Webcam Artifact restoration

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #1 06-09-2006, 04:58 PM

I have always had the 'Webcam Blues' when it comes to capturing stars. When they are very bright, they get black rings around them known as artifacts causing what is also known as 'Blooming' or 'Webcam Blackeye'.

Ving posted a link in here about 2 days ago of a French site offering a Free program to deal with this problem.

Well, the good news is, it works!

Thanks to Vingo for posting the link.

The program is called Loreal V0.0.7 and can only be found here: http://www.astrosurf.com/hfosaf/uk/tdownload.htm#loreal

I have translated the Instructions into English.

To really test the program out, I chose my worst Blackeye pic (the Trapezium) and ran it through, and was suprised at the ease at which it works.

After correcting the artifacts in Loreal, I then ran through PaintShop pro with the usual Sharpen etc.
This program has enabled me to go back and repair all my old pics

Here are the results:
Pic 1: Before and after 'Loreal'
Pic 2: after the final work in PaintShop Pro.

Dennis · #2 06-09-2006, 05:06 PM

Hi Ken

Wow - that is powerful magic! You could drive a fleet of Mack trucks between stars E & F and the brighter A, B, C & D Trap stars. Great job!

Cheers

Dennis

Striker (Tony) · #3 06-09-2006, 06:09 PM

That makes a huge difference Ken...nice find Ving and well processed Kenny Koala.

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #4 06-09-2006, 06:11 PM

Ta guys.

I just noticed that somehow there were a few stars in that final pic that aren't supposed to be there!

I have removed them.

Astroman (Andrew Wall) · #5 06-09-2006, 06:28 PM

Great work there Ken,nice find ving.

Lester · #6 06-09-2006, 07:07 PM

Good trapezium image there Ken.

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #7 06-09-2006, 09:22 PM

Thanks Lester.

That ain't my best one, it was just the one with the most 'Blackeye' in it for the Loreal test.

My favourite trap shot is actually a terrible pic, but I found G & H in it

Here it is, sorry about the shocking focus:

bojan · #8 08-09-2006, 03:54 PM

I tried to download but edded with blank webpage.
Site is not allowing the downloads any mor?

ving (David) · #9 08-09-2006, 03:59 PM

still works fine bojan. i just tried it

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #10 08-09-2006, 04:00 PM

At first I could not download it either. I emailed the site. I recieved an email from Florent Losse, the owner of Loreal telling me to just click on the screenshot and unzip it.

When unzipped you have to click on the folder. Worked when I did that.

bojan · #11 08-09-2006, 04:03 PM

Yep, it does now :-)
No idea what was wrong a moment ago ???

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #12 08-09-2006, 04:15 PM

Bojan, when the instructions are translated, they say to be very light on the Sensitivity and radius scales, but I found I got better results by pumping both up to full!

Just centre the curser in the middle of a blackeyed star and click. If it doesn't get rid of all the blackeye on the first click, just click a few more times.

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #13 08-09-2006, 04:57 PM

If anyone downloading 'Loreal' would like the Instructions in English, just email me and I will email them back.
ken.james1 at bigpond.com (replace the 'at' with @ and remove the spaces)

bojan · #14 08-09-2006, 06:55 PM

Yes, it is worth it :-)