Hi,
I've been working on a bunch of image processing 'hacks', specifically for people on a sub-shoestring budget with 'taped together' cheap off-the-shelf consumer gear like myself.
I'm now releasing one of these as I feel it's mature/useful enough for others to use - amateurs and 'pros' alike.
StarWipe started out as a digital replacement for a light pollution filter, but the algorithm turned out to be much more versatile than I thought; besides removing light pollution and vignetting, it has also proven to be very effective in bringing out hidden detail and enhancing local contrast, specifically in DSOs.
Over the past few months, I've been finetuning StarWipe using the IOTW images, most of which show improvement in clarity and contrast, even this week's amazing Leo Triplet extravaganza! (but I don't republish without the creator's approval...).
If you're not afraid of command-line utilities, give it a whirl at
www.siliconfields.net. It's actually not too complex and you'll also find a short manual there.
If you're stuck or you got questions, feedback, got a development job for me, or would like to send me a cake
, just drop me a mail via my website or IIS (or post something in this thread). Before and after images are also very welcome (or post them here).
Hope you guys find this little tool as useful as I find it.
Best regards,
Ivo Jager
Edit: attached some sample results, images courtesy of Marc Aragnou and Charles Kuehne. For better quality samples, visit my site and/or read the PDF manual. Only Starwipe was used on these samples, no other processing was done.
Update: 0.7 is now out with 16-bit/channel TIFF support + some other goodies (see manual for changelog).