edge of the image.

[Sparrow]

This is interesting - I must admit that I've been leaving my gradient correction until much later in the processing - mainly as I like to make sure I can deselect the areas of nebula from DBE which I might not see in the early stages, but I can see the logic of applying it earlier. Perhaps he answer is to do a quick "thow away" process to bring out the nebula so I know where it is and then start again doing DBE ealy on. More experimenting I think

[Earl]

iirc the correct procedure is:

Crop

DBE

Colour Calibration

Stretch

After that point it all depends on what your working on.

[mark7331]

iirc the correct procedure is:

Crop

DBE

Colour Calibration

Stretch

Agreed. It's the first thing on my list after a crop. FYI I do my crop during Image Integration in PI using a preview to get the right size.

I like Olly's method best though.

[Black Knight]

I like Olly's method best though.

Agreed. T'would be nice!