Aaron, did you see Mark’s Shelley use a grey multiplier and divider layer to apply arcsinh stretching in photoshop. Also calibrating your lights with flats and darks would make your processing easier!
Great Job, I been at this for just over 2 months and I am just getting to layer masks in PS, Great tool, you Video was very helpful. God Bless and Have an Outstanding New Year,
Looks like Control + J (= New Layer) is the most important step in processing. Definitely something I'm going to make a habit of using. Really awesome tutorial. Probably the best I found so far on youtube. It's videos like these that give us newbies a huge platform to start from as this kind of processing astro images can be daunting to anyone looking to get started in this hobby. On behalf of all newbies to this, I want to say thank you very much for taking the time and effort to help us get started on our journey.
LOL! yes I use CTRL+J ALOT! Glad you found it helpful. Once you learn the main tools for your workflow it becomes much easier. Keep at it. God bless and clear skies!
Thanks for all your videos and tutorials Aaron. They continue to be super helpful. I just shot M45 for the first time, so this particular video is perfect. Dr B from Manitoba, Canada 🇨🇦
Awesome! Really appreciate that. The enjoyable part of doing these videos is knowing that they’ve helped someone do this hobby just a little bit better. Clear skies and God bless!
Excellent tutorial! As a beginner with photoshop I get very frustrated watching videos from those who zip thru the shortcut commands leaving the viewer scratching his head as to how the new menu was invoked. You gave GREAT step by step instructions on how to use the shortcut commands. One suggestion, when you bring up a new enhancement to make and bring up the menu to make the change please give a little explanation WHY you are making the change. Sometimes it is hard to "see" the before and after change on a video and knowing WHY it was done would make it easier to know for our own images. Anyway, excellent video and thanks! Update 12/11/20 - I finally got thru using your step by step onto your example of M45. It was great following along my steps while you do your changes on the video. Great learning tool for me with my limited skills of photoshop. One thing I did do different is to use lasso and select inverse and then run gradient Xterminator to reduce the color shifts outside the nebula. Makes a difference. Thanks alot. I WILL be using your steps on my own projects now. Keep up the good work!
I was breezing through this lesson but had to save all my work to download Camera Raw. This one is free. Enjoying your tutorial. Getting much easier. Merry Xmas.
Outstanding video - People there are a few tell all videos I have seen like this to teach us. It is a Christmas gift that Aaron shared amongst us - Thank you Aaron!! I know I’ve picked up quite a bit from this.God Bless, clear skies to you and all your subscribers!!!
Thanks for the tutorial! I recently discovered that layer masks are where the magic happens :) I like your use of the color range function (+ selector brush) to fine tune your masks. I'll be using that one.
Absolutely brilliant tutorial, very clear and very helpful. Keep sharing your knowledge on ps its such a help to be able to get the most out of data. Thanks 👍
Excellent tutorial! As a beginner with photoshop I get very frustrated watching videos from those who zip thru the shortcut commands leaving the viewer scratching his head as to how the new menu was invoked. You gave GREAT step by step instructions on how to use the shortcut commands. One suggestion, when you bring up a new enhancement to make and bring up the menu to make the change please give a little explanation WHY you are making the change. Sometimes it is hard to "see" the before and after change on a video and knowing WHY it was done would make it easier to know for our own images. Anyway, excellent video and thanks!
I thank you so much A.V. Astronomy I have made my image using your tutorial. You have explained in much more detail and I learned so many tips in this tutorial. Can I try Orion nebula, Galaxies, Globular Clusters with this technique ?
Thank you so much for this. Excellent and well explained tutorial. I learned lots of new tricks from this. Really, really helpful and inspiring. Guess it's time to go back and reprocess (since the weather doesn't really allow for new acquisitions).
I may have missed it...Number /duration of Subs, ISO, Bortle? I assume the scope is the Orion Optics UK Ultra Newtonian Telescope and that you used the qhy168C? When you do your workflow you talk out loud all of the commands....SO GREAT! Thank you.
Hi Marc, I actually was using my maksutov newtonian scope. This was 60 x 4 minute subs with the QHY168C. Bortle 5 ish / yellow zone. Yeah, one of the things that bothered me early on when watching tutorial videos is that people would do their workflow and assume the viewer already knew all the commands. I really try to make a point to say them out loud to help new users learn them. Thanks for watching!
amazing tutorial, now i just need to put this in writing so i dont have to keep opening the video and scrolling through! really helped me with my Pleiades/Mars acquisition this past week, neighbors outside lights made for some nasty lens artifacts (heavy one corner/side vignetting and a centralized halo vignette
@@AVAstronomy i see you have the astronomy tool kit action set, do you ever see the need to run any of those actions? if so, when in this process would you run what?
@@The_GreenMachine I purchased that a good year ago or so. Honestly, I don’t use it anymore but I used to use “enhance DSO amd makes stars smaller” action all the time. Worked pretty well.
Hello Aaron. Nice workflow Aaron. Siril is very good. I would like to examine all the processes. It seems easier to understand than Pixinsight. I wonder why don’t use non destructive workflow by using groups of layers, clipping masks, and ctrl-alt-del-e to create a new layer on top instead of stamp visible. I also preferred the image after Siril to the final image in Photoshop. The stars in final image looked more like noise and grain to me.
