More Solar Processing Tutorials - Smart Sharpen

[Ken Crawford]

Hello,

For those who are interested this is a two part tutorial on the basics of using Smart Sharpen for Solar Processing. You can't have too many tools in your processing tool box and Smart Sharpen is a vast improvement over USM. I have compared it to several other sharpening methods including LR and it holds up very well.

http://www.imagingdeepsky.com/Tutorials/Solar_SmartSharpen.htm

Just wanted to share this with my friends . ..

Kindest Regards,

[mswhin63]

Great tutorial, clear and concise. Don't have PS but they will come in handy. :thumbsup:

[DaveM]

Wonderful tutorial Ken. Very clear and understandable. I had wondered about different sharpening methods but did not understand how they worked, so this is very helpful. I checked out all your other tutorials as well. I will now go back through my previous solar images and see how much improvement I can make.

I had a quick go on a prom image from Jan 18, comparing it with processing using unsharp mask. Although the resultant images appear similar (barring some slight differences in how I applied curves), I do notice if I look carefully that the unsharp mask picks up on some very faint newtons rings in the background, while the smart sharpening leaves these alone (though it perhaps introduces some other subtle patterns in the background, at least the way I processed it). I think that other images I have with fainter proms where the newtons rings in the background are more of an issue will benefit from careful application of this processing.

Thanks for putting these tutorials up on the web.

The unsharp mask is the first image while the smart sharpen is the second.

[Ken Crawford]

Excellent Results and beautiful Proms! I am glad you found the tutorials helpful.

I found that producing flats take out the newtons rings very well along with the dust spots.

Kindest Regards,

[DaveM]

I have been using flats recently, but forgot for this shot. I find them very helpful as long as the newtons rings are not too dominant.