I shared this video in a FaceBook Group just to let you know. I am an Admin in a group called Budget Astrophotography. We try to help beginners in this challenging hobby. There is a limit of $3,000 USD of equipment to post pictures (I can't post with my big rig, but I can still post with my travel rig). We do NOT want to scare off beginners thinking they need a $30,000 rig to get good Astro images. I remember my meager beginnings wondering why my images stunk compared to others. Equipment, knowledge and practice changed that...LOL. Thanks for the great videos. You have improved my images and your videos are always informative. Keep up the great work.
Awesome video, learned a lot there! A few more tips: 1) To isolate stars into a star mask (without nebulosity): duplicate your image into a new layer. Then apply a dust and scratches filter with a 15px radius or more. Then change the blending option of that layer to difference or subtract. You now have all stars without the nebulosity. 2) The "dehaze" feature in adobe raw or lightroom is amazing getting rid of light pollution.
This star mask trick is deeply useful. Thank you. Using the Color Range tool with Select and Mask and manual adjustments takes ages and is never as good, reliable or repeatable as this trick.
Hey Trevor, great video as always! People have probably pointed this out already but you should be careful when copy-pasting your channels to a new file : by default photoshop creates an 8-bit image, which means when pasting in there you're losing signals (from your original 16-bit image). And since you are making it as one of your first steps, this means that all subsequent changes to the image (levels, curves etc) are all going to be made on 8-bit layers re-pasted onto 16-bit. If your noise is very low already then that's not much of a problem, and the major reason for using 16-bit images is to have a lot of nuance BEFORE stacking, but every bit helps! (sorry, pun not intended)
@@Mr77pro eheheh there's no such thing as a newbie (or rather we're all newbies to some extent)! There's 2 solutions: 1) when creating the new document just before pasting you can set 16bit in the Color Mode but if you forget (I tend to click and enter too quickly without thinking) there's option 2 2) Switch the image to 16bit from the menu > Image > Mode > 16 Bits / Channel As long as you paste the channel AFTER you switched to 16bit you'll be fine!
You know being a pro/am photog before I got into astrophotography was a blessing (I know you have an extensive background in photography not just Astro). I think my favorite thing about the way you do things is the logic behind your decisions... I’m not trying to kiss ass but dude the thought process behind the scopes, mounts, filter etc has reason behind it. Your experience and technique on the capture end of your process is awesome but I think where you truly shine is in post process. I’m not sure everyone can appreciate your knowledge of photoshop and how in depth you go in this video. I can’t wait to sit down and watch this video again! We are in the process of moving right now so I have zero time to get out and shoot but we are moving to much darker skies and I’m excited! Please keep the content coming man, I know I appreciate it and I’m sure all your other followers do too!
Darn ! Now I need an intensive crash course on photo shop . I’m passable with Light Room but PS ? Clueless !! Excellent video Trevor . You do have me on a journey .
I bought the guide. I read it. Then realized all of the information is available by watching the free videos on RUclips. Additionally, the guide is very light on some impatient details. I want to say that the guide is worth the money, but it is really just a way to support the content creator because the guide isn't worth the money in itself.
Hey Trevor, not sure if this is still your process, but as someone who knows PhotoShop more than astrophotography, I'd suggest creating your curves and levels adjustments that you start out with in adjustment layers. You do this by clicking the half white/half black circle at the bottom of the layers panel and creating an adjustment layer there. This allows you to go back in and make fine tuned adjustments to those changes. It's identical to using the global levels and curves from the main menu, but this way you can apply it on a per layer basis and can also (as I said) go back in, and modify the adjustments later. Apologies if this has already been mentioned or if someone has already said this to you, but just from a workflow standpoint, I think this could greatly assist you and your viewers. Great content either way!
I purchased your image processing tutorials a while ago... they were great. This video was a perfect addition. I could follow every step, I like the pace... quick and to the point. Thank you... just put the pull over hoodie on my Xmas with list!
Wow...A fantastic crash course in image processing. Your words at the end have made me wonder about the viability of buying PixInsight when I have Photoshop and did not realise until your video, what can be done with it! Thanks so much for this.