Haven’t used Siri yet but hear it’s good. I don’t stamp new layers that much as the file sizes I work with are pretty large and it makes the program lag a bit. Plus, I can always revert with the history tab. Maybe one of these days I’ll get around to trying out Siril. Thanks for watching.
Great video, Aaron. Always love seeing other peoples workflow as I always learn something! I am usually far more aggressive with the arcsin (using 300 or even 1000), though I wonder if that's because I am a good boy and take all my calibration frames so I can get away with more... 😉 Looking forward to your comparison video for that! AstroMattUK
Hi Matt! Still working on a comparison video of using calibration frames or not. Also, your images are looking awesome man. Love what you are posting on twitter. Keep it up bud!
Nice video. thanks. I processed your data and it came out great - better than I can ever do with my data. So what are the specifications for the picture? Camera? Integration time? Bortle? ISO, aperture, shutter speed? Thanks!
Excellent video. Looking forward to your calibration frames analysis. Late in the video, when you are using Camera Raw, consider using a combination of clarity and dehaze. You only need a little of each. And, although texture and luminescence sliders seem to work in opposition, try decreasing texture to soften the image by one or two point along with the color noise slider.
I was using the same stretch methods and with the arc sign curves for a while. Until I found another tutorial with a different method, I was not getting the best results. And I didn’t realize it. I started using a multiply and divide layer with arc sign stretches which preserves color and prevents star bloat altogether without using a mask at all. I only end up doing 2-3 arc sign 10 stretches before it maxes out potential. I’ve been using that method and brings out so much more dust and detail and without losing anything or bloating stars. I’d link the video, but I don’t want to redirect your viewers. If you want to see it, let me know. I haven’t seen any other methods like it.
@@GrowingAnswers I found it. I've actually seen this one before. It is a very good video, the only thing is there is a trade off to this method. While it does help minimize star bloat it can completely blow out the core and surrounding portion of the stars leaving a harsh core. I think it will fair better with images that already have smaller stars but for images like M45 this method didn't fair as well for me. I'm definitely going to experiment more with it on my emission nebula data.
@@AVAstronomy cool, yeah the key thing with that is setting the black point more precisely before each stretch and only setting levels and curves from the multiply layer. Typically what I’ll do is use that and and stretch one less time and then either do a star selection or use the star removal program and then finalize the background. Re-adding the stars with that persons method is also really easy. If the stars are added as another layer it’s a little easier to minimize them by just by setting a lower blend percentage. I’ve only really found the issue with stars as you described, with my nifty 50 lens. Using that method with pictures from my scope I haven’t seen any issues. It tends to have a bad reaction with more coma or aberrations around stars mostly. Certainly not a perfect method and other methods need mixed with it on case by case basis.
Loved the video... seriously dumb luck I found a way to use your process but use the color selector to remove the colors on the outside. • Lasso the main target area; anywhere you don’t want to change • Top Middle short cut button or Go To: Select and Mask o Properties window should pop up o Set Feather and Smooth, both to 20 o Click Invert • Go To: Adjustments - Saturation; open mask o Or… Layer - New Adjustment Layer - Saturation o You should have an eye dropper tool as the pointer • With the eye dropper… select the bad color o The saturation menu should change from master to a color close to the issue color o Desaturate the bad color until it is the way you want it o You may have to select multiple colors • Optional… Select the previous layer and miss with saturation and curves to tweek • Flatten you image
Aaron another problem I am having is that my version of PS doesn't have the same format and I know I am missing a lot of plug-ins. The other challenge is that I have to install these plug-ins in the right location or they don't work...so I am taking the scenic route with your tutorials when I don't want to go that way....
Hello Aaron. I am struggling at 4:30. Independent of what I am doing, the walking ants stay active. What button do you press to close the mask? Thanks for a hint. Adrian
Great video! I used your tips on some of my images and it really improved the overall quality! I have a question: the "stacking artifact" that you refer to at 8:25, what is it a result of? I do some imaging every now and then and I find that the longer the total exposure of my image the more I see this stacking effect. It's not much of a problem because like you say, just crop it out. But I was wondering whether it has anything to do with polar alignment or tracking issues.
From a tutorial to another tutorial it seems to me that arcsin curves are applied incorrectly. The author provides two methods, a layers and an adjustments method. If I understand the idea correctly, it is not enough to just apply an arcsin curve to preserve color, you have to do multiply and divide steps on luminance. Correct me please if I'm wrong
Hi Rostislav, yes, if strictly following the instruction on cloudy nights forums, then you would use the multiply/divide method. I personally didn't like the effects that method was having on M45. I think it's better suited for photos with smaller stars already. Images with large bright stars suffer from a harsh edge/contrast on the stars that I don't particularly like. I did find, however, that simply applying the arcsin stretches still helps to preserve star size and color better than doing standard stretches.
Sure, This wast taken with my QHY165C one shot color camera. I believe the gain was 2000 and the offset was 150. I took 60 x 4 minute sub frames for a total of 4 hours integration time.
