Video Tutorials

[atalas]

Hi Guy's

Just wanted to let you know that I've created a short video tutorial covering the usage of Levels & curves using Photoshop.

Hope It helps clear some things up and guides you in the right direction for creating great astronomical photographs!

I will be bringing you more in the near future explaining the "boosting of color without adding noise"useful layer masks for sharpening whilst protecting the stars and also smoothing techniques with masks and much more.

Anyway for now I hope you enjoy this first one and guys If your unclear of something please feel free to contact me.

The Video can be found at: www.atalas.net in the Links under tutorials.

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www.atalas.net

Cheers

Louie

[RobF]

Thanks Louie. Its always nice to see how someone else drives powerful software. I wasn't aware of "fade curves" to tame spikes in the histogram data, so I've learned something! :thumbsup:

[p1taylor]

Hi Louie

looks very good, but sound dos not work for me can it be because I am running vista

peter

[atalas]

Hi Rob

Well glad It was a help mate.Yes,you'll find that after every action If you go to edit before applying any other action filter or iteration of something else you can fade the opacity.

This video tutorial ended up a 300 meg avi file and trying to compress It down to a manageable flash and still hold enough quality to be enjoyed ain't the most sane thing I've tried to do.

Anyway,that's why I've tried to keep them brief and not as comprehensive as I would like but stay tune there will be more coming.

I'm always more than happy to help via email for those who need to know more about the tools and where to find them.

[atalas]

Hi Peter

I doubt Vista is the problem I'm using Vista as well.....more likely that you need to make sure your using the latest flash player...check for updates,should be free.

[p1taylor]

Louie just put 10.1 in still no good, it must be me not very good with computers.

peter

[Chancellor]

Thanks Louie! Bookmarked and I am sure I'll refer to the video a few more times.

There are some beautiful images on your site too.

[atalas]

Hmm,not sure what's going on there Peter,but I'll look into possible causes meanwhile I can email you the flash file and you can see If you still have an issue off web.....just email me.

[atalas]

Hi Peter

Thanks for the kind words mate and am glad that you enjoyed the first tutorial.

[midnight]

Hi Louie,

For a beginner like me who really hasn't used Photoshop before, this has really helped explain levels in such a simple way. A big Thanx for the tut :thanx:

I haven't dived into stacking yet apart from the moon but I worked on my earlier single shot to try out this technique and I was quite suprised how much red is in it. When I adjusted it, I found the darker areas come out much darker without seeming to loose anything which to me looks much better :)

A question if I may, I have attached the original and a "corrected" version to the right. Do you try and get the histogram at the left side to line up in RGB? Ie in my original, there is a clear difference in RGB starting points on the left side of the histogram. In your video, you mentioned you had too much red I think and adjusted the other colours to the left a little. I really am a bumbling beginner in this area and trying to understand PS with its power is a big challenge for me but I found this such a simple change which without this video, I would never have even begun to think of.

Really looking forward to your next tut's. I have found Ken Crawford's videos amazing too at the power to extract the hidden data in an image.

Cheers,
Darrin...

[atalas]

Hi Darren

Your very welcome mate!glad the tutorial has been of help.

Onto color bias...yes that is correct,align you channels for a neutral background which you have done in your second pic however,one thing I would say is try not to raise the black point(left hand side)too much until you have finished all post processing,in other words leave some room on the left hand side and make your final adjustment for contrast last.

Darrin,the most powerful software I have found for aligning &combining is RegiStar...

All other pre-processing like color synthesis and applying flats I do in AstroArt 4 then take all the exposure after registration to RegiStar where I align & combine for a final stack.

I will be doing another video tutorial on RegiStar which will get you going with It cause at first It can seem confusing.

Also a quick guide through Astroart 4 and also to show the importance of splitting the channels and normalizing the background.

Till then don't forget to have fun and still look up at the night sky when waiting for exposures!