Best "finishing" software to use with Deepskystacker

[Geoffw]

Hi Folks,

I have Photoshop Elements but it cannot handle the 32bit TIFF output of Deepskystacker.  Is there any way around this problem?  

[happy-kat]

In DSS once your image has processed instead of using the autosaved tiff file, instead try the save file option on the left hand menu, see if you can now open the file in Photoshop elements.

There is GIMP (free) and would likely open the original file you had created in DSS in 32 bit format.

If you are considering a dedicated astro editor for your DSS file then StarTools would be a small outlay but it is very competent.

Edited April 16, 2020 by happy-kat

[Shimrod]

33 minutes ago, Geoffw said:

Hi Folks,

I have Photoshop Elements but it cannot handle the 32bit TIFF output of Deepskystacker.  Is there any way around this problem?  

In DSS you can choose 'save as' and specify 16 bits per channel instead. Photoshop elements still won't be able to edit this format, but it can open the files and convert to 8 bits per channel which it can work with.

[wimvb]

Best "finishing" software to use with Deepskystacker

PixInsight. But best used "straight up", ie without DSS. Imo, you need software that can handle 32 bit.

[Geoffw]

1 hour ago, Shimrod said:

In DSS you can choose 'save as' and specify 16 bits per channel instead. Photoshop elements still won't be able to edit this format, but it can open the files and convert to 8 bits per channel which it can work with.

What are we loosing stepping down from 32 bit to 8 bit?

 

..and thank for pointing me to the "Save as" option!

Edited April 16, 2020 by Geoffw

[Shimrod]

9 hours ago, Geoffw said:

What are we loosing stepping down from 32 bit to 8 bit?

 

..and thank for pointing me to the "Save as" option!

The glib answer is colour depth, but I can't really tell you much more than that - I am still a beginner at astrophotography and the only thing I can say is it doesn't make any difference to my photos! As happy-kat mentioned above, you can download GIMP for free and that works with 32bit TIF files. I'm not seeing any difference between photos at the moment, but if I ever get good enough then perhaps it tells in the finer detail of the fainter objects.

[happy-kat]

On this post you will find a link to this member's website and using GIMP for astro

Link here

Also budgetastro.net has good starter steps video guides and pretty much most of what Doug covers can be done in GIMP.

Edited April 16, 2020 by happy-kat

[alacant]

12 hours ago, Geoffw said:

any way around this problem?  

Hi.

StarTools will do what you want without having to jump through hoops.

Siril will stack and process start to finish: you can lose DSS.

DarkTable will make it all look good.

If you want 90's style menus-along-the-top though, you'll have to look elsewhere.

HTH

Edited April 16, 2020 by alacant