{"id":43506,"date":"2023-03-28T09:07:17","date_gmt":"2023-03-28T09:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=117454"},"modified":"2023-03-28T09:32:34","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T09:32:34","slug":"how-to-improve-your-image-processing","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/how-to-improve-your-image-processing\/","title":{"rendered":"How to improve your image processing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Save time by automating common processing steps like boosting contrast and reducing noise. <\/p>

By Chris Grimmer\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 28 March 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

T<\/span>he world of astrophotography<\/a> can be daunting, and learning image processing<\/a> can be a particularly steep learning curve.<\/p>\n

Any help that can boost our editing skills is a bonus.<\/p>\n

In Adobe Photoshop, \u2018actions\u2019 can help to overhaul your processing workflows.<\/p>\n

These are a set of steps that can be saved and replayed on future images to, for example, boost contrast or reduce noise.<\/p>\n

You can also purchase actions created by someone else.<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Our initial image of the North America Nebula.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

One such set is Annie\u2019s Astro Actions<\/a>, a comprehensive set of 24 different workflows that can guide you through the editing process, from simple step-by-step guides, and combining mono images into RGB or the Hubble Palette, to stretching and star removal.<\/p>\n

A full list of actions is available to view\u00a0prior to purchase.<\/p>\n

Once purchased, download Annie\u2019s Astro Actions to your PC and save it to a location of your choice.<\/p>\n

Open Photoshop and ensure your Actions<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0tab appears (see below).<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
\u2018Star layer separate \u2013 automatic\u2019 created the starless image above showing only the nebula ready for processing, and a duplicate image that contained just the stars<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

If it doesn\u2019t, click on the Windows menu and tick Actions<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0from the list.<\/p>\n

Under the actions panel, click on the three horizontal lines at the top right and select Load actions<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0from the menu to open a file explorer window.<\/p>\n

Navigating to where you saved your actions file, select it and click Load<\/strong><\/em>. You will see all the actions appear as a list within the actions panel.<\/p>\n

We will show how we used Annie\u2019s Astro Actions to process our image of the North America Nebula<\/a>, NGC 7000.<\/p>\n

The first action we applied was Star layer separate \u2013 automatic<\/strong><\/em>. This removed the stars from our image and created a duplicate image that contained just the stars.<\/p>\n

To apply the action, we selected Star layer separate \u2013 automatic<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0from the list and then hit the play icon at the bottom.<\/p>\n

With the nebula and stars separated into two images, we could work on NGC 7000 without bloating the stars.<\/span><\/p>\n

The separation process left some marks around where the largest stars were, so we used the spot healing brush to remove them. <\/span><\/p>\n

All of Annie\u2019s actions are run by selecting the action from the list and then hitting the play icon. First we used Dynamic enhance<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0which brightened the nebula and added contrast.<\/p>\n

We then applied Brighten colour & sharpen<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0which further enhanced the nebulosity.<\/p>\n

Enhance dust lanes<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0brought out the finer details and sharpened the dusty areas.<\/p>\n

Sharpening the image added noise, so we then chose Noise reduction<\/strong><\/em> to reduce this, followed by Smooth out image<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0which softened our nebula.<\/p>\n

he final action was Simple stretching<\/strong><\/em>. This action showed us, via helpful on-screen instructions, how to stretch our data and balance the colours using levels and curves.<\/p>\n

The image below shows the effect of these actions.<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
The image after enhancing the nebulosity and dust lanes through smoothing, brightening colours, sharpening, reducing noise and stretching<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

With our nebula image now looking good, we clicked over to our stars image tab.<\/p>\n

As this image was separated before we applied colour correction, the star colours needed adjusting.<\/p>\n

We used Selective colour<\/strong><\/em> to edit each colour channel separately (see image below).<\/p>\n

Adjusting the sliders under the cyan, magenta and yellow channels allowed us to create a more natural star colour.<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Working on the stars image to enhance their colours with the \u2018Selective colour\u2019 sliders. This was done by eye until we were happy with their appearance<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

This needed to be done by eye. You may have to apply and then edit each colour multiple times until you are happy with the appearance of your stars.<\/p>\n

Once both of our images were processed, we needed to recombine them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Starting on the image of our stars, we flattened the image (Layer > Flatten image<\/strong><\/em>), then clicked Edit > Select all<\/strong><\/em> to highlight the entire image.<\/span><\/p>\n

With Ctrl + C<\/strong><\/em> we copied our image. We opened our nebula image from the top tab and pressed Ctrl + V<\/strong><\/em> to paste our stars.<\/span><\/p>\n

This created a new layer with our stars. We switched our blending mode from Normal<\/strong><\/em> to Screen<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0and a combined image appeared.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
The final processed image after using automated actions. These actions take some of the hassle out of common processing steps like making starless images, smoothing and enhancing colour.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Our final image now contained the processed nebula and star images and, as a final task, we applied the noise reduction action one final time before saving.<\/p>\n

You can see the final result on the page opposite.<\/p>\n

3 tips for applying actions in image processing<\/strong><\/h2>\n
  1. \u00a0<\/b><\/span>You can apply actions more than once.<\/li>\n
  2. Create a new layer before applying actions (hold Shift + Ctrl + Alt, then press \u2018N\u2019 and then \u2018E\u2019).<\/li>\n
  3. Apply the \u2018Star layer separate\u2019 action before applying the \u2018Simple stretching\u2019 action, to stop stars from bloating.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>

    This guide originally appeared in the April 2023 issue of <\/strong><\/em>BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

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