Raw image proccessing

[Striker]

Hi Guys,

I know this topic is very much a detailed and perspective thread that can differ greatly depending what software you have and the user.

I dont need to know your whole process....just the order of how you do things.

For example..

Firstly do you convert Raws to tiff or work on the raws for awhile......do you adjust anything while in raw format...what tiff 16 or 8 bit do you convert too...when do you apply flats and darks...how do you stack your images.

Like I said I dont want everyone's entire proccessing technique...just the order you do thing...gives me something to work on then.

At the moment I am playing around for starters.

Converting Raw to 16bit tiff....add flats and darks....stack then process...I know this wrong but but I am stuffed what to do with the raws....they look terrible....btw these are just old raws I took months ago until I gave up on how to proccess them.

[acropolite]

Don't know much about raw processing, but colour balance, sharpening, noise reduction and compression are applied to the raw image by the camera after exposure, so that if you are working on the raw image, none of these algorithms have been applied. This means that extra detail and colour that may have been softened or removed by the colour balance/noise reduction and sharpening algorithms will still be there. How you further process raw astro images after that's a mystery to me as well; I'll be interested to know.

[xstream]

I think you'll find your answers here Tony.

http://www.saratogaskies.com/articles/cookbook/index.html

[Striker]

Thanks John,

I have read that page...it's about as interesting and user freindly as listening to my wifes day at work....hehehe

I can not stand Iris....I think it's the worst program ever made for being user friendly...my opinion.

I am after more of a basic process members use here....not a detailed format as he has mentioned regarding Iris...I had a go at iris and failed miserably..software does not even have to be mentioned just a quick guide regarding process order.

I will be using Images Plus, Photoshop, Photodeluxe and K3CCD...most of the programs can do the job for everything so software is a personal choice.

[beren]

http://www.optcorp.com/product.aspx?pid=4222

This book will explain everything and the steps required between images plus your camera and PC

[fringe_dweller]

just thought i would add this link - this guy is just an amateur like us - and the website is a work in progress - he hasnt widely advertised it yet, i think he was waiting till he finished them all. but there are a couple of free quicktime video tutorials on using photoshop to process astro images - so far he has only done 'Dark Frame Subtraction' and 'Align & Stack' in the advanced section. huge files!! broadband only!! one file is 60MB alone (AFAIK these are the only FREE astro PS video tutorials so far on the web?)
the author notes "I finally got some Photoshop tutorial info out there. They are far from perfect and I will
need to work on my narration and a bit more. I also told those PC users to use alt-*
instead of control-* in many places. Oh well...."
it is from a mac oriented astro site - a rare thing!!! hehe
tutorial_macCS (http://homepage.mac.com/deal/subpages/astrohelp/photoshop/advance.html)