Great video Nick. I took the plunge a few months ago an purchased Pixinsight as well. I can honestly say it has made a huge difference in the quality of my pics. I would highly recommend installing the EZ Processing Suite of scripts in Pixinsight as well!
I'm a bit surprised that you didn't use the Automatic Background Extraction or the Dynamic Background Extraction. Also, check out how to save the process icons and it will save you a lot of time. Great final image.
Great video, I changed over to PixInsight a few months ago and noticed a massive difference in my images. One thing I use is the unlinked screen transfer, if you unselect the chain link icon in the screen transfer tool and click the nuke button you get a more natural colour straight off 👍
I’ve been using PS for just under 2 years now after watching most if not all of your videos since that time. I had to smile when you said something like “don’t rely on me because quite frankly I don’t know what I’m doing”. I remember when you said something similar about PS at that time! Now look at you. You amongst others inspired me to step into astrophotography and I’m grateful for all that you do and share on your channel. As for PixInsight, it looks like ‘witchcraft’ to me. Probably because all the tutorials I’ve tried to watch are from experienced users whereas your approach is from the perspective of a beginner. I look forward to watching and learning as your experience grows 👍
As everyone else has said, WONDERFUL video. Just starting with a SeeStar and Siril to see if this hobby is viable living near a rain forest outside Seattle surrounded by 150' spruce trees. I had started out looking at PixInsight, but was quickly overwhelmed and intimidated, but having become proficient in basic processing now, THIS video showed me what my entry into to PI might look like. I still have a long road of learning ahead of me, and you've convinced me that the learning will be better spent on PI. Thanks again!
Thank you so much! I'm a Photoshop fan and have always been nervous of PI (as it's so different to use) despite seeing the great astro-imagers use it. Seeing you at the same stage I'm at and be brave enough to tackle/video it is great. You've given me the confidence to get the trial version - and my goodness how it has changed things for the better. I now have a new 'PI brain' and will now be purchasing the full version. Keep on doing what you do - it's much appreciated.
For the longest time I was in the Photoshop-camp. I tried the trial of Pixinsight about two years ago and found the interface very confusing and adding even more new terminology was simply too daunting. I could not justify the steep price for something I struggled so hard to understand. I already had an Adobe subscription and, to be fair, I was (still am) pretty new to Photoshop as well. The remainder of 2020 and start of 2021 was spent doing more astrophotography and I learned new tricks all the time from these forums, youtube and other sources on the internet. In April last year I thought I'd give Pixinsight another go. I never doubted how powerful it was, the fault was entirely with me, so in order to sort of force myself I bought it instead of requesting another trial. I found that a good approach was to start small. Do a few basic things in Pixinsight, then continue in Photoshop. I am slowly but steady adding more steps to my PI-workflow and I can honestly say that it is worth every cent.
Hello Nick, if you reset and then re apply your Screen transfer function after each of Background neutralisation, colour calibration and Scnr, the image data is then representative. Also you can unlink the chains in STF for your first stretch (top left chain icon in STF), then the image will not be green on first stretch, however it will still be green bias, and you still need to Scnr. Best wishes.
Worth highlighting that a lot of the pre-processing can be done in a similar fashion using the free SIRIL program. You do still need to tweak a bunch of stuff in Photoshop afterwards but I already have Pshop (CC 2019), so SIRIL + Pshop offers a free alternative to some of these processes. I also use Topaz DeNoise (which again I had from previous photo processing tasks) which I'd thoroughly recommend...massively helps to remove noise and sharpen up dark images.
I would like to propose a faster first few steps with all the changes we have seen over the past year. Several of these steps will require third part resources and some of those cost money. 1. ScreenTransferFucntion (Initial Nuke Stretch) 2. GraXpert 3. ImageSolver (DSLR people will need to do this to get coordinates) 4. SpectrophotometricColorCalibration 5. BlurXterminator 6. NoiseXterminator 7. Histogram Transformation (initial permanent stretch) 8. SCNR (green noise removal) From here I have not really locked down a concrete list of steps.
The Weighted Batch Pre Processing script v2.5 is a wonderful tool. It stacks your images plus it now drizzle for you. Before you had to stack & drizzle separately. It puts all the master files in a folder called master & from there you drag & drop your master light.xisf to pixinsight's desktop & start your processing. Very useful script indeed.
Both are fantastic images Nick! I'd be very proud of either of them. I haven't got a big enough brain to use pixinsight and even worse images to work with, your video has simplified it so much, if I had £190 I'd buy it, but I'll stick with Startools atm and an old version of photoshop. But this have given me hope, great video once again 👍
Great video, thanks very much! I appear to be getting a lot more noise than you in my images with the 533, however, I haven't dithered, so I'm hoping that's the issue! Awesome video!!!
Another great Video Nick. Like you, I've used PS and LR for a number of years. However, as a beginner at the Astro stuff I find it a very steep learning curve. I've seen Pixinsight results and have always been impressed. Having seen your vid, I think I need to take the plunge. Thank you. (That's more expense you've caused me, and not for the first time)🤣🤣
I have been struggling with cost of PixInsightt for a while now but the struggling is nearly over. As I watch more videos like this one I have been getting closer to pulling the trigger on this purchase. I haven’t used it but I believe that will change soon..
You won’t regret it. I’ve been messing around with it more this last few days. It’s a steep learning curve and I don’t think I’ll ever be an expert in it but it’s so powerful!
@@AstroExploring based on the assortment of “free” & paid software I’ve been using it appears that PixInsight does everything I’ve been doing, albeit in an integrated and unfamiliar manner. After using PS CC for a long time now I feel that PI might get be the best next step. I’m encouraged by the results from your total newbie efforts. Great video Nick!
Great video, Nick! I have been using Astro Pixel Processor + GIMP and like the combo (especially APP), but have been trying a free trial of PixInsight lately. I think I may add PI to me repertoire. I strongly prefer APP's stacking and integration, as well as light pollution removal and background calibration, but strongly prefer stretching and noise reduction (and everything else) in PI as opposed to APP or GIMP. I like you show here that even just doing the basics in PI can get you an excellent image! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Daz. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head really, I didn’t know what I was doing and got a decent result. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do that in PS a few years ago
TGV denoise is a non-linear tool. So it worked much better after you did the Histogram Transformation and made the image non-linear. You can you use the linear noise reduction tool before the HT if you would prefer to do it then. I would have kept your star mask on for the TGV too. Let me know if you want to go through some workflow stuff buddy! 💪🏻 Great vid.
@@AstroExploring you did a great job man. I wouldn’t have had the balls to make a vid on my first PI process. Haha. Scary software! Got a sweet result too!
Interesting video. I am quite new to astrophotography and pixinsight scares me. Currently I am using startools and have been reasonably pleased with the results. Would be interested to see you do a similar comparison using this software.