Yes it’s an additional cost. Something like $40. Whether it’s worth it or not is subjective but personally I think it’s worth every penny. It does a fantastic job of eliminating gradients.
Thanks! Well done. Just started to work in astrophotography and your video is a great sources. I am starting with M42, is this a good workflow to follow for it?
Thank you, yes it will help, however I recommend doing a seperate set of exposures for the core of M42. I have a video that shows you how to process this particular target with great results. Check it out.
Nice tutorial man, tanks 👍But why a destructive workflow. Why not stamp new layers (ctrl+alt+shift+E) as you go along instead of flattening every step and thus make it impossible to go back if ned be? The image file Will of course be huge, but well worth it in my opinion.
Hi Torbjorn, thank you and yes I totally see where you're coming from and can see how the workflow is less "destructive" however, you can always back track with the history tab and my system doesn't have a huge amount of RAM so for performance sake, I flatten the image as long as I know I'm happy with the result from that step. Thanks for watching.
Switched to another computer and downloaded PS CS6 to it..almost completed entire lesson but for some reason Camera Raw is not part of the Filter drop down menu...I will have to download a full version. I have the original keys...The way you use hot keys make PS much easier than I even imagined it would be. I have spent over 10 hours wasting my time on the other desk top..getting very harsh stretch artifacts in addition to certain keys not being available...even the Levels black point and the histogram didn't match yours...with the current desktop I switched to, much better results...go figure! Yes I had to load the Gradient xterminator and the Sinh stretch curves anew to this computer. Both are Windows 10 computers.
I don’t noise correct as much anymore since topaz denoise ai. As for the vignettes, flat frames help. I don’t dither bc as you see there is a lot of cropping post processing, so calibration frames do help
I’ve been wanting to try out that topaz Dennis’s. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. And I agree if you don’t dither calibration frames are necessary. I’ll be doing a follow up video soon that will look at an example image that has calibration and frames and the same image without. My argument is that with solod dithering and a cooled camera there is enough tools in post processing to eliminate calibration frames. Maybe not for every situation but I believe for most. Should be an interesting experiment. Thanks for watching. Clear skies and God bless!
Hi Aaron! Cool tutorial, I already incorporated a lot of your techniques and they have helped me tremendously! I think I notice you have the astronomy tools action set and you did not used it. I recently got it and it has lots of stuff but I really do not know which tool to use on which image type, like I use the reduce gradient and reduce space noise, they are cool but it dims all my color and I was not able to use the lasso tool like you do to protect, it ignores it. When do you use that tool set, for what image type and which ones do you use? Clear skies! @eyethesky
Hi Edwin! Yeah, so I use to to use that action set quite a bit but not much anymore. About the only action use in it once in a while is the “enhance dso amd reduce stars”. But honestly, I find my newer workflow more to my liking.
Hi Tobias, The total exposure time was 4 hours. It was 60 x 4 minute subs stacked in DSS with no calibration files. When you stack an image the data is linear and to the left of the histogram. This is why it's dark after being stacked.
@@AVAstronomy Hi, thanks. My stacked ones i DSS doesn’t get that dark at all. I am using calibration files though. Are your single RAW-files darker to or more closer to a middle histogram exposure?
@@AVAstronomy Thanks and sorry for hijacking the post, but I am curious as I have compared my stacked once with your in your tutorial. Do you under expose the single frames?
@@AVAstronomy I finally got it installed but it turned my image gray. Back to the beginning. Aaron WE don't all have a PS background. You are racing through this tutorial at a blinding speed. Thank god for videos....actually the image looks very good. The blue is very subtle and I see the brown dust clouds.
Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Following along around 4:00 I do do the select color range OK, I get the "marching ants" around the stars, CTRL + U adjust color sat, select "OK" and the marching ants will not go away :( tried these steps over and over, reopened file, same result. What am I missing? New (subscription) to Ps I did watch the entire video and really liked it so started over with my M45 stack Just retried with your .tiff file...same :(
Hi Steven, since I recently migrated to monochrome imaging My workflow has changed with regard to mono but still remains true to this video for the most part. Perhaps one day if I ever make the transition to Pixinsight, I’ll do a video then. Clear skies!
@@AVAstronomy no problem. I am loving full shot colour so it isn't for me right now. I am in a a bortle 4 backyard so it has its advantages. Like your workflow. I am also a big Roger Clark fan of process style.
@@stevenrobinsonpictures bortle 4 that's awesome! I still do use my OSC for most broadband targets in my yellow zone skies. Roger Clark has some incredible images. Do you have an astrobin account?
Awesome video! Similar workflow to mine but you’ve definitely taught me some valuable tricks. For anyone reading, I recommend you check out the video called “removing gradients and light pollution” as well. I forget who does it but it works like a charm.
Really really really nice video! What about the exposure that u took for the image? And how many of them? I know that u didnt took calibrating images like darks or flats but how many light brother?
Oh. I saw that u said 60x4! Nice! Im in bortle 9 city with my 150/750 newtonian and Canon Eos 1200D/T5, do you think I can get good results? Of course I will buy a motor drive for my EQ3! Do you recommend some light pollution filters for my case??
