Help, PixInsight is Totally Baffling Me

[DanLXIX]

I've just installed the demo of PI, and knowing its reputation for being difficult to work with I decided I was going to follow some tutorials on YouTube.

My first issue is pretty much every tutorial seems to be done on an older version that I'm on, so right from the start things don't look the same... And don't appear to work the same either.  I can't get past the stacking phase using the weighted batch processing tool because every tutorial that is showing DSLR comes up with a final image in RGB mode, but all I get it a greyscale. I've tried to fiddle around with the RAW settings, but here is the second issue because the things I've found show an older version.

Basically, I'm stuck and can't final anything to get me through this first step. Can anyone help?

Edited April 11, 2021 by DanLXIX
typo

[teoria_del_big_bang]

I am not positive as I use a mono camera but I think for OSC and DLSR images you have to select "CFA images" and also you need to click on the lights tab and define the DeBayer parameters.

PixInsight is a great processing tool, it is not cheap but in my opinion well worth the money.
Some say it is hard to learn with a steep leaning curve, personally I am not too sure and whilst I am no expert with it by a long way and there are so many processes I have not even tried yet I found it relatively easy to pick up to create reasonable images (probably could do better). It is just a different way of working to most other Windows based processing programs that may take a little time to get your head round.

Steve

[DanLXIX]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've set the RAW parameters like this but it made no difference. I can't find the DeBayer parameters on the WBPP script - I've seen this mentioned in a YouTube video with a different version of this script, but where is it?

Edited April 11, 2021 by DanLXIX
typo

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Click on Control Panel tab

 

Then click on the frames below the Lights header, when you do this the CFA Settings appear on the right.

 

Then select CFA images, I think you can leave Bayer/mosaic pattern at Auto and Debayering method at VNG if you are not sure what the DeBayer pattern of your camera is.

 

Steve

[DanLXIX]

Ah thank you so much, that's got me going again

[discardedastro]

FWIW, I'd consider myself PixInsight competent/familiar and WBPP confused the hell out of me - it relies on a lot of stuff in filenames etc which is pretty unobvious and the documentation isn't great! I'd strongly recommend starting out with the Inside PixInsight book and/or doing manual processing to get started. It'll be slower and less straightforward but it's a much easier way to learn the software than running straight into WBPP, in my view.

[Tangoringo]

Can I recommend the book Mastering Pixinsight by Rogelio Andreo? It’s available as pdf and/or hard copy and it’s a very good way to get in to and, more importantly, understand  the Pixinsight processes. Mastering Pixinsight HTH’s

Ian

[DanLXIX]

16 hours ago, Tangoringo said:

Can I recommend the book Mastering Pixinsight by Rogelio Andreo? It’s available as pdf and/or hard copy and it’s a very good way to get in to and, more importantly, understand  the Pixinsight processes. Mastering Pixinsight HTH’s

Ian

That could be good Ian, thanks. Any idea how out of date the books are, and do they keep the PDF version up to date?

[teoria_del_big_bang]

1 minute ago, DanLXIX said:

That could be good Ian, thanks. Any idea how out of date the books are, and do they keep the PDF version up to date?

Yes this is a great book (or rather 2 books as there is the book about mastering PI taking you through the various processes and some of the scripts and a second book that explains what all the parameters in the processes are.

Now whether the author will keep updating the PDF's in future I am not sure, so far I have received a few updates from him via email but probably more to correct grammar and typos as I doubt that much was added to PI in the timescale.
The author is very reproachable and very quick to answer emails so  if you did think of buying the PDF's then you could email him first and I would think he would answer your question.

I have both the hard copy and PDF's but in all honesty the books hardly get used and usually just have the PDFs open on computer when using PI.

If the author does intend to keep them updated then that is a real bonus but I never really expected it as it would be hard when not in control of the software to keep a manual on it totally up to date, but he may also intend on revisions at various intervals that may get updated and also available on PDF, so actually as it is an interesting question I will email him myself.

