StarTools

I'm trying to process a DSLR TIFF stacked form some subs in Deep Sky Stacker. I click AutoDev and get this. I used 'Linear, was Bayered, is not whitebalanced'. I never have this trouble with my black and white Ha pics. any ideas?

Alexxx

How do you know there is a problem before trying at least the Wipe module (and at least color later on)? Granted, I've never had a DSLR pic come out with a blue background (without using a blue filter that is), mine come out red due to light pollution, otherwise the first autodev should not give you a pretty pic.

Thanks. I'm still feeling my way with ST as I usually use PS. I was just worried about how noisy and blown-out the image is before I'd even got started. Wipe didn't do anything I'm afraid.

Astrosurf wrote:Thanks. I'm still feeling my way with ST as I usually use PS. I was just worried about how noisy and blown-out the image is before I'd even got started. Wipe didn't do anything I'm afraid.

You can always post the TIF/FTS (dropbox/google drive etc) and people here (including the author) can take a look. However, Wipe should take care of that vignetting, don't be afraid to turn Aggresiveness up. However, BEFORE using wipe crop out the stacking artifacts (I can clearly see it on top, it is possible there are all around), because the Wipe module won't be able to work otherwise.

Many thanks. Here's the TIFF on G Cloud, with stacking artifact cropped out. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByORv ... 0NWV21DMHM

This is what the image looks like with a quick stretch in PS: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByORv ... nVJNkVMTms

I don't see a problem with Wipe, although I had to push aggressiveness up to 96% if I wanted to get rid of everything (and the Dark Anomaly filter on 3, after having binned the image to 50%).
A quick run gave me the following, I am sure you can do better - I am not a ST veteran by any means and I was not even looking at M82, it might need a bit different treatment to bring it out better. BTW, what where the equipment and exposure details?

Hi all,

Great stuff ecuador!

As you may (or may not) know, AutoDev by design shows flaws in your data (such as the vignetting) when you run it first (see here on what those flaws may be and another example of how/why your data appears to look terrible). After fixing those flaws, you can - very effectively - use AutoDev as your main stretching tool. See also here for an explanation and a mention of your particular case - lots of background and just some smaller objects on top of that background.

The data is quite nice, there is just some vignetting going on (did you take flats? if not, they're not optional!). Even without fixing the vignetting in Wipe, the data is usable as-is with AutoDev; all you need to do is simply specify (click & drag) a Region of Interest (ROI) over M81 or M82 (depending on which galaxy you want to optimize the stretch for) and AutoDev will do the rest.

However, using Wipe's vignetting preset first will greatly ameliorate that pesky vignetting. You may want to bump up the Dark Anomaly Filter somewhat and perhaps the Aggressiveness.

You may also want to bin the data a little, as there was some guiding error and seeing conditions seem to have made the data oversampled (read more about that here).


This is just a very quick process (I'm sure you can do better!);

-----------------------------------------------------------
StarTools 1.4.316
-----------------------------------------------------------
--- Auto Develop
To see what we got. We can see oversampling, tracking error and vignetting.
--- Bin
To use oversampling/error to our advantage (reduce noise).
Parameter [Scale] set to [(scale/noise reduction 50.00%)/(400.00%)/(+2.00 bits)]
--- Wipe
Vignetting preset.
Parameter [Dark Anomaly Filter] set to [3 pixels]
--- Auto Develop
ROI over M82
Parameter [Ignore Fine Detail <] set to [3.2 pixels]
--- Deconvolution
Auto mask, touched up mask a little to include more of M82
Parameter [Radius] set to [2.5 pixels]
--- Wavelet Sharpen
Using same mask.
Parameter [Amount] set to [204 %]
Parameter [Small Detail Bias] set to [92 %]
--- Color
Parameter [Dark Saturation] set to [5.50]
Had to fix up green balance, as ST got it wrong - not entirely sure why. (see here for color calibration techniques)
Parameter [Green Bias Reduce] set to [1.15]
--- Wavelet De-Noise
Parameter [Grain Size] set to [15.7 pixels]
Parameter [Smoothness] set to [78 %]

Hope this helps!

Thank ecuador and Ivo! I think it's that I still don't know what each of the settings does.

