Best Sharpening and Noise reduction tools available

[Allinthehead]

Hi all, as the title says, what are your favorite tools. At the moment i use Noel carboni's space and deep space noise reduction. For sharpening i use photoshops unsharp mask and smart sharpen. Am i missing any tricks? I also have Pixinsight and Astro Pixel Processor.

Richard.

[AngryDonkey]

In PixInsight the 'Multiscale Linear Transform' *(MLT) works well for me provided I have a good mask. These are good tutorials:

http://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/tutorial-sharpening-fine-details.html

http://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/tutorial-noise-reduction.html

[Allinthehead]

39 minutes ago, AngryDonkey said:

In PixInsight the 'Multiscale Linear Transform' *(MLT) works well for me provided I have a good mask. These are good tutorials:

http://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/tutorial-sharpening-fine-details.html

http://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/tutorial-noise-reduction.html

Thanks Mike, i'll take a look.

[wimvb]

PixInsight only:

Deconvolution

TGVdenoise, linear stage, and in the non linear stage

MMT noise reduction on chroma, linear stage

HDRtransform for local contrast

LHE with different scales for local contrast

MLT with mask at the very end

On rare occasions: unsharp mask and dark structure enhance.

 

[Allinthehead]

On 19/09/2018 at 06:40, wimvb said:

PixInsight only:

Deconvolution

TGVdenoise, linear stage, and in the non linear stage

MMT noise reduction on chroma, linear stage

HDRtransform for local contrast

LHE with different scales for local contrast

MLT with mask at the very end

On rare occasions: unsharp mask and dark structure enhance.

 

Thanks Wim. Lots to experiment with there.

[alexbb]

As Wim said, plus you can also apply ACDNR after stretch if needed.

[ollypenrice]

I use what you're using now, Richard, though sometimes I use Photoshop's own NR. I always feel that deconvolution might be the trick I'm missing but I have never got it to work for me other than in an old Astra Image routine which is only 8 bit.

For me the key thing about NR and sharpening is not what you use but how you use it. NR I apply globally and slightly excessively to a bottom layer and then use the Colour Select tool on the top layer to pick up the noisy areas. I then set the eraser to low opacity and take off a bit of the noise at a time in each pass. I never want it all gone. A bit of grain is good in my eyes. Very occasionally, if I'm chasing the faintest of tidal extensions for instance, I'll use a very heavy level of NR on them then add a hint of Gaussian noise to bring the grain back to the level of that around it.

Likewise, I sharpen a bottom layer globally but with the stars excluded and I am then very, very selective about where I erase the top layer, using partially operative brushes of diminishing size to let more of the sharpening though as I get closer to the centre of an area of detailed interest.

I don't feel I always get the most out of sharpening routines and will follow the links kindly posted above.

Olly

[Stub Mandrel]

Astra Image, but I have the 32-bit version.

If only it did curves as well...

[Allinthehead]

21 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

I use what you're using now

Hi Olly, thanks. Yes it appears we have very similar routines. Possibly i picked them up from previous post of yours.? Always wondering if i'm missing a trick.

[geordie85]

I use the nik collection by Google that was free a few years ago. It's great for reducing colour noise. 

Its got a decent sharpening tool too

[MartinB]

I use the Neat Image plug in for photoshop.  I apply it to a duplicate of the background layer with a star layer on top.  You can then use a layer mask to protect brighter areas although Neat Image does a pretty good job.  

[iansmith]

For me, TVGdenoise and MMT processes fron PixInsight.

Cheers, Ian