Stacking solar and lunar images

[JamesF]

Results of my experimentation thus far...

ImageMagick produces TIFF files from the RAWs that include all the readout noise and just will not stack nicely. Canon's DPP package doesn't appear to do so. I assume there must be an extra bit of processing there that DPP does to clean up the noise. I'm still having problems stacking the DPP TIFFs however. That appears to be down to image alignment, but when I try PIPP to tidy them up it tells me it can't find any images at all

So, I'm now giving AS!2 another go, but using the DPP TIFFs. It is not fast, but considerably faster than using the ImageMagick TIFF files was.

No wonder so many people have had problems with this...

James

[cgarry]

Hi James,

Were you trying to process CR2 or TIFF files with PIPP? (They both should work...). Could you let me have one of the files that PIPP could not handle? That would really help me fix this bug.

Cheers,

Chris

[JamesF]

Sure, no problem. I'll sort it out on Tuesday probably -- should already be in bed as I'm off to a wedding early tomorrow.

James

[cgarry]

Sure, no problem. I'll sort it out on Tuesday probably -- should already be in bed as I'm off to a wedding early tomorrow.

James

Thanks James, that would be much appreciated.

It is very interesting what you say about the high level of noise in the raw images, that is not something I have seen in images from my camera and I wonder if that is the primary reason why some people cannot get their raw images to stack.

Enjoy the wedding!

Chris

[JamesF]

It is very interesting what you say about the high level of noise in the raw images, that is not something I have seen in images from my camera and I wonder if that is the primary reason why some people cannot get their raw images to stack.

Reading around the subject a little it appears that when the camera firmware creates JPEG files it may actually be applying a noise filter and a subsequent sharpen to the image. I wonder if DPP does the same when it creates TIFF files from the RAW ones? As you say, it might well explain the problems some people have had as the TIFFs I create from the RAW files with ImageMagick are exceptionally noisy compared with those from DPP.

James

[JB80]

On the noise front, I was getting a similarly noisy results when using the PST and DSLR and what I believe to be the cause of this and various other issues was a rogue setting that was enabled on the camera. I forget which one but I think it's mainly used by wedding photographers to combat noise in dresses but then goes on to create noise everywhere else.

Anyway, moral of the story check all your camera settings and disable anything that is enabled.

As for the stacking of solar lunar images with a dslr, I have had no luck with lunar photos and only once did I have success with a set of solar that stacked about 7 images.

However for that to work I let a friend play with them and they got it to stack, still not sure how but I think they just painstakingly spent the time to align everything.

[JamesF]

I know there's some sort of noise reduction setting on the newer cameras. I've not noticed it on my 450D, but I'll check again.

James

[JB80]

I was using the 450D when I had the problem, I never had the issue when using the 20D. Definitely have a look and if anything says it's enabled switch it off.

Not saying it's the cause for sure but it's worth checking.

[JamesF]

Aha! Found the long exposure noise reduction and high ISO noise reduction options. They're both off. I couldn't see anything else that struck me as being likely to cause a problem, but that doesn't mean much

James

[JB80]

Sounds like they're the ones, I'm pretty sure it was the high ISO noise reduction one that I had.

It also played havoc with DSS and wide field shots for me. Unless someone can give me any advice to the contrary I'm leaving them switched off.

[jgs001]

I've not had either of those settings cause me problems. I don't normally use long exposure noise reduction, it just takes a dark and subtracts anyway. High iso noise reduction, I believe, applies some form of filter (a median I think) and have never really used it either. I've only ever managed to stack lunar images in registax after converting to tif and reducing to less than 50% of original size.

[JB80]

I haven't a clue as to why I was having problems with it, I can't explain the processes either but all I know is upon shutting it off DSS started stacking the pictures properly or more accurately whatever changes it was making to the images stopped happening and DSS could process them correctly.

There was a direct correlation with switching them off.

I haven't actually revisited the solar images and try again to see if the odd noise has stopped, I should check on that when I get back from Paris.

[jgs001]

Understood Jarrod, not a clue. Hope you have a good trip to Paris.