Seeing that you are imaging in bortle 9 skies. You will definitely want some narrow band filters like the optolong l-enhance filter. You will also need to mod that T5 or get a one shot color camera. If you’ve got deep pockets then go for a mono camera. Those do great for narrowband work.
Aaron you are taking FAR too much for granted. Here I am struggling through your tutorial and you throw another monkey wrench into it, namely another plug-in which you have to install into PS which I haven't done because you didn't tell me or anyone else about this prerequisite! Sheesh man. Now I have to abort everything and figure out how it will be installed. Another thing this "Gradient Exterminator" is overpriced!!! I can get Star Tools for slightly more than this one trick pony! I think I will quit now. Thank you but no thanks!
Something you’ll learn as you get into this hobby is that everyone has their own methods. Everyone and their grandma has a method on how to do this hobby. I have a workflow that works well for me and produces solid results it doesn’t mean it’s by any means the only way. If star tools and APP work for then good for you sir. Stick with that. All I’m doing is sharing with others what has worked for me. Maybe check out astrobackyard, astrofarsography, or astroaddict. They may have some tutorials that better fit your needs. Best of luck.
@@AVAstronomy I don't mind. I am beginning to like it. I have the sinh stretch curves installed as well as the gradient exterminator. I was always curious about PS and with your approach I will learn it. Don't mind my griping. You have much to offer. I am half way through but I will have to start over again tomorrow. It is good. As I stated before I am extremely curious about your no calib. files approach to get good results.
I just did the 3rd Arc Sinh stretch and WOW..can't believe the detail it has pulled out. I am liking this.
Thank you so much for this tutorial. This was super straight forward and easy to follow.
your videos are great, thanks for taking the time to help people.
Glad to help. God bless!
Aaron, did you see Mark’s Shelley use a grey multiplier and divider layer to apply arcsinh stretching in photoshop. Also calibrating your lights with flats and darks would make your processing easier!
Very nice end results!
Thank you Chuck!
Really awesome video. It really helped my editing. Please keep it up.
Glad to hear! More videos coming soon. Clear skies and God bless!
Great Job, I been at this for just over 2 months and I am just getting to layer masks in PS, Great tool, you Video was very helpful. God Bless and Have an Outstanding New Year,
Thank you Tom! Glad you found it helpful. Good luck on your astrophotography journey! God bless you sir.
Looks like Control + J (= New Layer) is the most important step in processing. Definitely something I'm going to make a habit of using. Really awesome tutorial. Probably the best I found so far on youtube. It's videos like these that give us newbies a huge platform to start from as this kind of processing astro images can be daunting to anyone looking to get started in this hobby. On behalf of all newbies to this, I want to say thank you very much for taking the time and effort to help us get started on our journey.
LOL! yes I use CTRL+J ALOT! Glad you found it helpful. Once you learn the main tools for your workflow it becomes much easier. Keep at it. God bless and clear skies!
Thanks Aaron! Just getting started and I really appreciate the insight into your workflow.
You're welome James!
Thanks for all your help man. I just finished my photo of the Triangulum Galaxy from watching your videos. Keep up the good work bud!
That’s great! And thank you for watching. God bless!
Arcsinh is best I ever seen
It could be the same video but with a different DSO and I'd still enjoy the processing walkthrough. So helpful. Keep it up!
Thanks Matt!
Thank you for the tutorial, your tips make my pictures blow my mind.
You're welcome and love to hear my tutorials are helping you get the results you want. Clear skies and God Bless!
Thanks. This was very clear and concise. I'm a beginner and was really struggling with layers
Nice one. Helpt me a lot!! Keep up the good work!!
Thank you! Glad it helped!
Thank you sooooo sooooo much, well explained for Beginners, beeing not familiar with that stuff. Loving your videos, keep up the good work.
Happy to help!
Thanks for all your videos and tutorials Aaron. They continue to be super helpful. I just shot M45 for the first time, so this particular video is perfect. Dr B from Manitoba, Canada 🇨🇦
Awesome! Really appreciate that. The enjoyable part of doing these videos is knowing that they’ve helped someone do this hobby just a little bit better. Clear skies and God bless!
Without a doubt, I congratulate myself for subscribing to your channel. Thank you.
Many thanks Lucian! God bless and clear skies!
Excellent tutorial! As a beginner with photoshop I get very frustrated watching videos from those who zip thru the shortcut commands leaving the viewer scratching his head as to how the new menu was invoked. You gave GREAT step by step instructions on how to use the shortcut commands. One suggestion, when you bring up a new enhancement to make and bring up the menu to make the change please give a little explanation WHY you are making the change. Sometimes it is hard to "see" the before and after change on a video and knowing WHY it was done would make it easier to know for our own images. Anyway, excellent video and thanks! Update 12/11/20 - I finally got thru using your step by step onto your example of M45. It was great following along my steps while you do your changes on the video. Great learning tool for me with my limited skills of photoshop. One thing I did do different is to use lasso and select inverse and then run gradient Xterminator to reduce the color shifts outside the nebula. Makes a difference. Thanks alot. I WILL be using your steps on my own projects now. Keep up the good work!
Thanks John glad it helped you out
I was breezing through this lesson but had to save all my work to download Camera Raw. This one is free. Enjoying your tutorial. Getting much easier. Merry Xmas.