Ivo, I had a go at your processing, but there are some extra steps I'm not sure of (in CAPS)

'LINEAR, WAS BAYERED, IS NOT WHITEBALANCED' SETTING??
--- Auto Develop - LEAVE DEFAULT SETTINGS?
To see what we got. We can see oversampling, tracking error and vignetting.
--- Bin
To use oversampling/error to our advantage (reduce noise).
Parameter [Scale] set to [(scale/noise reduction 50.00%)/(400.00%)/(+2.00 bits)] - USE DEFAULT SETTINGS ON TOP TOOLBAR??
--- Wipe - CLICKED 'OK' TO 'TRACKING ACTIVE . . .' DIALOGUE BOX AS THERE WAS NO OTHER OPTION!
Vignetting preset.
Parameter [Dark Anomaly Filter] set to [3 pixels] ('DO'/'KEEP')
--- Auto Develop -REDO GLOBAL STRETCH OR STRETCH IMAGE AS IS??
ROI over M82
Parameter [Ignore Fine Detail <] set to [3.2 pixels] ('KEEP')
--- Deconvolution
Auto mask, touched up mask a little to include more of M82 - USED AUTOMATIC MASK ON THE THREE CHOICES THEN 'AUTOMASK' SETTING ON THE TOP TOOLBAR THEN 'YES' TO GENERATE MASK - WAS THAT CORRECT? ALSO, DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN BY 'TOUCHED UP MASK' . I JUST DRAGGED OVER M82

Parameter [Radius] set to [2.5 pixels] - 'KEEP' NOT ACTIVE SO CLICKED 'MASK' - LED TO LOTS OF LITTLE MASKS OVER STARS AND BRIGHTEST AREAS OF GALAXIES - CLICKED 'KEEP' - THEN 'KEEP' AGAIN, STILL IN THE DECONVOLUTION STEP - LEFT IT AT DEFAULTS - I GUESS THE MASK WAS STILL ACTIVE AT IT FLASHED GREEN A FEW TIMES

--- Wavelet Sharpen - I ASSUMED THE 'WAVELET' WAS JUST THE 'SHARPEN' ICON?
Using same mask.
Parameter [Amount] set to [204 %]
Parameter [Small Detail Bias] set to [92 %]
--- Color - KEEP MASK??
Parameter [Dark Saturation] set to [5.50]
Had to fix up green balance, as ST got it wrong - not entirely sure why. (see here for color calibration techniques)
Parameter [Green Bias Reduce] set to [1.15]
--- Wavelet De-Noise
Parameter [Grain Size] set to [15.7 pixels] - GOES VERY BLURRY!
Parameter [Smoothness] set to [78 %] - COULDN'T SEE THIS OPTION SO CLICKED 'NEXT' - KEEP PARTIAL MASK OR SET FULL MASK? - I CHOSE 'PARTIAL'
'KEEP' NOT ACTIVE SO CHOSE 'MASK' / 'KEEP' / 'OK' TO 'NOISE FLOOR' DIALOGUE

KEPT PARTIAL MASK - DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO HERE! - 'MASK' THEN 'KEEP' BUT COULDN'T GET OUT OF THIS SO WAS STUCK AT THIS POINT. SHOULD I HAVE CLICKED 'SAVE'?

Many thanks!

No problem.

I would urge you to become more familiar with what masking is, as it's a pretty integral part of processing (not just in StarTools).
The answer to a number of your other questions (and more importantly the reasons why) can be found in the UI itself ('Please click the 'Do' button to re-render image', 'calibrate grain size parameter until noise grain and clumps can no longer be seen, then click Next to continue', 'To define a preview area, clck on the image and drag. Smaller areas render faster', etc.) or in the various popup dialogs.

As a general remark, it's much more important to know and understand why something is done, rather than what is done. Without fundamentally understanding what you're doing it's hard to progress and express your personal artistic vision for your data. Don't be afraid to experiment if unsure - there's always the undo button.

Astrosurf wrote:'LINEAR, WAS BAYERED, IS NOT WHITEBALANCED' SETTING??