Trevor, I know from watching all of your videos that you had a lot of Photo Shop experience before you started with DSLR astrophotography and so you might not have a full appreciation of just how steep the learning curve is for people who started this hobby with no PS experience at all. Videos like this are just so invaluable, I just cannot over state it! You should consider creating a sister channel where this sort of video is all you do! Take all that old data that you still have sitting there on old hard drives and once a week or twice a month do a video of you processing that data. I know it couldn't be a video of the whole entire process from start to finish, that would get repetative and boring but every object is different and some data has some weird thing in it that has to be dealt with in a way that is outside the normal process and every little nugget like that shows those of us who have never used PS except for astrophotography something that we didn't even know that the software could do! I, for example, didn't know that Camera Raw even existed before I saw it on one of your videos. I didn't know that you could change a layer to "luminance" until I saw this video and I don't think it would ever have occured to me to adjust the noise level on a per channel basis and I had no idea that the "Minimum" filter existed or what it did or how to use it. And I'm certain that I'm not alone. The equipment used to capture that data is huge, of course, but unless you know how to properly process that data, this hobby is a hugely expensive waste of time. Photoshop skills is where the rubber really meets the road in astrophotography and you've got the skills to take your entire audience to the next level. I strongly urge you to consider making this type of video a way bigger part of what you do on RUclips.
Clete, excellent suggestion. Trevor has the skills to do this, he connects with people well. I try to learn processing like paint by numbers and literally make an effort to physically follow the cursor to where it's going, where clicks are made, etc. However, when the person doing the video moves the mouse/cursor around either out of nervousness or anticipation of their next click, I get lost. I think the tutorial would be much easier to follow if the presenter could slow down a bit, not vibrate the cursor all over the place, especially when the process requires a run of clicks, it would be a whole lot smoother process to follow. I think many presenters forget many viewers are brand new or novices and get ahead of themselves because much of what they are trying to convey is routine to them. The more you know about a particular subject matter and have repeated the processes over and over the more you might have a tendency to move too fast.
A lot of cool tools in this video. You really know how to make astrophotography approachable for every skill level. I really liked this video. Great job!
Great video Trevor, your original processing videos have really helped me get more out of my images. I never thought of processing each channel separately, I can’t wait to try this on my next image. If you get the chance can you do a video about how to process star clusters images? I have been trying the techniques from your other videos on the double cluster in Perseus and globular cluster M4, but it feels a little different when there is no nebulosity to pull out. Keep up the great work. Thanks
I'm getting some basic stuff for Christmas and I can't wait to start this hobby, have had a 10 in dob for a while but now i got some money for a new set up so lets go
Trevor, you create some of the most amazing images... You must have a ton of them now. What happens to them? What do you DO with them all? Do you share them, put them together and SHOW them or just file them away for another day.
Yet another inspiring video. Thanks Trevor. You really do explain your processing very well. I heard you mention that you may get yourself an observatory in the future. I have just finished building one myself. It’s heaven. I had a 2 hour window of clear skies last night and got 90minutes of imaging in. That would never have been possible before the observatory was built. We do have very changeable weather over here in England which makes an observatory a godsend. I can’t wait for you to get one too. 👍. Paul. Harpenden. England.
Hello Trevor. Greetings from Auckland NZ. Thank you for this tutorial. Quite new to photoshop but after seeing this I will give it a go. Have a wonderful day.
Wish to find a video that will bridge that gap from what is good data and bad data. I started taking astrophoto's about 7 months ago and I am seeing a progression in what I am capturing, I am learning that I can only push the data so far in post also. But where there is limited equipment for a beginner i.e. camera, tripod, tracker and a lens (or even minus the tracker) how far can you push the photo in post production when the data has been stacked etc and not necessarily stacked properly i.e. missing darks or flats or no calibration frames at all. I realise adding more equipment like LPF will be a good next step but how well could experienced astrophotographers push their equipment knowing now what they do about the process and being restricted by a likely beginner setup. The limit on equipment is something that can be challenging for a beginner but it would be very helpful helping to find out if it actually is the equipment also! That comparison is something beginners always progress to.
Brilliant! Thanks for the tips! Something I've not done before is working on a per channel basis. Time to go over some old data until I get clear skies again!
Your video makes me want to do a video to compliment your video. Here is one complimentary knowledge bit... When you layer your channels on top of each other to create the luminance, Your bottom layer (red) is 100%, your next layer up (green) was 50%, and your to player (Blue) was 20%. Your top layer ends up presented more than you think it was because of the layering. Here's why... When you put your green layer on top of the red layer and set it to 50% you are now seeing 50% of each layer. When you put your blue layer on top and set it to 20% you are only seeing 80% of the 50% of the green and red channels. The resulting luminance is 40% red, 40%, green, and 20% blue. Maybe that's what you were shooting for, but for clarity to those watching this-be aware of this 'covering' property of channels. You can set three channels all to 50%, but only the top layer will be 50% visible-the opacity of all other channels will be half of what they are currently at, and this property stacks with each layer put on top.
