nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

The first video was intended to show how easy it is to pull data out of a stack, registered, and calibrated file. But we left that file with a lot of issues....and if we were going to post it on Astrobin or share with the critical world, more tweaks would be used to "get things right."

There are a lot of options in PS not to mention additional options with plugins. One of the more often used processing involves the use of blending layers together. The question of gradients came up in the last thread. The use of blending layers USUALLY ...USUALLY takes care of gradients. So this video is a review of the curves/levels incremental stretch - but a different twist on how and when to use "auto tone" and "auto color"

The password is the same "ugly" without the quotes

https://vimeo.com/162580944

Caveat, I have not watched this yet! Which is probably a misstake.

Wanda Krack Loc: Tennessee, USA

An easy to follow instructional video. Thanks for posting.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Thanks Wanda! My plan is to use Google Hangout from this point forward. Folks can join live this Sunday night at 9:30 EST and the video will reside on my Youtube channel. Sunday will have Q/A . I plan to start with Deep Sky Stacker since everyone can get this free and do the Stack, Calibration, Registration, and Debayer process. From there we will open in Photoshop and try to keep a simple work flow so even new PS users will be able to follow. I will add some tips and tricks for creating star masks - use of luminosity masks - adjustment layers and layer styles.....blending modes - noise reduction and sharpening. I will also use some plugins from NIK software (this software is now in Google's hands and they are now offering it FREE) so I would encourage all PS users to download and install this suite of plugins - provided they use PS.

If you do not own PS and do not plan to subscribe to it.....you can download a free version of PS called GIMP. The interface is close - and most of the steps I will follow can be easily adapted using GIMP.
At any rate, I will give that a try this Sunday.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Good stuff! I took notes and need to experiment with what I just learned.

Thanks