This video is extremely helpful. Thank you.
Glad you found it helpful! Clear skies and God bless!
Outstanding video - People there are a few tell all videos I have seen like this to teach us. It is a Christmas gift that Aaron shared amongst us - Thank you Aaron!! I know I’ve picked up quite a bit from this.God Bless, clear skies to you and all your subscribers!!!
Thank you Skip! God bless and clear skies to you as well!
This has been really helpful and I have learned a lot from your video. Thanks a plenty ! It was really hard to process but you made it simple
This is what I've been waiting for. Thanks for sharing mate.
You’re welcome! Glad it helped.
Great job, Aaron! I’ll guve it a try with my M45.
Thank you Enrique! Hope it helps!
Been waiting for this. Thanks Aaron. Absolutely brilliant
You’re welcome James! 👍
Thanks for the tutorial! I recently discovered that layer masks are where the magic happens :) I like your use of the color range function (+ selector brush) to fine tune your masks. I'll be using that one.
You're welcome Jeff! Glad it helped out!
instablaster...
Absolutely brilliant tutorial, very clear and very helpful. Keep sharing your knowledge on ps its such a help to be able to get the most out of data. Thanks 👍
Thank you! Appreciate the support.
Excellent tutorial! As a beginner with photoshop I get very frustrated watching videos from those who zip thru the shortcut commands leaving the viewer scratching his head as to how the new menu was invoked. You gave GREAT step by step instructions on how to use the shortcut commands. One suggestion, when you bring up a new enhancement to make and bring up the menu to make the change please give a little explanation WHY you are making the change. Sometimes it is hard to "see" the before and after change on a video and knowing WHY it was done would make it easier to know for our own images. Anyway, excellent video and thanks!
Thank you! Glad you found it helpful. And thanks for the advice as well. God bless and clear skies to you!
sir, when i use the curves and histogram stretch my image is turning orange, what should i do? help mee
Great video, I've struggled with my images in photoshop, but this has really helped me, thank you.
Liked and subscribed.
Glad to hear it! Thanks Pete!
Great tutorial. Thank you.
Thanks! Glad it helped.
This is so fun and cool, thank you
You the man. Nice one. Waiting to break in my Raptor with M45 but I got nothing but clouds since it was delivered.
Thank you Figz!
I thank you so much A.V. Astronomy
I have made my image using your tutorial. You have explained in much more detail and I learned so many tips in this tutorial. Can I try Orion nebula, Galaxies, Globular Clusters with this technique ?
Thank you so much for this. Excellent and well explained tutorial. I learned lots of new tricks from this. Really, really helpful and inspiring. Guess it's time to go back and reprocess (since the weather doesn't really allow for new acquisitions).
Thank you and glad you found it helpful! Clear skies and God bless!
Thanks, just sat processing the M42. You helped me a lot. Merry Christmas!
You’re welcome and Merry Christmas to you too!
I may have missed it...Number /duration of Subs, ISO, Bortle? I assume the scope is the Orion Optics UK Ultra Newtonian Telescope and that you used the qhy168C? When you do your workflow you talk out loud all of the commands....SO GREAT! Thank you.
Hi Marc, I actually was using my maksutov newtonian scope. This was 60 x 4 minute subs with the QHY168C. Bortle 5 ish / yellow zone. Yeah, one of the things that bothered me early on when watching tutorial videos is that people would do their workflow and assume the viewer already knew all the commands. I really try to make a point to say them out loud to help new users learn them. Thanks for watching!
amazing tutorial, now i just need to put this in writing so i dont have to keep opening the video and scrolling through! really helped me with my Pleiades/Mars acquisition this past week, neighbors outside lights made for some nasty lens artifacts (heavy one corner/side vignetting and a centralized halo vignette
Thank you! Glad you found it helpful.
@@AVAstronomy i see you have the astronomy tool kit action set, do you ever see the need to run any of those actions? if so, when in this process would you run what?
@@The_GreenMachine I purchased that a good year ago or so. Honestly, I don’t use it anymore but I used to use “enhance DSO amd makes stars smaller” action all the time. Worked pretty well.
Hi there, thanks for your great tutorial video. Btw, my photoshop does not have RC-astro in filter. Is it something that I need to download somewhere?
Yes, it’s a download from Russell croman’s website.
Hello Aaron. Nice workflow Aaron. Siril is very good. I would like to examine all the processes. It seems easier to understand than Pixinsight. I wonder why don’t use non destructive workflow by using groups of layers, clipping masks, and ctrl-alt-del-e to create a new layer on top instead of stamp visible. I also preferred the image after Siril to the final image in Photoshop. The stars in final image looked more like noise and grain to me.
Haven’t used Siri yet but hear it’s good. I don’t stamp new layers that much as the file sizes I work with are pretty large and it makes the program lag a bit. Plus, I can always revert with the history tab. Maybe one of these days I’ll get around to trying out Siril. Thanks for watching.