Thank you😁 I consider myself as a newbie in astrophotography I currently imaging North America Nebula from PH UNTRACKED and using Cheap DSLR which is nikon d5300 maybe I need 2night worth more of imaging before the be good enough to post process (1hr total of exposure time) for now my friend help me to post process the current data but when I completed the Data I'm gonna try this Method Thanks for sharing😁😁
Thanks again Trevor for the fast lane tips. I tried to do my usual laptop/desktop copy by numbers routine, but as you warned a few times, the tutorial will be moving quickly and besides, I couldn't get pass the section on Camera Raw adjustments on the red channel because my CS6 PS version doesn't have Camera Raw listed under filters. I went round and round on this and ended up replacing version 7.1.1 with the last compatible version of Camera Raw for CS6 with 9.1.1, according to Adobe anyway. I'll have to figure out how to get it posted in PS filters because I see it as a very good tool during post. No problem using it in Bridge. I'm still a beginner after taking a break for over a year because of guiding frustrations with my mount. I restarted from the the basics and my learning curve is going much better now. However, I've bouncing around getting ahead of myself as new ideas come up and I get sidetracked from my original mission to figure out my guiding problems. I tried to switch to ASCOM guiding, aka pulse guiding and it took me longer than expected to find out cable management, something I thought was going to be simple by viewing video tutorials. I haven't seen them all, but those who suggest the transition, the key is eliminating the ST4 cable, but they don't give you the easy to follow steps to do so. In short, I thought I had the cabling correct, but the night I tried it PHD2 came back and told me "pulse guiding failed" your guiding will be ineffective". No easy answer at this point, but with my new take it in stride attitude, I know the answer lies somewhere. I know I'll purchase your processing guide, I have watched many of your tutorials and I just hope I can follow the cursor because that fits my learning style. Many of us beginners without IT experience or background (age) in computers need things delivered at half pace. BTW, what version of PS do you have?
Thank you for this tutorial 🙏 I tried prosessing some old data I thought was way bad, but using your techniques I was able to extract a lot of nice images 🤗 I’m still waiting for my telescope and AVX mount, so practicing on photons captured through my DSLR on a Moveshootmove tracker must be good practice 🙌 So keep’em videos coming 🥳😉
Trevor an excellent Video, I am just wanting to confirm, that the Camera Raw Filter mentioned and used in this tutorial video is available in the current ADOBE Photoshop version (by subscription) that I would obtain by subscription off the Adobe website? Bye the way I just purchased the full PDF tutorial !!!
Thanks for sharing! As Pixinsight user it`s hard to explain processing for newcommers in astrophotography, because almost everybody has PS, but your channel is the best one to recommend :)
Great video...thank you Trevor. When I use just the red channel as a luminosity layer, it turns the reds very pink that I've never been able to recover fully with HSL or color balance adjustments. Suggestions?
Love your work Trevor - thank you for all your efforts! One question if I may: I just picked up a Sky Watcher 120 ProED. I have no astrophotography experience but I believe I want to start with a CMOS color camera instead of DSLR. Is that move ill advised in your opinion? I really appreciate any thoughts no matter how brief. Thanks again - Terry
I see a lot of people using PixInsight. Have you given that a try? What’s your reason for sticking to Photoshop when PI is dedicated towards astrophotography?
Agreed, I think you might be able to push your work quite a bit further with PI - there are some many really cool dedicated features for astrophotography included with PI (like photometric calibration). Takes a while to learn tho...
