Image Processing help

[Rover]

I am still really new to Astrophotography but I was after some help to get me started.

I have taken some singe shot images of the moon (through 8" Newt with 1000D) which have come out quite well but I wanted to improve them as they are a little blurred (noise?)

I took my first tentative steps last night which was a complete nightmare. Spent 5 hours on making things look worse.

I am using GIMP2 at the moment but I am not adverse to changing if something else is easier/better.

Does anyone have a series of steps that they use that I am able to follow to start me off. Obviously I can build on these myself so it is really just something to point me in the right direction.

I tried the tutorials on the GIMP site but really struggled with them. I think they are a bit dataed now.

Any help would be very much appreciated and sorry for being so green. We all have to start somewhere I guess.

[steppenwolf]

It would help if you could post up one of your images as they ere before you had a go in Gimp. Gimp is fine by the way there is lots you can do with it. I am a DSO imager but I have done some Lunar work and I have always found that just putting a single images (from my DSLR) through the free software Registax and using the 'wavelets' function can make an enormous improvement to the sharpness and general detail provided you don't overdo it!

[Rover]

Here is an example of one I took.

Thank you very much for your help by the way.

[steppenwolf]

Thanks for posting that.

I'm no Lunar 'manipupator' and I'm sure someone with more knowledge of processing lunar images as opposed to DSOs will step in shortly but for what it's worth here's the result of using Registax 'wavelets' to sharpen up the detail followed by adjustment of the levels followed by duplicating the image, gently blurring the copy to remove some noise and then adjusting the opacity of the top layer to allow some of the new detail to show through:-

[Luke]

Are you using mirror lock on your 1000D? It's made a big difference in sharpness to my moon images, I'm still searching for perfectly sharp focus on the moon though at full res. Can't wait to try Steve's Registax tip next time!!

PS good start with the images!

[Rover]

I don't think I am using mirror lock. I will look it up and see if I can set it up for the next though thanks for the advice.

I managed to find a wavelets plugin for GIMP2 last night and set about the pictures and it helped immensly and was so simple to do. Thank you so much.

Can I also add that I am working my way through your book at the moment and I am very impressed. Anyone that is starting off and doesn't own should definately go and get it. I will be recommending it to everyone in the Society. Maybe I can also pass on your tips too.

[Luke]

I don't think I am using mirror lock.

In case it helps, here's my understanding of it, keeping in mind that I'm no expert on cameras!

If you don't have mirror lock on, when you shoot a picture, the mirror in the camera moves to a new position out of the way so that a picture can be taken, and this causes a fair bit of camera shake, and the exposure starts while the camera is still shaking a bit from the mirror!

If you activate mirror lock - on my similar 450D I do this from the camera via the menu, by enabling an option called Mirror Lockup - you then have to click TWICE to take a photo. The first click moves the mirror out of the way ready to take your snap, but without starting the exposure.

I wait a few seconds to let the camera settle, then the second click starts the exposure.

In my case the moving mirror seemed to have been causing most of the blur, which I couldn't quite get rid of in processing.

For me the main downside to using mirror lock is that normally I use the Canon Utility software on my laptop to take images, e.g. to queue up a bunch of timed exposures, but it doesn't seem to work when mirror lock is on. So I have been using a cable release to take images, i.e. a cable that plugs into the camera so you can press the button on the cable rather than the camera, to prevent camera shake.

Not tried it but I wonder if you can alternatively set a delay from the camera if you don't have a cable release, I have tried delays to prevent camera shake from me pressing the button, though not in combination with the mirror lock on.

For deep sky photos I've never noticed a problem with this shake when doing longer exposure images like 30 seconds, 2 mins on deep sky targets - I guess because the shake then happens over a very small percentage of the exposure.

That's what helped me most anyway with blur anyway, hope the wavelets can do some magic too!

[Psychobilly]

If your usign a timer remote you can use the self timer trick to get mirror lock and long exposures.. I dont think the same trick can be used with the older canon cameras with eos utils... DIGIC 4 camera have mirror lock over USB...

Billy...

[Luke]

If your usign a timer remote you can use the self timer trick to get mirror lock and long exposures.

I'm going to have to get me one of those!

[steppenwolf]

I managed to find a wavelets plugin for GIMP2 last night and set about the pictures and it helped immensly and was so simple to do.

That's cool! Gimp is a good program and will be even better when they release a full 16 bit version which will happen one day soon. Pleased to hear that you are enjoying the book.

[Rover]

Ok thanks for all your advice guys. I will have a look at the mirror locking. I also ordered a remote button to take the pictures without having the press the button so hopefully that should help. If I can sort the mirror lock and use the remote capture then I'm sure that will help a great deal.

[Luke]

Good luck with the next shots, you're already off to a good start!