Image processing for dummies?

[Aenima]

All excellent advice, guys thank you.

My personal view is the astro-dedicated software might not be easy as such but it will - when figured out - possibly give me more specific 'enhancements' to my pictures. Because they are all astro images that I'm taking, I'd appreciate a handy feature that targets astro issues in particular rather than the wide-ranging, general 'photo-editing' programs that can just as easily damage a DSO image as it can improve it - considering my lack of specialised knowledge.

This doesn't mean I wont want to keep trying with the PS type processing - i'm learning something every day now thanks to the astro related tutorials by the more advanced imagers - but in the meantime my images need a boost (as do I) to remain a fun challenge instead of a brain-ache.

I like the idea of both learning the basics of a powerful editor and having something that can trim down the zillions of features with strange parameters to just a few helpful deep sky procedures that only require basic knowledge to work.

I'm certainly glad I posted the question though, and the links and advice will be extremely helpful to me and anyone else seeking similar guidance.

Thank you.

Regards

Aenima

[ollypenrice]

Over on PAIG we're talking about Ps and PI. At least one other imager does as I do, which is build a solid base in PI with the background neutralized, gradients removed and the colours balanced. But at some point we both head into Ps for the hands on, non-mathematical control.

I think that, regarding the opriginal question, there are Steve's four basics to get right and then you decide how far you want to go. To be fair to PI, which perhaps I wasn't, you could do DBE for the background sky and colour balance then use the log stretch in Screen Transfer Function or Histogram Transformation and you'd have a picture.

Olly

[michaelmorris]

If you want brilliant but unfathomable astro image processing software - try IRIS. It uses a mix of buttons, menus and command line. However, it is FREE.

http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/iris.htm

[Aenima]

Hehe, I did try it - for a hour or two - but would need the tutorials tattoo'd onto my brain before going back to try again.

One day I'll give it another look.

Cheers

Aenima