it takes a while to learn... The possibilities in PI are literally endless, it takes way too long to learn. Its dedicated towards Astrophotography ONLY, which is 1 of the few reasons why a ton of people wont use or learn PI. 1: It, again, just takes way too long to learn. Have you seen the names of the tools in PI? It turns a lot of people down because its simply way too technical. Also, you dont really need PI if youre using a color camera, be it DSLR or whatever you use. Its a completely different story if you shoot mono with Oiii, Sii, Ha filters and crazy 30 minute single exposure times with your $8000 gear. 2: PS is MUCH easier to learn, has very useful tools and tricks for post-processing (not to mention you can easily "get any adobe software for free" after all the money you spent on gear...). There is also much more help and many more tutorials for PS. 3: Most people that get into Astrophotography tend to go the PS route and "master" PS. After spending all the time in PS, they dont want to learn another software for minimal (minimal is a relative term) quality increase. I have seen so many PS processed images in AP groups on Facebook and Forums like CN or SGL that were much better than the same image processed in PI. 4: PS is a universal image processor, i think that speaks for itself. Bonus: Patience. Shooting the DSO, acquiring the data is the fun part for many people. Post-processing takes time, and PS has a really nice user interface that is easy to remember and easy to interact with. PI has a very technical and confusing interface. Dont get me wrong, PI is the Golden Snitch for AP and barely any other software can reach it in terms of possibilities. Its price of 230€ is definitely justified, but its ONLY for Astrophotography. Imagine if Trevor started to use PI instead of PS in his videos, most of his viewers wouldnt be able to follow what he does.
Hey Trevor I have a question I know this video is a little bit older but I'm just watching it for the first time. But my question is when you click on the channels tab your pictures turn black and white whereas mine they're actually red green and blue and I'm using an unmodified DSLR but I'm not using any light suppression filters.
did you try using the green channel as a layer mask for the blue channel? Or, similarly, overlaying the green channel on top of the blue channel in luminance stack mode, and then recombining the channels?
At your level of expertise, this video makes a lot of sense. However, for those not nearly at your level (like me), this tutorial was way too fast and complicated. Cheers.
Hey Trevor hope you are doing well. Your videos help me alot with post processing . that being said can you please direct to the video where you use some the star tools action set from Neil carboni or however you spell his name lol sorry no offence to him.
Best tutorial on the net regarding astrophotography techniques and you warmed my heart when you said you don't need pixinsite, I find that software so counter intuitive it makes my brain hurt.
Hi Trevor, this video looks really promising but there are a couple of steps I'm struggling with. I love the way you isolate individual channels for noise reduction (red), star reduction (blue) etc, then edit them individually and paste them in place. I'm trying to do the same thing in adobe photoshop CC 2019 but the 'paste' option is grayed out when I try and paste my edited channel back into the main channel document. Have you ever had this problem? Thanks
Would it make a difference if a second DSLR image was taken with a blue filter and the scope was refocused to reduce star bloat? I realize a monochrome camera with LRGB filters is a preferable setup but I'm just wondering if this hack could fix the blue channel star bloat.
I shared this video in a FaceBook Group just to let you know. I am an Admin in a group called Budget Astrophotography. We try to help beginners in this challenging hobby. There is a limit of $3,000 USD of equipment to post pictures (I can't post with my big rig, but I can still post with my travel rig). We do NOT want to scare off beginners thinking they need a $30,000 rig to get good Astro images. I remember my meager beginnings wondering why my images stunk compared to others. Equipment, knowledge and practice changed that...LOL. Thanks for the great videos. You have improved my images and your videos are always informative. Keep up the great work.
Awesome video, learned a lot there!
A few more tips:
1) To isolate stars into a star mask (without nebulosity): duplicate your image into a new layer. Then apply a dust and scratches filter with a 15px radius or more. Then change the blending option of that layer to difference or subtract. You now have all stars without the nebulosity.
2) The "dehaze" feature in adobe raw or lightroom is amazing getting rid of light pollution.
This dehase feature, when would you want to use this? After doing all this to get to the final image or before at some point?
This star mask trick is deeply useful. Thank you. Using the Color Range tool with Select and Mask and manual adjustments takes ages and is never as good, reliable or repeatable as this trick.
Hey Trevor, great video as always!
People have probably pointed this out already but you should be careful when copy-pasting your channels to a new file : by default photoshop creates an 8-bit image, which means when pasting in there you're losing signals (from your original 16-bit image). And since you are making it as one of your first steps, this means that all subsequent changes to the image (levels, curves etc) are all going to be made on 8-bit layers re-pasted onto 16-bit. If your noise is very low already then that's not much of a problem, and the major reason for using 16-bit images is to have a lot of nuance BEFORE stacking, but every bit helps! (sorry, pun not intended)
So what's the work-around? Or how do you keep it at 16bit? I'm a bit of a newbie. No, actually a lot. of a newbie :)
@@Mr77pro eheheh there's no such thing as a newbie (or rather we're all newbies to some extent)!
There's 2 solutions:
1) when creating the new document just before pasting you can set 16bit in the Color Mode
but if you forget (I tend to click and enter too quickly without thinking) there's option 2
2) Switch the image to 16bit from the menu > Image > Mode > 16 Bits / Channel
As long as you paste the channel AFTER you switched to 16bit you'll be fine!
