Using raw NEF photos in Registax and memory issues...DOH

[beckemd]

I recently took some nice lunar shots at about 15 megs each with my D7000 nikon. Seeing was great...shots good..and I looked forward to stacking the lunar images with REgistax...I get all the way to Stack mode..and i see the" not enough storage is available to process this command.....soooo I took another series of pic at low jpeg 640k a piece..and got the SAME message... I'm quite at a loss as to the nature of the problem...I'm using Windows 7 and an Apple Mac Pro with 16meg RAM.

Any thoughts? Lastly, If i wanted to post the pics for someone else to stack or try to...how can I do that with our forums...or is that possible..?

DBB in Chicago

[JamesF]

Registax isn't too hot on processing RAW image formats. I convert mine to TIFFs using PIPP before processing them, but I'm using a Canon. If there's a way to convert the NEF files to TIFF then you could try processing them. Otherwise you probably have to work from the JPEGs.

James

[luigis]

It won't work. Tiff files are even larger than RAWs, Registax and Autostakkert are not prepared to process these huge files and will fail. I've tried and tried.

There are several workarounds.

If you just want to stack then align the images using Hugin (free) or PtGUI pro, generate the output as individual layers. Those are programs for panoramic photography and will do a very good job aligning.

Once you have all the shots aligned you can stack them in Photoshop (using script->load files into stack) and then (smart-objects->stack_mode->mean).

If you don't use photoshop you can try other options to do an average of your registered images.

I do this all the time for my DSLR images.

I wrote a small article about it here: http://www.luisargerich.com/blog/2012/10/high-resolution-lunar-images-with-a-dslr

If you have many frames and you want to select the best frames for stacking then you can create small JPGs from your RAWs and use Autostakkert to analyse and sort the frames, then manually delete the worst ones or select the best ones as you wish.

Hope my 2 cents help.

[JamesF]

It won't work. Tiff files are even larger than RAWs, Registax and Autostakkert are not prepared to process these huge files and will fail.

So this process that I go through successfully every single time with my solar and lunar images isn't possible, hmm?

James

[cgarry]

It won't work.

Nonsense, it works fine.

[luigis]

James, cgarry,

I would LOVE to stand corrected. Let me know how you are doing it.

I convert the 18mpx files from RAW to Tiff (16 bits) each Tiff file is about 120mb and I stack about 100-200 images for my lunar images. I can't do that with R5, R6 or Autostakkert.

That's what I thought the OP was trying to do.

But if you know how to do it and you can give me a hand then perfect, one less problem

[JamesF]

I start by loading my RAW files into Chris's PIPP program to centre the image and crop it to 2800 x 2800 (the files from my 450D start off as 4272 x 2848 I think). I also convert to monochrome at this point, but most of the right options are set when you tell it you're processing lunar disc data.

PIPP saves the images as 16-bit TIFF which I just load straight into Registax or Autostakkert!2 and let them do their thing. I usually start with about 120 images and the least of the frames that are 95% quality or the best 50%.

I think the 550D may use a slightly larger image resolution and if you have your camera straight on the back of your 127 Mak then you'll have close to a full frame image, but if it's cropped down close to the size of the disc I don't think it should be such an issue.

This process works for me all the time. If you look for my postings in the solar and lunar imaging sections all of them were done this way. Sometimes I get stacking problems if the data isn't good enough or I've chosen the reference frame poorly, but I still get a stacked image.

James

[luigis]

James, cgarry,

I would LOVE to stand corrected. Let me know how you are doing it.

I convert the 18mpx files from RAW to Tiff (16 bits) each Tiff file is about 120mb and I stack about 100-200 images for my lunar images. I can't do that with R5, R6 or Autostakkert.

That's what I thought the OP was trying to do.

But if you know how to do it and you can give me a hand then perfect, one less problem

Ty, I haven't tried Pipp, may I ask you how big are your Tiff files after you process them with Pipp?

