StarTools

admin wrote: ↑Sun May 15, 2022 11:10 am Does Highlight Repair help in the Color module?

Otherwise, the Shrink module's Color Tame can also possibly be used, even if you don't want to shrink stars (just set iterations to 0).

Let us know if that helps!

Mike in Rancho wrote: ↑Sun May 15, 2022 6:27 pm Hi Freddy,

Ivo is of course correct, as to trying to fix this within ST. I have been known to do either or both, depending on what is needed. You can experiment with the pixel amount of highlight repair to set just enough but not too much, though it is still a bit of a desaturation technique. Likewise in Shrink, and you can maybe add a little deringing if needed also (works even with zero iterations shrinking).

Really though this is mostly an issue for the stacker, I have found. Though theoretically if you split your channels you might be able to manually adjust things, in a multi-step process, using the x/y displacement in ST Layer.

My quick solution is usually just to run the file through DSS with RGB Align on. Note this is spatial channel alignment, not neutralization or normalization. You should be able to do this with any final stack, regardless of what program created it. You just load the stack a single "lights" file to be "stacked" (even though there are no other files to stack it with). It will still "register" and "stack" but don't worry about that, all it does is spit the same file back out, but with RGB aligned. If set up during a full stacking session, RGB align is the final step anyway.

DSS has had this feature forever. But, within the last year or two IIRC, PI actually added it too. I forget what they call it (some long-winded name, no doubt), but since you now use PI for stacking that should do the trick for you also.

Hopefully either way it helps correct and preserve star colors rather than just fading the anomalies. Usually works pretty well for me.