Hi Luke,
I didn't mean to swamp you with jargon, sorry about that! I thought if you had Adobe Photoshop you might like to try to replicate my steps. GIMP will almost certainly let you do the same things but as you've heard elsewhere it can be tricky to use (I've tried it a few times and hated it). No doubt there are youtube vids to help with such things.
Yes, it is certainly trial and error when you get started. I have learnt a bunch of general techniques that help with different aspects of images and used some like the 'Lab' processing technique on your photo. It's a really useful one for smoothing colour blotches and letting you separately control the 'luminace' - the greyscale brightness - for maximum sharpness.
DSS does a very good job for the mathematical "nuts and bolts" stage of processing an image stack, but it doesn't have many tools to let you post-process an image. That's the stage where you have a "final" image that you tweak to get it looking "just so". Adobe Photoshop is very nice for that. It's pricey but powerful and (I think) quite intuitive. Anyway, it's all a learning curve and I'm no where near the front or top
, but I try to offer tips, tricks and support where I can.
All the best,
Cam
Quote:
Originally Posted by chiaroscuro
Hi Cam,
Thanks for the advice - you've improved the image out of sight to mine. I did no processing of the moon shot at all.
I should add that I've got no idea what all that processing lingo means - but I suppose you just use trial and error (at least when starting out) until the image looks better, and with time and experience, you recognise in advance what processing is required?
Also, do most astrophotos need processing in another programme besides DSS?
I've only got the software that came with the camera, and GIMP (which sounds very user-unfriendly from what's said here).
Hope to be able to speak your language some time in the future.  
Luke |