@@b4sili0 cool....thanks!!
Trevor Philips
You know being a pro/am photog before I got into astrophotography was a blessing (I know you have an extensive background in photography not just Astro). I think my favorite thing about the way you do things is the logic behind your decisions... I’m not trying to kiss ass but dude the thought process behind the scopes, mounts, filter etc has reason behind it. Your experience and technique on the capture end of your process is awesome but I think where you truly shine is in post process. I’m not sure everyone can appreciate your knowledge of photoshop and how in depth you go in this video. I can’t wait to sit down and watch this video again! We are in the process of moving right now so I have zero time to get out and shoot but we are moving to much darker skies and I’m excited! Please keep the content coming man, I know I appreciate it and I’m sure all your other followers do too!
You seem like an awesome dude, just by the comment you wrote, I hope your doing amazing in life!
Darn ! Now I need an intensive crash course on photo shop . I’m passable with Light Room but PS ? Clueless !!
Excellent video Trevor . You do have me on a journey .
I bought the guide. I read it. Then realized all of the information is available by watching the free videos on RUclips. Additionally, the guide is very light on some impatient details. I want to say that the guide is worth the money, but it is really just a way to support the content creator because the guide isn't worth the money in itself.
Thanks Trevor for helping me. All that you have dedicated to sharing with us is REALLY APRECIATED! Thank you man.
I love watching images like this come to life. Its like magic
Thanks for making this great video.
Hey Trevor, not sure if this is still your process, but as someone who knows PhotoShop more than astrophotography, I'd suggest creating your curves and levels adjustments that you start out with in adjustment layers. You do this by clicking the half white/half black circle at the bottom of the layers panel and creating an adjustment layer there. This allows you to go back in and make fine tuned adjustments to those changes. It's identical to using the global levels and curves from the main menu, but this way you can apply it on a per layer basis and can also (as I said) go back in, and modify the adjustments later. Apologies if this has already been mentioned or if someone has already said this to you, but just from a workflow standpoint, I think this could greatly assist you and your viewers. Great content either way!
Mate ive just produced my best image ever following this! I thought it was my gear letting me down, turns out it was my poor processing. Great vid man
I purchased your image processing tutorials a while ago... they were great. This video was a perfect addition. I could follow every step, I like the pace... quick and to the point. Thank you... just put the pull over hoodie on my Xmas with list!
Great to see step by step menu selection in photoshop and not assume we know wot ur talking about 👍
Wow...A fantastic crash course in image processing. Your words at the end have made me wonder about the viability of buying PixInsight when I have Photoshop and did not realise until your video, what can be done with it! Thanks so much for this.
There's PERPETUALLY something new to learn in this hobby, and you're a great teacher! Thanks, Trevor!
I'm 6 minutes in and I gotta say dude, processing on a channel by channel basis like this is GENIUS!
Trevor, I know from watching all of your videos that you had a lot of Photo Shop experience before you started with DSLR astrophotography and so you might not have a full appreciation of just how steep the learning curve is for people who started this hobby with no PS experience at all. Videos like this are just so invaluable, I just cannot over state it!
You should consider creating a sister channel where this sort of video is all you do! Take all that old data that you still have sitting there on old hard drives and once a week or twice a month do a video of you processing that data. I know it couldn't be a video of the whole entire process from start to finish, that would get repetative and boring but every object is different and some data has some weird thing in it that has to be dealt with in a way that is outside the normal process and every little nugget like that shows those of us who have never used PS except for astrophotography something that we didn't even know that the software could do!
I, for example, didn't know that Camera Raw even existed before I saw it on one of your videos. I didn't know that you could change a layer to "luminance" until I saw this video and I don't think it would ever have occured to me to adjust the noise level on a per channel basis and I had no idea that the "Minimum" filter existed or what it did or how to use it. And I'm certain that I'm not alone. The equipment used to capture that data is huge, of course, but unless you know how to properly process that data, this hobby is a hugely expensive waste of time. Photoshop skills is where the rubber really meets the road in astrophotography and you've got the skills to take your entire audience to the next level. I strongly urge you to consider making this type of video a way bigger part of what you do on RUclips.