Great video, Aaron. Always love seeing other peoples workflow as I always learn something! I am usually far more aggressive with the arcsin (using 300 or even 1000), though I wonder if that's because I am a good boy and take all my calibration frames so I can get away with more... 😉 Looking forward to your comparison video for that! AstroMattUK
Hi Matt! Still working on a comparison video of using calibration frames or not. Also, your images are looking awesome man. Love what you are posting on twitter. Keep it up bud!
Nice video. thanks. I processed your data and it came out great - better than I can ever do with my data.
So what are the specifications for the picture?
Camera?
Integration time?
Bortle?
ISO, aperture, shutter speed?
Thanks!
Excellent video. Looking forward to your calibration frames analysis.
Late in the video, when you are using Camera Raw, consider using a combination of clarity and dehaze. You only need a little of each. And, although texture and luminescence sliders seem to work in opposition, try decreasing texture to soften the image by one or two point along with the color noise slider.
Thank you! Yeah, should be an interesting experiment.
Great video again. Really helpful as a novice to PS. I cant even zoom in like you do.
Glad it helped out Matt! 👍
I was using the same stretch methods and with the arc sign curves for a while. Until I found another tutorial with a different method, I was not getting the best results. And I didn’t realize it. I started using a multiply and divide layer with arc sign stretches which preserves color and prevents star bloat altogether without using a mask at all. I only end up doing 2-3 arc sign 10 stretches before it maxes out potential. I’ve been using that method and brings out so much more dust and detail and without losing anything or bloating stars. I’d link the video, but I don’t want to redirect your viewers. If you want to see it, let me know. I haven’t seen any other methods like it.
That sounds great. Sure, I'd love to take a look at it. Always looking to improve.
@@AVAstronomy where would you like me to share the link?
@@GrowingAnswers I found it. I've actually seen this one before. It is a very good video, the only thing is there is a trade off to this method. While it does help minimize star bloat it can completely blow out the core and surrounding portion of the stars leaving a harsh core. I think it will fair better with images that already have smaller stars but for images like M45 this method didn't fair as well for me. I'm definitely going to experiment more with it on my emission nebula data.
@@AVAstronomy cool, yeah the key thing with that is setting the black point more precisely before each stretch and only setting levels and curves from the multiply layer. Typically what I’ll do is use that and and stretch one less time and then either do a star selection or use the star removal program and then finalize the background. Re-adding the stars with that persons method is also really easy. If the stars are added as another layer it’s a little easier to minimize them by just by setting a lower blend percentage. I’ve only really found the issue with stars as you described, with my nifty 50 lens. Using that method with pictures from my scope I haven’t seen any issues. It tends to have a bad reaction with more coma or aberrations around stars mostly. Certainly not a perfect method and other methods need mixed with it on case by case basis.
Loved the video... seriously dumb luck I found a way to use your process but use the color selector to remove the colors on the outside.
• Lasso the main target area; anywhere you don’t want to change
• Top Middle short cut button or Go To: Select and Mask
o Properties window should pop up
o Set Feather and Smooth, both to 20
o Click Invert
• Go To: Adjustments - Saturation; open mask
o Or… Layer - New Adjustment Layer - Saturation
o You should have an eye dropper tool as the pointer
• With the eye dropper… select the bad color
o The saturation menu should change from master to a color close to the issue color
o Desaturate the bad color until it is the way you want it
o You may have to select multiple colors
• Optional… Select the previous layer and miss with saturation and curves to tweek
• Flatten you image
When I do this my image is like a rust red. I get some nebulosity but I definitely do not get the pleiades lol
Thx for the curves presets.
Aaron another problem I am having is that my version of PS doesn't have the same format and I know I am missing a lot of plug-ins. The other challenge is that I have to install these plug-ins in the right location or they don't work...so I am taking the scenic route with your tutorials when I don't want to go that way....
Hello Aaron.
I am struggling at 4:30.
Independent of what I am doing, the walking ants stay active.
What button do you press to close the mask?
Thanks for a hint.
Adrian
Are you flattening the image after completing that step?
Hi Aaron.
Flattening is Ctrl+E?
@@adrianneubert78 go to the menu bar and hover over layer then scroll down to flatten.
Just brilliant thank you, should i still go image/mode/16 Bit/exposure and gamma ?
Thank you! yes, you want to be in 16bit mode but it should default to that. If it doesn't then you would make that change.
Great video! I used your tips on some of my images and it really improved the overall quality! I have a question: the "stacking artifact" that you refer to at 8:25, what is it a result of? I do some imaging every now and then and I find that the longer the total exposure of my image the more I see this stacking effect. It's not much of a problem because like you say, just crop it out. But I was wondering whether it has anything to do with polar alignment or tracking issues.
shoot me an email with some sample images and I'd be glad to help. Sorry for the delayed response. avastronomy@gmail.com
From a tutorial to another tutorial it seems to me that arcsin curves are applied incorrectly. The author provides two methods, a layers and an adjustments method. If I understand the idea correctly, it is not enough to just apply an arcsin curve to preserve color, you have to do multiply and divide steps on luminance. Correct me please if I'm wrong
Hi Rostislav, yes, if strictly following the instruction on cloudy nights forums, then you would use the multiply/divide method. I personally didn't like the effects that method was having on M45. I think it's better suited for photos with smaller stars already. Images with large bright stars suffer from a harsh edge/contrast on the stars that I don't particularly like. I did find, however, that simply applying the arcsin stretches still helps to preserve star size and color better than doing standard stretches.
