What am I doing wrong in DSS

[steelfixer]

Good morning all.

I have a problem with DSS.

I take an AVI with my Samaung.

I put the AVI through a programe to convert it into individual bitmaps.

I do the same process for the Darks.

I then load all bitmaps into DSS and let it do its thing.

The finished image it produces is always a light grey in colour.

I then have to play around with the Luminencence levels to try and get the sky back to black.

What am I doing wrong.

Thank in advanced.

Graham

[astromerlin]

Hi Graham, I also find DSS wierd how the image changes to what would appear to be monochrome and automatically adjusting levels that make the image look bad.

Never had this with any other stacking software.

Heres what I do, probably not right but as the changes made affect the DSLR image in small squares slowly changing on my computer it takes an age to do anything. (My laptop is a 1.8ghz dual core)

First I align the RGB sliders so they all line up ontop of each other.

Next I click on saturation and increase to about 25%. I then adjust the Luminance sliders so the dotted curved line is diagonal from bottom left to top right. This seems to have the effect of returning the image to what I would expect to see.

I then do the rest of the processing in photoshop as the changes happen in realtime.

[astromerlin]

Hi Graham, I also find DSS wierd how the image changes to what would appear to be monochrome and automatically adjusting levels that make the image look bad.

Never had this with any other stacking software.

Heres what I do, probably not right but as the changes made affect the DSLR image in small squares slowly changing on my computer it takes an age to do anything. (My laptop is a 1.8ghz dual core)

First I align the RGB sliders so they all line up ontop of each other.

Next I click on saturation and increase to about 25%. I then adjust the Luminance sliders so the dotted curved line is diagonal from bottom left to top right. This seems to have the effect of returning the image to what I would expect to see.

I then do the rest of the processing in photoshop as the changes happen in realtime.

Edit: Apart from those quirks mentioned, I find DSS a very useful stacking tool especially if stacking images that have been taken at differing angles where I haven't replaced the camera in exactly the same spot over a few nights imaging.

[steelfixer]

Thanks John i will give that a go

[Freddie]

If you have PS, you need to save the image WITHOUT saving any of the changes you make and then making all adjustments in PS. There are two options when saving, with changes and without changes. If you don't have PS, then it is a case of making the adjustments in DSS and saving with the changes.

[Bizibilder]

If you are stacking .avi's then Registax is the software to use rather than DSS. I would suggest Registax 5 as it is easier to use than R6 which can be a bit "buggy" if you are not used to it.

[steelfixer]

Buzibilder I use registax 5 for stacking AVI,s but I use the above techinque as well as you are supposed to be able to pull a lot more detail out with DSS.

[RikM]

I always save from DSS with the settings 'embedded but not applied'. I do the same routine as astromerlin to get a quick look at what I have got, but I don't save the applied settings.

To pull out detail, you do this in Photoshop or other editing sofware rather than the stacking programs. If you are taking a deep sky image us DSS, for lunar / solar / planetary images use Registax. The wavelets sharpening feature in Registax will give you far better 'detail' enhancement than anything you can tweak in DSS.

[steelfixer]

Hi Rik

It is the DSO stuff I am getting the grief with.

[RikM]

Try saving the TIFF with settings embedded not applied and then doing all the processing in Photoshop (or similar). There are some great tutorials by MartinB, RobH and antimorris that were a great help to me.

Thanks all

[steelfixer]

many thanks for that I will go and have a read.