Clete, excellent suggestion. Trevor has the skills to do this, he connects with people well. I try to learn processing like paint by numbers and literally make an effort to physically follow the cursor to where it's going, where clicks are made, etc. However, when the person doing the video moves the mouse/cursor around either out of nervousness or anticipation of their next click, I get lost. I think the tutorial would be much easier to follow if the presenter could slow down a bit, not vibrate the cursor all over the place, especially when the process requires a run of clicks, it would be a whole lot smoother process to follow. I think many presenters forget many viewers are brand new or novices and get ahead of themselves because much of what they are trying to convey is routine to them. The more you know about a particular subject matter and have repeated the processes over and over the more you might have a tendency to move too fast.
Very useful - buying your Processing Guide!
Thanks Trev, really helped me make better use of Photoshop
I'm gonna try to apply as much of these tips as possible in affinity photo
Same here, gunna see what GIMP can pull from he image data
A lot of cool tools in this video. You really know how to make astrophotography approachable for every skill level. I really liked this video. Great job!
Great video Trevor, your original processing videos have really helped me get more out of my images. I never thought of processing each channel separately, I can’t wait to try this on my next image. If you get the chance can you do a video about how to process star clusters images? I have been trying the techniques from your other videos on the double cluster in Perseus and globular cluster M4, but it feels a little different when there is no nebulosity to pull out. Keep up the great work. Thanks
I need to learn PhotoShop one of these days, I only know the basics. When I'm ready - I'm definitely going to buy your processing guide.
You just keep doing what your dewin.....
Very useful tutorial Trevor
I'm getting some basic stuff for Christmas and I can't wait to start this hobby, have had a 10 in dob for a while but now i got some money for a new set up so lets go
Trevor, you create some of the most amazing images... You must have a ton of them now. What happens to them? What do you DO with them all? Do you share them, put them together and SHOW them or just file them away for another day.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and techniques on this video! :)
great Tutorial Trevor!
I'm going to try this on the Andromeda Image you supplied on your site!
Excellent channel!
This was one of your better videos. Thanks.
You made me begin this hobby and I am very thankfull for that
Yet another inspiring video. Thanks Trevor. You really do explain your processing very well. I heard you mention that you may get yourself an observatory in the future. I have just finished building one myself. It’s heaven. I had a 2 hour window of clear skies last night and got 90minutes of imaging in. That would never have been possible before the observatory was built. We do have very changeable weather over here in England which makes an observatory a godsend. I can’t wait for you to get one too. 👍.
Paul. Harpenden. England.
Thank you for this amazing video.
You have a pretty cool channel
great vid trevor explains a lot for me that i didnt understand before
Hello Trevor. Greetings from Auckland NZ. Thank you for this tutorial. Quite new to photoshop but after seeing this I will give it a go. Have a wonderful day.
Learned a Lot. i enjoy watching all of your videos and always learn something.
Awesome tutorial Trevor! I really like the simple noise reduction and reduce stars technique by channel!
🤩♥️really really thanks this video it's really helpful
Very nice video man!
Wish to find a video that will bridge that gap from what is good data and bad data. I started taking astrophoto's about 7 months ago and I am seeing a progression in what I am capturing, I am learning that I can only push the data so far in post also. But where there is limited equipment for a beginner i.e. camera, tripod, tracker and a lens (or even minus the tracker) how far can you push the photo in post production when the data has been stacked etc and not necessarily stacked properly i.e. missing darks or flats or no calibration frames at all. I realise adding more equipment like LPF will be a good next step but how well could experienced astrophotographers push their equipment knowing now what they do about the process and being restricted by a likely beginner setup. The limit on equipment is something that can be challenging for a beginner but it would be very helpful helping to find out if it actually is the equipment also! That comparison is something beginners always progress to.
Brilliant! Thanks for the tips! Something I've not done before is working on a per channel basis. Time to go over some old data until I get clear skies again!
Superb video. Thank you.
Your video makes me want to do a video to compliment your video. Here is one complimentary knowledge bit... When you layer your channels on top of each other to create the luminance, Your bottom layer (red) is 100%, your next layer up (green) was 50%, and your to player (Blue) was 20%. Your top layer ends up presented more than you think it was because of the layering. Here's why... When you put your green layer on top of the red layer and set it to 50% you are now seeing 50% of each layer. When you put your blue layer on top and set it to 20% you are only seeing 80% of the 50% of the green and red channels. The resulting luminance is 40% red, 40%, green, and 20% blue. Maybe that's what you were shooting for, but for clarity to those watching this-be aware of this 'covering' property of channels. You can set three channels all to 50%, but only the top layer will be 50% visible-the opacity of all other channels will be half of what they are currently at, and this property stacks with each layer put on top.