Is there a way to emulate the arcsine stretch without the plugin? In running like a bootleg Photoshop but basically I can't use plugins. Help!
Probably but that's above my knowledge base.
Thank you that was one of the best tutorials out there for photoshop. Do you have specific advice for removal of dust motes, please? Thanks.
Thank you and yes I do. Calibration(flats) files will knockem out but if your lazy like me then you can use clone stamp.
Also, if the dust motes are bad and in difficult to remove areas of image then flats may be your best option
Thanks great tutorial, would be posible you share the cámara setting?
Yessir, the setting I used in my bortle 5 skies was gain 2000 and offset of 150. Thanks for watching!
Can you share the details of the subs of your stacked tiff of M45? Like how many, exposure length, ISO.
Sure, This wast taken with my QHY165C one shot color camera. I believe the gain was 2000 and the offset was 150. I took 60 x 4 minute sub frames for a total of 4 hours integration time.
Hey thanks!
What is gradient exterminator ? Is this a pluggin....I am remote snd following this on my phone so can't see the screen well.
Yes it is a plug-in that you can download from russel croman’s web site.
Thanks !
Just learning. Is gradient exterminator an add on? Does it cost? Is it really necessary?
Yes it’s an additional cost. Something like $40. Whether it’s worth it or not is subjective but personally I think it’s worth every penny. It does a fantastic job of eliminating gradients.
Thanks! Well done. Just started to work in astrophotography and your video is a great sources. I am starting with M42, is this a good workflow to follow for it?
Thank you, yes it will help, however I recommend doing a seperate set of exposures for the core of M42. I have a video that shows you how to process this particular target with great results. Check it out.
Nice tutorial man, tanks 👍But why a destructive workflow. Why not stamp new layers (ctrl+alt+shift+E) as you go along instead of flattening every step and thus make it impossible to go back if ned be?
The image file Will of course be huge, but well worth it in my opinion.
Hi Torbjorn, thank you and yes I totally see where you're coming from and can see how the workflow is less "destructive" however, you can always back track with the history tab and my system doesn't have a huge amount of RAM so for performance sake, I flatten the image as long as I know I'm happy with the result from that step. Thanks for watching.
awesome video :)
Glad you liked it
Switched to another computer and downloaded PS CS6 to it..almost completed entire lesson but for some reason Camera Raw is not part of the Filter drop down menu...I will have to download a full version. I have the original keys...The way you use hot keys make PS much easier than I even imagined it would be. I have spent over 10 hours wasting my time on the other desk top..getting very harsh stretch artifacts in addition to certain keys not being available...even the Levels black point and the histogram didn't match yours...with the current desktop I switched to, much better results...go figure! Yes I had to load the Gradient xterminator and the Sinh stretch curves anew to this computer. Both are Windows 10 computers.
I don’t noise correct as much anymore since topaz denoise ai. As for the vignettes, flat frames help. I don’t dither bc as you see there is a lot of cropping post processing, so calibration frames do help
I’ve been wanting to try out that topaz Dennis’s. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. And I agree if you don’t dither calibration frames are necessary. I’ll be doing a follow up video soon that will look at an example image that has calibration and frames and the same image without. My argument is that with solod dithering and a cooled camera there is enough tools in post processing to eliminate calibration frames. Maybe not for every situation but I believe for most. Should be an interesting experiment. Thanks for watching. Clear skies and God bless!
Hi Aaron! Cool tutorial, I already incorporated a lot of your techniques and they have helped me tremendously! I think I notice you have the astronomy tools action set and you did not used it. I recently got it and it has lots of stuff but I really do not know which tool to use on which image type, like I use the reduce gradient and reduce space noise, they are cool but it dims all my color and I was not able to use the lasso tool like you do to protect, it ignores it.
When do you use that tool set, for what image type and which ones do you use?
Clear skies!
@eyethesky
Hi Edwin! Yeah, so I use to to use that action set quite a bit but not much anymore. About the only action use in it once in a while is the “enhance dso amd reduce stars”. But honestly, I find my newer workflow more to my liking.
Tank you for a great tutorial. How many files did you stack and what exposure time? Did you darken the stacked file in DSS or some other software?
Hi Tobias, The total exposure time was 4 hours. It was 60 x 4 minute subs stacked in DSS with no calibration files. When you stack an image the data is linear and to the left of the histogram. This is why it's dark after being stacked.
@@AVAstronomy Hi, thanks. My stacked ones i DSS doesn’t get that dark at all. I am using calibration files though. Are your single RAW-files darker to or more closer to a middle histogram exposure?
@@jmclauren my raw files are pretty dark too but not as dark as the stacked image
@@AVAstronomy Thanks and sorry for hijacking the post, but I am curious as I have compared my stacked once with your in your tutorial. Do you under expose the single frames?
Hello A.V. Astronomy
I was not able to find RC- Astro tool
It’s a plug-in you purchase from Russell Croman’s website.
@@AVAstronomy okk Great. Thanks
Hi Aaron. I want to create my own Gradient exterminator. What settings in photoshop will do this? Thank you.