I think all in all it will be difficult as even in the 3 years or so I have been using it I have made some Word documents using screen prints of what I did during processing and when I use them now on many I notice some parameters that were there have gone, others have appeared and things like algorithms that can be selected to do various process can get added to.
Now I can only assume these enhance the capabilities of PI but do make it a nightmare to keep any manual up to date unless it is the software writers themselves doing this and it is one aspect of PI that is sadly lacking in my opinion.

Steve

[City9Town0]

Try the 'Light Vortex' tutorials...

https://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/tutorial-pre-processing-calibrating-and-stacking-images-in-pixinsight.html

 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

On 12/04/2021 at 15:25, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Yes this is a great book (or rather 2 books as there is the book about mastering PI taking you through the various processes and some of the scripts and a second book that explains what all the parameters in the processes are.

Now whether the author will keep updating the PDF's in future I am not sure, so far I have received a few updates from him via email but probably more to correct grammar and typos as I doubt that much was added to PI in the timescale.
The author is very reproachable and very quick to answer emails so  if you did think of buying the PDF's then you could email him first and I would think he would answer your question.

I have both the hard copy and PDF's but in all honesty the books hardly get used and usually just have the PDFs open on computer when using PI.

If the author does intend to keep them updated then that is a real bonus but I never really expected it as it would be hard when not in control of the software to keep a manual on it totally up to date, but he may also intend on revisions at various intervals that may get updated and also available on PDF, so actually as it is an interesting question I will email him myself.

I think all in all it will be difficult as even in the 3 years or so I have been using it I have made some Word documents using screen prints of what I did during processing and when I use them now on many I notice some parameters that were there have gone, others have appeared and things like algorithms that can be selected to do various process can get added to.
Now I can only assume these enhance the capabilities of PI but do make it a nightmare to keep any manual up to date unless it is the software writers themselves doing this and it is one aspect of PI that is sadly lacking in my opinion.

Steve

 

Just in case you are still interested in a soft copy of this book I have contacted the author and he intends to do regular updates if things do change in Pixinsight - which is good.

Below is the email I received:

Hi Steve,

Apologies for the delay getting back to you! Yes, there will be updates to the PDF every few months... It's getting to the point that an update is already needed (new PixelMath interface, new WBPP, including Starnet, etc) but I'll probably wait for the next update. Everyone gets notified when an update is released, and there's no charge for it (maybe in the future there's a small charge if the upgrade is significant, but not something I'm considering at the moment).

Thanks!

Rogelio

Steve

[DanLXIX]

That's good to know. I'm still not sure if it's the right thing for me. I need to put more time in on it but the trial clock is ticking.

[alacant]

28 minutes ago, DanLXIX said:

the trial clock is ticking

Hi

What feature of PI do you need? There are many excellent astro processing packages available and all of them are either free or have free trials.

Move on?

Cheers

Edited April 28, 2021 by alacant

[teoria_del_big_bang]

25 minutes ago, DanLXIX said:

That's good to know. I'm still not sure if it's the right thing for me. I need to put more time in on it but the trial clock is ticking.

I know what you mean and @alacant is right in that there are other packages are out there some cheaper than PI and some free and it depends what you find easiest that does all you want to do.

4 minutes ago, alacant said:

What feature of PI do you need? There are many excellent astro processing packages available and all of them are either free or have free trials.

I gladly allowed my PI trial to expire,)

I often think that some times you can get too bogged down in processing and it can then get tedious and almost put you off AstroPhotography altogether because the processing is harder and takes longer than the imaging.
I am still on the learning curve and my data is not like some of the data used for images on here but often some of my better images are where I have done it relatively quickly and done very little to it.

Often, even in my short time in the hobby, I find myself trying and trying for days on end to get a result like all the other great images I see on SGL and elsewhere but in the end just have to admit my data is just lacking and I will not make a silk purse out of it. But still unless really bad do my best and get some sort of image and then next season I can have a go at same target and either add to the existing data  or start again and that way monitor how I am improving in actually getting the data and processing.

