For the last 12 months I've been struggling with PI, I've been able to process an image with one of the many workflows, but never understood what I was doing with each tool, just using defaults and hoping for the best, I've watch countless hours of Youtube videos, many of which were ok but never explained what the real process was behind each button or slider.
I bought Warren Kellers book, which often confused me even more ( I'm old bloke and probably a bit thick as well :-] ).
Default setting seem to work ok for some images but look really crappy with others, and after 12 months I found I was still struggling.
I'd seen Adam Blocks PI courses and looked at the prices which I thought might be a bit on the steep side and so I let it go, several weeks ago after reading several posts on various forums, which gave glowing reports on the course I decided to cough up the dough and register.
In three weeks I learnt more than the previous 12 months of using Youtube and Kellers book (which I now understand a little better), Adam covers PI modules in depth (without any mathematics) he explains the purpose of the variables and what goes on behind the scenes when you select or change one, all in easy to understand parlance.
As an example I never understood what changing an image from a linear to non linear form was about, there is a 40 minute section that covers this, I cant claim to be an expert but I now understand the theory and what is going on when you use HistagramTransformation.
I cant recommend this courses highly enough, as far as the cost, its probably the best money I've spend this year, so if your at a standstill with PI
I would highly recommend this course,....... its probably not for raw beginners but it will certainly help users with some basic understanding of PI.
And no.... I'm not related or receive any kickbacks, just a very satisfied user.
Regards Russ
I have several of Adam's tutorials for Photoshop and CCDStack and indeed he is the best. I have seen several others' tutorials and whilst many are good his are very indepth and easy to follow.
He is fixing up the very poor communication of the PI writers who know their
computing stuff but can't communicate worth a damn.
I was thinking of buying his tutorials and yes the price was a bit of a putoff but I figured it would be worth it.
I know that Adam has been digging very deeply into PI. We have been having a detailed discussion about the intricacies of the normalization algorithms for ImageIntegration. His stuff is not just easy to grok - it's very comprehensive and practical as well.
When I first bought PixInsight I found it very daunting. The learning curve was an asymptote to infinity.
I have a degree in Physics and have done computer processing of data professionally since 1968!
The underlying mathematics behind every module of PI are state of the art and far better than anything else available for image processing.
There is no substitute for learning how to adjust the parameters for every module by just doing it and seeing the results. There is no magical recipe.
The most useful module is to me is DynamicBackgroundExtraction. It has allowed me to do deep images from a light polluted site.
Light pollution changes with height above the horizon. It is difficult to scale images at the integration step when the light pollution interferes with the scaling.
By collecting data 2X binned I can get a full colour data set in less than two hours. It makes reducing the light pollution far easier. Below is last nights effort. Sixty subs of 75s each ie 20 per colour.
Once I knew how to move the controls I just tried every parameter to see what it did and finally got a recipe that worked to minimise light pollution. The problem is that the recipe changes with different targets and only much practice gives one a feel for what works.
That being said I used Harry's videos to get started and after that just practice practice and more practice.
I have worked out a few work flows that work for my system and I am constantly improving by trying new methods or protocols.