That was insanely helpful! I think I'm going to go back and re-edit a few images.
if u find a way to use the mask that is generated in camera raw sharpening panel, it can be used to select the stars.
Biggest Thank you!!!
Thank you😁 I consider myself as a newbie in astrophotography I currently imaging North America Nebula from PH UNTRACKED and using Cheap DSLR which is nikon d5300 maybe I need 2night worth more of imaging before the be good enough to post process (1hr total of exposure time) for now my friend help me to post process the current data but when I completed the Data I'm gonna try this Method Thanks for sharing😁😁
Thanks again Trevor for the fast lane tips. I tried to do my usual laptop/desktop copy by numbers routine, but as you warned a few times, the tutorial will be moving quickly and besides, I couldn't get pass the section on Camera Raw adjustments on the red channel because my CS6 PS version doesn't have Camera Raw listed under filters. I went round and round on this and ended up replacing version 7.1.1 with the last compatible version of Camera Raw for CS6 with 9.1.1, according to Adobe anyway. I'll have to figure out how to get it posted in PS filters because I see it as a very good tool during post. No problem using it in Bridge. I'm still a beginner after taking a break for over a year because of guiding frustrations with my mount. I restarted from the the basics and my learning curve is going much better now. However, I've bouncing around getting ahead of myself as new ideas come up and I get sidetracked from my original mission to figure out my guiding problems.
I tried to switch to ASCOM guiding, aka pulse guiding and it took me longer than expected to find out cable management, something I thought was going to be simple by viewing video tutorials. I haven't seen them all, but those who suggest the transition, the key is eliminating the ST4 cable, but they don't give you the easy to follow steps to do so. In short, I thought I had the cabling correct, but the night I tried it PHD2 came back and told me "pulse guiding failed" your guiding will be ineffective". No easy answer at this point, but with my new take it in stride attitude, I know the answer lies somewhere.
I know I'll purchase your processing guide, I have watched many of your tutorials and I just hope I can follow the cursor because that fits my learning style. Many of us beginners without IT experience or background (age) in computers need things delivered at half pace.
BTW, what version of PS do you have?
Thanks Trevor. Excellent tutorial.
Thanks Trevor for this interesting ideas, definitely going to try out these!
just purchased your processing guide. Good work
Great Video. Even after using PS for years it's good to learn something new.
Wow! I can't thank you enough for this video!
Great video! Thanks for opening my eyes to channel processing!
Thank you for this tutorial 🙏
I tried prosessing some old data I thought was way bad, but using your techniques I was able to extract a lot of nice images 🤗
I’m still waiting for my telescope and AVX mount, so practicing on photons captured through my DSLR on a Moveshootmove tracker must be good practice 🙌
So keep’em videos coming 🥳😉
Love these vids!
Thanks Trevor. Great video and tips. I'm a big fan of the PSD process. Keep up the good work
I'm so confused...Lol
Someday maybe, Whew
Thanks Trevor
Give Rudy a treat for me!
Clear Skies,
God Bless
This is such a great video. You killed it. I love it...
Trevor an excellent Video, I am just wanting to confirm, that the Camera Raw Filter mentioned and used in this tutorial video is available in the current ADOBE Photoshop version (by subscription) that I would obtain by subscription off the Adobe website? Bye the way I just purchased the full PDF tutorial !!!
Thank you for this video! This is exactly what I needed to kick my processing up a notch.
Great video mate!! I have 1 query for the processing of data can we use anyother software like lightroom instead of an Adobe Photoshop?
Thank you very much for this great Video, put your Ideas to good use already!
Nice tutorial. Thank you!
Great stuff Trevor, thanks.
Great video, thanks for keeping it PhotoShop. 💫
Most useful video that I've seen today!
Great tutorial man.. I’m off to watch the in-depth one now - thanks 👍🏻👊🏻✌🏻
Thanks for sharing! As Pixinsight user it`s hard to explain processing for newcommers in astrophotography, because almost everybody has PS, but your channel is the best one to recommend :)
Great video...thank you Trevor. When I use just the red channel as a luminosity layer, it turns the reds very pink that I've never been able to recover fully with HSL or color balance adjustments. Suggestions?
Amazing video Thankyou for posting !
thank you for this tutorial
Hi Trevor. Love your work.
Very informative. I learned a lot.
Brilliant tutorial 👍🏻 would this kind of process be the same for galaxy's?
