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Which image processing software?

Space Bat

By Space Bat
in Imaging - Discussion

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Space Bat

Space Bat

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What are peoples thought on a good photo-processing software ?

I guess Adobe Photoshop CS4 is king?

But I have seen various astrophotgraphy processing platforms some free others trial and pay...etc can anyone offer an opinion on some of the lesser known stuff?

Quite interested in the PixInsight as some have showed there efforts here....but looks quite indepth so a bit wary...as a complete newb to photo imagaing/processing software...

So what should I be going for?

Chris

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James

James

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I went the PixInsight route - there's a trial for a month where you can use the software fully and I was (am) also effectively a processing novice so I didn't have years worth of Photoshop knowledge to influence my decision.

James

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Space Bat

Space Bat

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I have GIMP - OK for working with images from the DFK but not good for the DSLR images being 8bit..

Still waiting for the trial licence keys for PixInsight ;) May try and apply again - how long should this take ??

Tried AstroArt which looks promising - but stamps Demo across the image :) not friendly or convincing me to part money.

Had a quick go with image J - not sure about it - need to have more of a play...

Chris

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Space Bat

Space Bat

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Hi Chris

Did you get your demo licence for Pixinsight , which is now 45 days ;)

Let us know and I will what I can do

Harry

Hi,

Yes I did the other day (thanks for the offer), wow its going to take a while to get my noggin round this software, crikey I need 45 days to see what all the functions do ;)

Had a quick play and visited their online tutorials - and have been very impressed with some of the stuff it can do and have only scratched the surface.

Chris

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Space Bat

Space Bat

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Well I think I have the DSO software licked now seeing what PixInsight can do - so will strong possibility will end up purchasing..

Someone has kindly offered me something to help with my Planetary imaging - so I guess I may now have all bases covered...

Thanks guys, much appreciated ;)

Chris

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David Pavlich

David Pavlich

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The advantage to the CS versions of Photoshop are the myriad plugins available. I use CS2, mostly because when I bought it, CS3 had just come out and was uber expensive. I found an unopened CS2 on Ebay for about 1/3 the cost.

CS4 offers one BIG advantage, especially those with big chipped cameras that produce really big files...64 bit processing. The guys I talk to that use it says it really flies. There is a caveat, though; you need a lot of computing power to take advantage of the 64 bit processing. At least 8 Gig of RAM with some of the guys having machines built with 12 Gigs. They also use some sort of video card that helps with the processing.

David

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

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I can top that. Just did some processing on a 16GB machine with 2 quad-core Xeon processors with the new Quickpath memory interconnect for huge memory bandwidth. Managed to run out of memory on that machine as well (OK, we were trying to process a 2.6 gigapixel image on that). Had to settle for a "mere" 400 megapixel image for our first trials, and got a 6x speed-up on all 8 cores (top reporting 800% CPU load for my program ;)). I am cutting the memory cost of the program down to be able to do 1Gpixel images, but advised them (at the European Commission Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy) to get another 16 GB for the machine. Will be testing that remotely tomorrow.

We will also shortly be testing 1 terapixel (;)) image processing on a cluster :p:D:D. Eat that Photoshop!!

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Catanonia

Catanonia

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I can top that. Just did some processing on a 16GB machine with 2 quad-core Xeon processors with the new Quickpath memory interconnect for huge memory bandwidth. Managed to run out of memory on that machine as well (OK, we were trying to process a 2.6 gigapixel image on that). Had to settle for a "mere" 400 megapixel image for our first trials, and got a 6x speed-up on all 8 cores (top reporting 800% CPU load for my program ;)). I am cutting the memory cost of the program down to be able to do 1Gpixel images, but advised them (at the European Commission Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy) to get another 16 GB for the machine. Will be testing that remotely tomorrow.

We will also shortly be testing 1 terapixel (;)) image processing on a cluster :p:D:D. Eat that Photoshop!!

show off :)

Stuck with 8 cores, 6GB ram in 64bit CS for now :D

But it is all mine :D

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ncjunk

ncjunk

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I have access to a 22,656 core, 2.3GHz, 45.3 terabyte, 208 Teraflops machine but you don't see ME bragging about it. ;-)

I bet you haven´t even run "hello world!" on it!

I use Maxim DL but to be honest that is mainly because I have it as part of my Observatory automation along with ACP.

Most people on this forum can process pictures a heck of a lot better than me (and my expensive software) using the software you mentioned.

But Maxim is a good solution if it solves 3/4 of the things you want to do..in my case guiding, imaging, processing and focusing.

I would stick with the free stuff for the processing though.

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Space Bat

Space Bat

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Having played a bit with PixInsight - it is a great bit of S/W, lots of neat little tricks - like sharpening stars, removing drift and blur functions...harmonising colour tones and compensating for the drop off on the red channel levels which can be re-levelled against G & B far better than others I have tried.

All I need to do is remember what bit did what and how and pull it all together to get a decent image ;)

Chris

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Space Bat

Space Bat

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Hi Chris

Did you get your demo licence for Pixinsight , which is now 45 days ;)

Let us know and I will what I can do

Harry

Crikey No - but it is fun learning, your vids are really helpfull :p

I have found a small flaw with Image intergration window not being able to move it around and the top of the box has moved off screen ;)

Chris

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

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All I need to do is remember what bit did what and how and pull it all together to get a decent image ;)

Chris

Many types of image processing tools (ImageJ and MatLab for certain) allow you to automatically log your session (including interactive menu stuff). You can readily save a series of actions as a plugin if you like. This is a really neat facility.

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