[cgarry]

luigis,

These links show PIPP's involvement only:

http://sites.google.com/site/astropipp/example-uasge/example3

http://sites.google.com/site/astropipp/example-uasge/example5

Since the approach has been proven to work with Canon cameras I do want to extend PIPP to handle other raw formats, but like most things that involves finding some spare time! But converting NEFs to TIFFs and running them through PIPP might (should?) work, but I do not know anybody who has actually done it.

Actually, if you had a few example NEF files that you could donate, then I could look at getting PIPP to support NEFs.

Cheers,

Chris

[JamesF]

Ty, I haven't tried Pipp, may I ask you how big are your Tiff files after you process them with Pipp?

By coincidence I'm sure, they're pretty much the same size as the RAW files which are 11MB each (that's actually the solar image that I did on Sunday).

I had initially tried converting the RAW files to TIFF using ImageMagick which I believe in turn uses dcraw. When I did that the TIFF files came out as something like 65MB.

James

[luigis]

luigis,

These links show PIPP's involvement only:

http://sites.google....-uasge/example3

http://sites.google....-uasge/example5

Since the approach has been proven to work with Canon cameras I do want to extend PIPP to handle other raw formats, but like most things that involves finding some spare time! But converting NEFs to TIFFs and running them through PIPP might (should?) work, but I do not know anybody who has actually done it.

Actually, if you had a few example NEF files that you could donate, then I could look at getting PIPP to support NEFs.

Cheers,

Chris

I use Canon, not Nikon.

I'll try to preprocess with PiPP and see what happens (testing now)

[JamesF]

I use Canon, not Nikon.

It's the OP, beckemd who has the Nikon, Chris.

James

[luigis]

Quick Test:

Experiment #1:

My RAW images are about 23Mb each.

Processing with PiPP they are reduced to about 17mb each and it seems (crossing fingers) that Autostakkert! can process them fine.

Experiment #2:

I like to process my RAW files with DxO optics because it has several nice options to handle exposure, highlights, etc, doing something similar to HDR, that has been useful for lunar images for me.

After processing with DXO each Tiff file is about 100Mb (those Autostakkert can handle)

If I use PiPP for those Tiff files then they are again reduced to about 17Mb

Now I have to compare which workflow will give me the best quality:

#1: RAW=>DXO=>TIFF=>Pipp=>Autostakkert

#2: RAW=>DXO=>TIFF=>Photoshop (what I was doing before)

#3: RAW=>Pipp=>TIFF=>Autostakkert

I'll be back with my results.

Thanks again for your help!

[JamesF]

That certainly sounds promising.

James

[luigis]

To the OP: Try converting first fron NEF to TIFF using RawTherapee (free), you can adjust the same WB, exposure and other settings for all your images at this stage.

Then load all the Tiff files into Pipp as James and Cgarry suggested.

The final tiff files should load in Autostakkert!2 for the final stack.

(I'll be doing my tests and will come back to this thread with my results in case they are useful for other lunatics... er lunar imagers)

[cgarry]

I use Canon, not Nikon.

I'll try to preprocess with PiPP and see what happens (testing now)

Sorry for my confusion, I really should concentrate more on what I am doing!

Cheers,

Chris

[beckemd]

Hmmm...Took my JPEGS and converted to tiffs via PIPP. THen tossed them into AS!2...seemed to work..but where do I find the final product...ie what folder is it all saved under....any thoughts/

DBB in Chicago

[cgarry]

Hmmm...Took my JPEGS and converted to tiffs via PIPP. THen tossed them into AS!2...seemed to work..but where do I find the final product...ie what folder is it all saved under....any thoughts/

DBB in Chicago

The generated files are written to a new directory created in the same folder as the source files. This folder will be named in the form 'pipp_date_time', for example 'pipp_20121104_171614'. PIPP will automatically open a Windows Explorer window at this location once processing is complete.

Cheers,

Chris