Processing basics

[simondodd]

Hi everyone,

I am currently blindly fumbling around when it comes to processing my images. I have DSS and Photoshop as well as an evaluation copy of Pixinsight but other than that I am at a bit of a loss...

Are there any good guides around for getting the basics right before I start to get more complex with my processing?

I currently have an Image of either M42 or 43 (can't remember which one is which  and I am struggling to get any colour out of it although I can see there is some colour there I'm unable to improve it too much at the moment.

I'm basically looking for a beginners step by step guide to processing these images to get the best out of them after using DSS.

Thanks in advance and here is a link to my initial stacked image.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p3o2cdps2bi1vs6/Autosave002.tif?dl=0

[PeterCPC]

When you stacked in DSS did you remember to make the asjustments to it - increase saturation, adjust luminance and move colours in Histogram to 1/3 way into the curve? It looks like an autosave with no adjustments to me.

Peter

[Davey-T]

Images straight out of DSS  can appear as grey but colour is lurking in there, you can fiddle with it in DSS or save as a Tiff and fiddle in P'Shop

Lots of good tutorials on Y'Tube, get one thing sorted at a  time I would use P'Shop and leave PI until you know what you're doing and more importantly why.

Dave

 

[Marky1973]

Sorry, tricky to find the links at work, but I started with some of Doug German's tutorials on YouTube for PS processing and they were a great place to start. Search for his name and you should find them. Drop PI an email and tell them you are not going to be able to use the trial yet and see if you can get an extension to use when you are ready. I applied for a key and then didn't use it for ages as I was caught up doing other stuff. When I came to use it, the license had expired! But the PI team were happy to help and reset the 45 days!

[simondodd]

Great stuff everyone, thanks for the advice so far!  

[wimvb]

If you plan to use PixInsight, forget about using DSS. Do the stacking in PixInsight instead. There is a good BatchPreprocessor script.

For further processing, have a look at Harry Page's video tutorials or Kayron Merciecas lightvortexastronomy. Both are excellent sources for learning PixInsight.

 

Resample and upload to SGL to show off your result.

Good luck