Hi everyone -
Can I ask your collective wisdom for some help please?
I'd like to find a sure fire, foolproof and accurate method of perfect Star removal for processing Nebulae images, that doesn't take forever!
My focus is primarily NB imaging but something that works on RGB images as well would be very useful. I usually want to remove the false coloured NB stars and replace them with RGB stars.
There are various methods and actions around using PS, Startools & Pixinsight but has anyone got one that works all the time? (and in a perfect world is cross platform, I use a mac).
I'll list what I have tried so far... with various degrees of success. *Disclaimer - I could be using them incorrectly so my apologies if that's the case.
Straton -
http://www.zipproth.com/Straton/ PC only (15 E) I have only tried the demo, so not sure about this one yet.
Troy's Astro actions -
http://troypiggo.blogspot.com.au/201...o-actions.html - Cross platform PS Action - (free) sort of works but can leave dark circles and overall loss of detail. A fair bit of cloning/cleanup is required afterwards.
Astro Anarchy (JP Metsavainio)
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com.au/...ps-action.html
Almost identical to Troy's above, with virtually the same results.
Startools Magic Module -
http://startools.org/drupal/ Mask and select stars then reduce /shrink them with several methods.
I have found this feature generally useful but tricky to get realistic results with large stars.
From Rob's AP
http://www.astro-photography.net/Star-Removal.html - Using PS - Select>Colour range>Highlights>feather/expand>fill(content aware)
A bit hit & miss for me so far - probably depends on the image and scale - can result in loss of detail, and still lots of cloning/cleanup afterwards - needs a lot of trial & error to make it work well.
From Multiweb -
http://www.astropic.net/astro/tut_01/
A good step by step tutorial on Star removal and tone mapping from Marc, with links to an old thread on this topic here on IIS -
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=62131
http://darkhorizons.emissionline.com/stars.htm I found this when creating this thread, but havn't tried it out for myself yet.
Please add your own preferred, reliable method below ....
Many thanks in advance,
Andy