18
19
Convert to Color (For the StarShoot
G3 Color only)
1. With your calibrated images still
open, goto the
Process menu
and select
Color, then CMYG
Raw conversion. We recommend
using the default values (Figure
18), but you may adjust them to
your liking.
2. Click apply to complete the color
conversion.
Align
1. With your images still open, goto
the
Process menu and select
Align. The Align Images window
will appear.
2. Select
Auto Star matching and
click
Align. The images should
automatically align. If they do not
appear to align correctly when
they are combined later, you can
manually align the images by
selecting
Translation (Manual)
and select a star in each image to
align to by clicking
Start Manual
Star Pick (Figure 19).
Combine
1. With your images still open, goto
the
Process menu and select
Combine. The Combine Images
window will appear (Figure 16).
2. Since you have already calibrated and aligned your images, proceed to the
Stack tab. Remember that if you are using the StarShoot G3 Monochrome,
you can perform all of these tasks in each of the tabs of the
Combine
Images window.
3. Select
Add Images, then Select All, then Apply (Figure 20).
4. Proceed to the
Stack tab. Keep the default settings. We recommend Sigma
Reject which is effective at removing unwanted leftover hot pixels, satellite
trails, or other unwanted artifacts from your image.
5. Click
Combine, and your resultant image will appear. If the image did
not appear to combine correctly, go back to the
Align tab and try to use
a different alignment method.
Normally the
Auto Star matching
is the easiest method.
5.1 Save and Export
Always save your work in the native
.FIT format which will preserve all
of the image data you worked on.
.FIT is a common file format for
CCD imaging, and is understood by
many other image editing programs,
including plugins that are available for
Adobe Photoshop.
You may choose to edit your image
further. Camera Studio has several
other image enhancement features,
such as sharpening, low pass filters,
Gaussian blur filters as well as color
balance adjustments to enhance
your image. Explore these features in
the
Process menu. But always save
your original FIT file. Choose
Save
As in the File menu to save different
versions of your edited work.
If you have completed and saved
your astro-image and wish to export
it in a common JPEG or TIFF file
format, choose
Export from the File
menu. The
Export window will appear
(Figure 21).
JPEG
Choose JPEG if you want a smaller
file size. JPEGs are saved in 8-bits of
depth only, so you should specify the
histogram stretch you want. Choosing
No Stretch in JPEG will not work properly, since you will be throwing away most
of the dynamic range of the image. Instead, adjust the histogram until the image
looks to your liking, then choose
Use current histogram stretch. This will save
the JPEG image to look exactly as it does no your screen.
TIFF
TIFFs are saved in 16 bits and are a good choice to export your image to
Photoshop for additional image editing.
Figure 20.
Select the open images to
align.
Figure 21.
Choose your file format and
export settings to export your image as a
TIFF or JPEG.
Figure 19.
Manual Star Pick can be used
if you have difficulty aligning your images
with the automatic methods.
Figure 18.
For G3 Color users: Convert
CMYG Raw is the best way to convert raw
images to color.
