puzzled

[raymo]

I can't find any equivalent feature in my old Photoshop 7, to the dark,
medium, and highlight luminance adjustment sliders in DSS. I have a book on PS, and there is no reference to such a thing in there. Firstly,
does anyone know if there is any publication that deals with using PS
for astro work? Video tutorials are next to useless to me; there are far too many steps for me to remember. I need a reference tool at my side.
I tried using curves to get rid of a glow, like Fred did to my Helix image.
Got rid of the glow, but unfortunately, got rid of the Helix too. Very frustrating. I expect you all are getting tired of helping me; I imagine that
young people would pick up and retain info much better than me.
raymo

[LightningNZ (Cam)]

The equivalent is to use curves. The DSS version is simply 3 curve adjusters for the left, middle and right parts of the curve.

Here are Louie's excellent youtube tutorials on levels and curves:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IllEy85eUWY
and "golden curves":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBb4AVWm_oc

[Bassnut (Fred)]

what I did to your Helix was pretty quick and rough. If you want to keep it really simple use the "lasso" tool feathered to say 30pixels around the area of interest (in this case the glow) and then apply curves. The curve will only apply to the area lassoed (selected). This sort of selected-area processing is very simple and intuative for a whole range of uses.

[raymo]

Thank you so much Cam and Fred.
raymo

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Raymo,
http://www.willbell.com/ccd/photoshop_astronomy.htm

If you google "Photoshop astronomy" you'll find many other useful links.
You may need a later version of PS for all the features.....

[raymo]

Thanks Ken, I'll have look.
raymo

[raymo]

Can't find a new or used copy of this book with the DVD anywhere in
the world for less than about $140 Ken, so I guess it'll have to wait.
raymo