Much of it depends also on the stack. But most of us live in lightpolluted areas, bad skies,bad seeing which makes it all more difficult. On CN i sometimes process stacks from superb skies. It makes a great difference. Then one can have a nice picture in notime in Startools...
Then of course there is the method we use. I used to mix narrowband and broadband,maybe not the most easy way to go...but one can get results..
Maybe i am not quickly pleased with myself and my processcing, perhaps. A deepskyfriend who likes photography told me that once. He maybe right.
But i always think there is room for improvement. However all these thoughts put aside, i enjoy it very much! I am surely not dissappointed!
About Startools, i really like it. I gives you a workflow and a kind of lead on how to start and to proceed. This is completely absent in PI. You don't know where to start, it has many subroutines and many many parametesr within the subs, let alone the terminlogie of it all. I use it too, but limited. I like it for stacking, it stacks like no other, aligning stacks is also a nobrainer, and you have some programs to evaluate subs.
But processing in PI...i leave it for what it is, at least for now.
Yes and i understand people are very helpfull here, and I am thankfull for that. I learned more things from people then from the books.
For me , capturing and all what goes with it ,poses less problems. Maybe that comes because i have a IT background. I reinstalled old laptops, replaced the disk, installed the software , configured it...i don't really recall any big issues with either hardware, mounts, guiding and stuff like that.
But processing took far more time and it still does ...but i kinda like it and afterall yo can't sit whole evenings behind the TV set can you?
I remember Ivo explained some time ago how to use NB Acccent module in which cases and Stefan described his workflow(s) as well ...
Yeah, sometimes things just need a second try.
I have gimp and you can see one of my attempts at increasing the blue in the '3 images' thread. I don't get the result you do - do you mind sharing your secrets? What specific color manipulations you use - or maybe the secret is really still in ST and having a different starting point for gimp?