Image processing software?

[Steve]

I need to invest in some image processing software. My gut feeling (with little experience) is to keep the image capture software nice and simple, say Atik's own Artemis Capture or Nebulosity with PHD, then do the majority of the work in Photoshop CS3-5. But there are some interesting looking packages available that are tailor-made for the astroimager like Astro-Art V5, Maxim-DL and Pixinsight.

What is the current thinking and what do you recommend please?

[Willly]

All these have zero financial investment, just time.

GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

"as of the 2.6 release GIMP can use GEGL to perform high bit depth color operations" All it takes is to turn GEGL on and use GEGL for processing.

Photivo - photivo wiki

Like Lightroom, except free

Paint.NET - Free Software for Digital Photo Editing

Free

http://www.digikam.org/

Free, use the Windows KDE installer, http://windows.kde.org/

All image post processing is the same techniques, if you cannot do it with free software that provides the same functions, why pay 500 GBP to find out you cannot do it there either

[Merlin66]

I think AstroArt V5 is greatly under appreciated..can be used with almost any camera to capture/ guide and provides all the pre and post processing you'll need.

[MartinB]

Everyone will have their own views Steve! I don't use Maxim for processing, it's certainly never tempted me other than occasional use of DDP which I think is far less useful now that many other programmes support 16bit processing. I'm a big fan of deconvolution (although some people say it is a waste of time!). I think it's worth having the facility to do that. After capturing, calibrating and combining in Maxim I usually deconvolve the luminence channel in CCDStack. I understand AstroArt also has a very good deconvolve routine.

Pixinsight is capable of doing everything and more. I prefer to use PS because I enjoy working with layers and masks and it has become second nature to me. PS has some great plugins for sharpening, noise reduction and gradient removal (usually at a price). I do use PixInsight and it's dynamic background extraction tool can sort out complex gradients around extended nebulosity better than the gradient exterminator PS plug in.

I like the philosophy of PI and once you have purchased it you get free upgrades for life. If you are after a purely astro processing package there's no doubt PI offers better value for money and the potential of better performance in some areas. However, if you are familiar with PS, also want to have something you can use for conventional photography and you can afford it PS remains a great bit of software.

[Willly]

Free upgrades for PixInsight's life time, not your lifetime They could simply rebrand the product to a new product and there is no more upgrades (or they go out of business)

I don't like the point in their FAQ that states they have no intention of improving the user experience of using the product.

http://pixinsight.com/faq/index.html

Their FAQ wreaks of developer arrogance.

The company behind PixInsight seem overarrogant to me, typical developers. Definitely not User Experience people and definitely not business people. That can only go on so long before they realise (through falling sales) that they need to hire a UX person.

They don't "have time" to make a manual, why should I pay 171 Euros for a product with no manual again and especially a company behind it that makes no time for documentation?

Basically PI is an image processing API FIRST with a hacked up UI on top.

This is exactly the same mindset that held back GIMP widespread adoption for years, only now are they waking up.

[Willly]

I recommend you spend your GBP on Photoshop CS 5 Extended Edition.

Don't even bother wasting time on FREE packages practicing and trying to process there, just jump in, spend 500 smackers and hope for the best Good luck!

There you go, just toeing the party line

[harry page]

Hi

Personaly I use AA5 for capture and calibration and pixinsight for processing .

I think to get the best from your image you will need to cough up for a s/w package be it pixinsight or photoshop, as always you pays your money and make your choice

Regards Harry

[Steve]

Thank-you for your thoughts :)

I should have used SGL's search facility first as I have found this subject covered well in another thread HERE.

My current thinking is to continue using Atik's Artemis Capture and PHD and invest in CCDStack, CCDInspector and one of the Photoshop CS packages. As much as I would like to support dedicated astro software like Pixinsight and AstroArt V5 I have some background with Photoshop so the learning curve will be less steep. Besides, James uses Pixinsight so I can dip into that if necessary

[Ben Ritchie]

I've always liked AstroArt for initial calibration and processing, then exported in a suitable 16-bit format for further processing in Photoshop.

[Earl]

Hi

Personaly I use AA5 for capture and calibration and pixinsight for processing .

I think to get the best from your image you will need to cough up for a s/w package be it pixinsight or photoshop, as always you pays your money and make your choice

Regards Harry

Im curious Harry as why you dont use PI to calibrate?