Help with Maxim

[Spikey]

I've just started to teach myself Maxim and have started with processing some recent data from M51. This has bags more detail than the equivalent DSS stack. My first real issue is the saturation of the stars and the galaxy core which is ever present after the align and stacking processes. Is there a simple way to avoid this that I am missing? The maxim help is a bit limited and the couple of web searches I've done were fairly fruitless. I've attached 90 mins of M51 mono that has been through Maxim and my play around with the levels & built-in filters. No science just yet, only eye

Any advice or pointers to some tutorials will be much appreciated.

[Ibbo!]

Once I have acquired and stacked in Maxim its off to PS for levels and curves

You may wish to try a DDP stretch (I use Astroart for this) but if you follow this method it does help

Maxim DL Digital Development Filter (DDP Filter) Tutorial

I should have also said have a look in the imaging tips ,trickshelp section

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-tips-tricks-techniques/

Steve

[Spikey]

Cheers Steve, I reckon the DDP might just do the trick. It's one of the filters I haven't tried yet. Comes out absolutely fine in DSS and then into PS. Maxim looks like it wants to set the core and bright stars to 65535, maybe a setting I've missed somewhere.

[Spikey]

Certainly makes things a bit easier. I like the way it handles the RGB differently as well.

[Ibbo!]

In maxim when saving

save as tiff

16 bit

uncompressed

do not click on auto stretch(it tends to clip the black point)

when you open in PS the image will need stretching,it will look really dark with no info

start with a levels then move to curves

Steve

[Spikey]

Thanks Steve, I was autostretching on save.