The data appears to have been whitebalanced (if you're using DSS this can't be turned off as far as I know), so use "Linear, was not Bayered, or is whitebalanced".
The other option can give you a small boost in noise reduction accuracy if you can provide StarTools with non-white balanced data.

--- Auto Develop - LEAVE DEFAULT SETTINGS?

Yup!

Parameter [Scale] set to [(scale/noise reduction 50.00%)/(400.00%)/(+2.00 bits)] - USE DEFAULT SETTINGS ON TOP TOOLBAR??

Indeed. The top toolbar only contains quick presets.

--- Wipe - CLICKED 'OK' TO 'TRACKING ACTIVE . . .' DIALOGUE BOX AS THERE WAS NO OTHER OPTION!
Vignetting preset.
Parameter [Dark Anomaly Filter] set to [3 pixels] ('DO'/'KEEP')

That's right.

--- Auto Develop -REDO GLOBAL STRETCH OR STRETCH IMAGE AS IS??
ROI over M82
Parameter [Ignore Fine Detail <] set to [3.2 pixels] ('KEEP')

Redo global stretch - now that Wipe has removed gradients, the dynamic range (light levels) that were previously needed to show the gradients have now been freed up. This means that we can now use that range to display detail instead of ugly gradient.

--- Deconvolution
Auto mask, touched up mask a little to include more of M82 - USED AUTOMATIC MASK ON THE THREE CHOICES THEN 'AUTOMASK' SETTING ON THE TOP TOOLBAR THEN 'YES' TO GENERATE MASK - WAS THAT CORRECT? ALSO, DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN BY 'TOUCHED UP MASK' . I JUST DRAGGED OVER M82

StarTools will offer to "Generate mask automatically" if no mask is set yet when opening Decon. But you can force it to generate a new mask automatically as well (which does the same thing). It sounds like you generated a mask twice which is unnecessary (but not a problem).

By 'touched up mask' I mean exactly that; touching up the mask using the mask editor. If you open the mask editor, you will see that M82 is mostly deselected for processing, i.e. M82 won't be deconvolved. By touching up the mask to include M82, M82 will be deconvolved by Decon as well.

Parameter [Radius] set to [2.5 pixels] - 'KEEP' NOT ACTIVE SO CLICKED 'MASK' - LED TO LOTS OF LITTLE MASKS OVER STARS AND BRIGHTEST AREAS OF GALAXIES - CLICKED 'KEEP' - THEN 'KEEP' AGAIN, STILL IN THE DECONVOLUTION STEP - LEFT IT AT DEFAULTS - I GUESS THE MASK WAS STILL ACTIVE AT IT FLASHED GREEN A FEW TIMES

It sounds like you defined a preview area in Decon (which will deactivate the 'Keep' button until you click 'All' - it's no use keeping an image that only had a small part of it deconvolved).

I ASSUMED THE 'WAVELET' WAS JUST THE 'SHARPEN' ICON?

Correct.

--- Color - KEEP MASK??

See above comment about getting more familiar with masking. If you want to color calibrate the whole image, set the full mask.

Parameter [Grain Size] set to [15.7 pixels] - GOES VERY BLURRY!
Parameter [Smoothness] set to [78 %] - COULDN'T SEE THIS OPTION SO CLICKED 'NEXT' - KEEP PARTIAL MASK OR SET FULL MASK? - I CHOSE 'PARTIAL'
'KEEP' NOT ACTIVE SO CHOSE 'MASK' / 'KEEP' / 'OK' TO 'NOISE FLOOR' DIALOGUE
KEPT PARTIAL MASK - DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO HERE! - 'MASK' THEN 'KEEP' BUT COULDN'T GET OUT OF THIS SO WAS STUCK AT THIS POINT. SHOULD I HAVE CLICKED 'SAVE'?

Again, it pays to read and understand what's going on, rather than following a recipe. Switching Tracking off performs final noise reduction that you can 'keep' (reasons why can be found here). Launching 'Denoise' will notify you that this is a preview only mode (results of which you can't keep). The blurring is by design ('calibrate grain size parameter until noise grain and clumps can no longer be seen, then click Next to continue'), while the masking question will become clearer if you familiarise yourself with the concept a bit more.

Hope this has encouraged you to take a different view of processing and working with StarTools.

Clear skies!