It would be cool to have a "how to set up Photoshop" tutorial. :-)
I can't wait for the day you release the video saying "I finally tried PixInsight - you guys were right."
Fab tutorial thank you. What version of Photoshop do you use please?
This is REALLY making me want to get into astrophotography. Please keep it up, one day I'll be able to benefit from these videos!
Дякую за гарне відео
Can you do the same thing in Lightroom?
Love your work Trevor - thank you for all your efforts! One question if I may: I just picked up a Sky Watcher 120 ProED. I have no astrophotography experience but I believe I want to start with a CMOS color camera instead of DSLR. Is that move ill advised in your opinion? I really appreciate any thoughts no matter how brief. Thanks again - Terry
Thanks Trevor. No Rudy, but still an excellent video.
I see a lot of people using PixInsight. Have you given that a try? What’s your reason for sticking to Photoshop when PI is dedicated towards astrophotography?
Agreed, I think you might be able to push your work quite a bit further with PI - there are some many really cool dedicated features for astrophotography included with PI (like photometric calibration). Takes a while to learn tho...
it takes a while to learn... The possibilities in PI are literally endless, it takes way too long to learn. Its dedicated towards Astrophotography ONLY, which is 1 of the few reasons why a ton of people wont use or learn PI.
1: It, again, just takes way too long to learn. Have you seen the names of the tools in PI? It turns a lot of people down because its simply way too technical. Also, you dont really need PI if youre using a color camera, be it DSLR or whatever you use. Its a completely different story if you shoot mono with Oiii, Sii, Ha filters and crazy 30 minute single exposure times with your $8000 gear.
2: PS is MUCH easier to learn, has very useful tools and tricks for post-processing (not to mention you can easily "get any adobe software for free" after all the money you spent on gear...).
There is also much more help and many more tutorials for PS.
3: Most people that get into Astrophotography tend to go the PS route and "master" PS. After spending all the time in PS, they dont want to learn another software for minimal (minimal is a relative term) quality increase. I have seen so many PS processed images in AP groups on Facebook and Forums like CN or SGL that were much better than the same image processed in PI.
4: PS is a universal image processor, i think that speaks for itself.
Bonus: Patience. Shooting the DSO, acquiring the data is the fun part for many people. Post-processing takes time, and PS has a really nice user interface that is easy to remember and easy to interact with. PI has a very technical and confusing interface.
Dont get me wrong, PI is the Golden Snitch for AP and barely any other software can reach it in terms of possibilities. Its price of 230€ is definitely justified, but its ONLY for Astrophotography. Imagine if Trevor started to use PI instead of PS in his videos, most of his viewers wouldnt be able to follow what he does.
Great video 👌
Nicely done...thanks.
Looks like there is hope for my Lobster claw after all... Thank you for making good on your promise! Trevor Delivers.
Hey Trevor I have a question I know this video is a little bit older but I'm just watching it for the first time. But my question is when you click on the channels tab your pictures turn black and white whereas mine they're actually red green and blue and I'm using an unmodified DSLR but I'm not using any light suppression filters.
did you try using the green channel as a layer mask for the blue channel? Or, similarly, overlaying the green channel on top of the blue channel in luminance stack mode, and then recombining the channels?
You are awesome !
At your level of expertise, this video makes a lot of sense. However, for those not nearly at your level (like me), this tutorial was way too fast and complicated. Cheers.
Good information. How are you separating the channels?
I liked it very much
Amazing, thank you so much for this :-)
Hey Trevor, please try Pixel 4 also☺️
Hey Trevor hope you are doing well. Your videos help me alot with post processing . that being said can you please direct to the video where you use some the star tools action set from Neil carboni or however you spell his name lol sorry no offence to him.
Best tutorial on the net regarding astrophotography techniques and you warmed my heart when you said you don't need pixinsite, I find that software so counter intuitive it makes my brain hurt.
Hi Trevor, this video looks really promising but there are a couple of steps I'm struggling with. I love the way you isolate individual channels for noise reduction (red), star reduction (blue) etc, then edit them individually and paste them in place. I'm trying to do the same thing in adobe photoshop CC 2019 but the 'paste' option is grayed out when I try and paste my edited channel back into the main channel document. Have you ever had this problem? Thanks
any free alterantive to the astronomy tools action set?
Would it make a difference if a second DSLR image was taken with a blue filter and the scope was refocused to reduce star bloat? I realize a monochrome camera with LRGB filters is a preferable setup but I'm just wondering if this hack could fix the blue channel star bloat.
Great job