DSS/photo editing software (newb questions)

[stan26]

Hi There, I'm itching to have a look in the sale section and need to get my post count up so I thought I would ask a few questions in here.....

Last night I downloaded DSS took a few test pics and had a quick go at stacking them etc. I'm fairly new to photography in general so please excuse any silly questions.

Firstly I couldn't get the RAW files to load "uncompatible files" I think it said. Is this beacuse I need to use my canon software to convert the raw files into another format for DSS to read...?

I got som JPEG's to load and stack ok, and had a go with adjusting RGB etc. When I saved the file I noticed that it only saves in "TIFF" format. Unfortunately I don't have photoshop (yet), I use the more basic photoscape software which only supports JPEG/BMP/GIF etc. Does photoshop support tiff?? I guess I need to find a tiff to jpeg converter software?

Also in DSS, what's the difference between the "save picture to file" and the "save" button in the options menu..? Sorry I'm not that good with computers either.....

Thanks

[Herishi]

try GIMP GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program ignore the name its great.

It is like a free version of Photoshop elements!

I've not used DSS much as all the pics I have taken so far have been lunar, I would also reccomend Registax, also free RegiStax- Free image processing software

You can see my quick attempt at the moon below

[jgs001]

You don't mention what camera you have, it may be that DSS doesn't have support for RAW format images from your camera at present. In which case, I'd use DPP to convert them to TIF to maintain the maximum bit depth (don't use jpg).

Save in the menu, I think is the save the list of files to a file, which means you can come back and load the file list and not have to remember which files to add.

[stan26]

thanks for replys guys,

Camera is a Canon 500D.

So basically to process my pics I take photos in RAW, connect cam to pc, load RAW's into cannon's DPP program to convert to Tiff, save them and then load them up in DSS, stack them, save staked file, and then load in GIMP to do final editing.....

[themos]

DSS should load Canon RAW files, have a hunt for RAW/FITS settings in DSS...

[themos]

Scratch that, that won't help..

[Geno]

Firstly I couldn't get the RAW files to load "uncompatible files" I think it said. Is this beacuse I need to use my canon software to convert the raw files into another format for DSS to read...?

Had this problem with my 550D raw files. I downloaded the latest beta of DSS and now they load fine. I would have thought the 500D files would have been supported though

[RoundStars]

Have you loaded the Canon software onto your PC (from the CD that came with your camera)? Some applications require that in order to work.

-Joe