Others on SGL are an absolute Wizard / Wizardess with processing and can often bring your what seems poor data to life that you could not manage - and I am in awe of them, really.

Anyway back to the PI side of it, I actually found I loved PI but in the trial time did not have time to asses it properly so I think I emailed them and asked for a second trial period and got it and after that bought it.
Now many either just do not like PI or some hate it and maybe it is just the way they do things in it.
I think because I had not really used any other processing software except Nebulocity (which is a great bit of software but fairly basic) I just took to it.
But later I also got Photoshop because others say this does some things PI cannot do and also many just use this almost exclusively and try as I can I cannot get to grips with how this works and again probably because I am so used to PI - I don't know.

So i f you want to try a bit more you could email them and ask but do not get bogged down with it, I think a lot depends on the level you think you are, if not too far into astrophotography then I think it is good to get some images under your belt and not take too long in the processing, thing is to enjoy it and if it is taking hours to get a result no better than you had then can get frustrating.
So long as you keep all your data (except the bad stuff maybe) then you can always go back to it and have another go, maybe with some different software.

Steve

[DanLXIX]

At the moment for deep sky stuff I'm using DSS, Photoshop and Lightroom - mainly because I already have the Adobe apps. I find the process in PS OK but fiddly and I thought I'd take a look at PI because I'd heard a lot about its power. 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

11 minutes ago, DanLXIX said:

At the moment for deep sky stuff I'm using DSS, Photoshop and Lightroom - mainly because I already have the Adobe apps. I find the process in PS OK but fiddly and I thought I'd take a look at PI because I'd heard a lot about its power. 

Like I say I can't really comment on PS even though I have it I have not used it so much but I do know there are so many great images around processed almost exclusively in PS that I doubt PI would do better.
Again not 100% certain but I would think the same quality image can be produced in either PI or PS, and probably other programs too, and some things will probably be easier to do in one program than the other.
I think many of the better images are often produced using both PI and PS and they will use one program to do some things and the other for other things because it is easier in those particular programs.
Maybe there are the odd aspect that is really only easily achieved in one but I guess depends on what level you want to take the processing to.

And as I say I do really like PI, just wish I could also get to grips with PS, maybe one day 🙂 

Steve

[Hughsie]

On 11/04/2021 at 22:28, Tangoringo said:

Can I recommend the book Mastering Pixinsight by Rogelio Andreo? It’s available as pdf and/or hard copy and it’s a very good way to get in to and, more importantly, understand  the Pixinsight processes. Mastering Pixinsight HTH’s

Ian

Second that. 

I have both Warren Keller’s Inside PixInsight and Rogello Andreo Mastering PixInsight and find the latter to be much easier to follow. I know from the PixInsight for Beginners facebook page that RA was initially having some delivery issues with his book but that was the middle of last year. His PDF is just as good plus he was offering a discount to the book if you had already purchased the pdf version.

BTW, if you are on Facebook it may be worth joining the PixInsight for Beginners page. Rogello, Warren, Adam Block and Ron Brecher are all on there too and do provide a lot of guidance in amongst promoting the courses they run.

[Hughsie]

On 28/04/2021 at 10:48, DanLXIX said:

That's good to know. I'm still not sure if it's the right thing for me. I need to put more time in on it but the trial clock is ticking.

If like me the weather means you haven’t got any data to work with try the Iki Observatory page here on SGL. They have made available integrated masters that could offer some great opportunities to get to know PI better both in RGB and narrowband.

Edited April 29, 2021 by Hughsie

[scotty38]

Check out the Adam Block WBPP videos (as well as his other stuff)

 

[DanLXIX]

That video looks useful, I'll jump into that this week and have another go thanks

[scotty38]

Yep plenty of info in his videos that I’m merely scratching the surface of as I was only pointed towards him recently.