I’ve always just used gradient exterminator. It works so well.
I don't have gradient exterminator. Is this another plug-in?
Yes. It’s a must have. Russel croman’s webpage has it
@@AVAstronomy I finally got it installed but it turned my image gray. Back to the beginning. Aaron WE don't all have a PS background. You are racing through this tutorial at a blinding speed. Thank god for videos....actually the image looks very good. The blue is very subtle and I see the brown dust clouds.
Apologies Aaron, your image was amazing at the end. I think I confused the image with another Pleiades processing on youtube, so I apologise.
It’s all good. Clear skies!
есть пару полезных техник, но блин ты видел свои звезды на 24:29?
Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Following along around 4:00 I do do the select color range OK, I get the "marching ants" around the stars, CTRL + U adjust color sat, select "OK" and the marching ants will not go away :( tried these steps over and over, reopened file, same result. What am I missing? New (subscription) to Ps
I did watch the entire video and really liked it so started over with my M45 stack
Just retried with your .tiff file...same :(
are you selecting the mask icon? it should go away after selecting it.
Will this process work with the whirlpool galaxy?
Certainly but you will adjust your masks to bring out more of the galaxy 👍
BTW I use APTtoo and I love it!
At the 4:30 time all was well, then my ant trails didn't disappear. What happened? Yours did, I even hit enter.
Hmmm... did you click the mask button? Not sure. You using the same version of photoshop?
JR - You ever figure it out? I'm just trying this workflow now and running into the exact same thing
Aaaron you've lost me already: Where are these arc sinh stretches being loaded into? What directory?
Got them installed to the right directory. Whoohoo!!!!
Excellent. Do you have a recent video?
Hi Steven, since I recently migrated to monochrome imaging My workflow has changed with regard to mono but still remains true to this video for the most part. Perhaps one day if I ever make the transition to Pixinsight, I’ll do a video then. Clear skies!
@@AVAstronomy no problem. I am loving full shot colour so it isn't for me right now. I am in a a bortle 4 backyard so it has its advantages. Like your workflow. I am also a big Roger Clark fan of process style.
@@stevenrobinsonpictures bortle 4 that's awesome! I still do use my OSC for most broadband targets in my yellow zone skies. Roger Clark has some incredible images. Do you have an astrobin account?
Hey dude, I used your stacked image to edit and process and it's ready now do you want it ???
How’d it come out?
@@AVAstronomy mind blowing amazing, how many hours of integrated data???
@@pruthuvanara1243 I believe only about 3-4 hours. You can send it to avastronomy@gmail.com if you like.
Awesome video! Similar workflow to mine but you’ve definitely taught me some valuable tricks.
For anyone reading, I recommend you check out the video called “removing gradients and light pollution” as well. I forget who does it but it works like a charm.
Thank you!
Really really really nice video! What about the exposure that u took for the image? And how many of them? I know that u didnt took calibrating images like darks or flats but how many light brother?
Oh. I saw that u said 60x4! Nice! Im in bortle 9 city with my 150/750 newtonian and Canon Eos 1200D/T5, do you think I can get good results? Of course I will buy a motor drive for my EQ3! Do you recommend some light pollution filters for my case??
Seeing that you are imaging in bortle 9 skies. You will definitely want some narrow band filters like the optolong l-enhance filter. You will also need to mod that T5 or get a one shot color camera. If you’ve got deep pockets then go for a mono camera. Those do great for narrowband work.
Too fast at ~7:49. I am not a pro bro. u need to go slo. This is amazing!
Aaron I will send you my FIRST PS CS6 processing results. Don't laugh.
Aaron you are taking FAR too much for granted. Here I am struggling through your tutorial and you throw another monkey wrench into it, namely another plug-in which you have to install into PS which I haven't done because you didn't tell me or anyone else about this prerequisite! Sheesh man. Now I have to abort everything and figure out how it will be installed. Another thing this "Gradient Exterminator" is overpriced!!! I can get Star Tools for slightly more than this one trick pony! I think I will quit now. Thank you but no thanks!
Something you’ll learn as you get into this hobby is that everyone has their own methods. Everyone and their grandma has a method on how to do this hobby. I have a workflow that works well for me and produces solid results it doesn’t mean it’s by any means the only way. If star tools and APP work for then good for you sir. Stick with that. All I’m doing is sharing with others what has worked for me. Maybe check out astrobackyard, astrofarsography, or astroaddict. They may have some tutorials that better fit your needs. Best of luck.
@@AVAstronomy I don't mind. I am beginning to like it. I have the sinh stretch curves installed as well as the gradient exterminator. I was always curious about PS and with your approach I will learn it. Don't mind my griping. You have much to offer. I am half way through but I will have to start over again tomorrow. It is good. As I stated before I am extremely curious about your no calib. files approach to get good results.
@@AVAstronomy I am into everything. Believe me.Astrobackyard.????...don't make me laugh..LOL You are much better than Mr. Hollywood
@@dankahraman354 now that was funny. 🤣
Hi bro..How is going on?
Doing well thank you! Hope you found the video helpful
Great work, thank you!
Thank you!