2024 Pixinsight Workflow: Featuring the Latest Tools and Scripts...No more guesswork for processing!

[@holbunch]

I'm sure this is a very informational video for the very experienced Pixinsight user, but for someone looking for tutorial on using Pixinsight workflow as a beginner, I couldn't follow a thing you said. I guess maybe I will come back later after I get a bit better and understand more. Thank you for the time and effort of making videos for I would say the more advanced users.

[@LLA2008]

Seriously Ryan, just wanted to publicly thank you for spittin out knowledge to the masses in this hobby. The humbleness and willingness to give of your time to educate for free is commendable and greatly appreciated... Thank you

[@darkrangersinc]

Appreciate the kind words it’s what makes it worth it knowing it can help people avoid the struggles I had trying to figure it all out.

[@viewintospace]

Thanks for mentioning me! Great workflow and very well explained!!!!!!

[@darkrangersinc]

Yours did a great job showing the combined layers tool (as well as all the rest). It was kind of freezing up my computer. I don’t know if it’s because I had my 4K screen recording on and some other programs, or what but it didn’t seem to like it, so I just used the screen star method. But either way I did check out the

[@darkrangersinc]

I love that linear fit tool! That’s a game changer for sure

[@ABCMO-bl5pi]

Thanks!

[@darkrangersinc]

Thank you so much! Much appreciated ❤️

[@gregerianne3880]

Thanks for the great summary, Ryan! Great tools to try and see how they fit.

[@darkrangersinc]

Thanks Greg I will put out another one soon covering some of the other features like one shot color to Hubble pallet, but the selective color and auto linear fit tool are my favorite so far. Even for OSC when you split the channels using auto linear fit will help.

[@garrydallmann1551]

Thanks for this video! Your approach to GHS is great and probably the best part. Cheers and dark skies!

[@darkrangersinc]

The same way I made a long form video on Photoshop I might do for GHS and just really go all in on it. This was pretty deep dive but for KZbin you just can’t make 45-50 minute videos. Nobody watches them. So I might do another long form content and make it available in the same spot as Photoshop video

[@mrkutube]

Fantastic instructional video! Thanks Ryan.

[@MicheleHernandez-d2e]

another great video Ryan -you are my video go-to!!! Your walk through of GHS finally cemented it in my mind - I love the dark to light method. As a side not to anyone on the fence, I have learned probably 2 years of processing in 2 one-on-one sessions with Ryan - if you want to save years off your life, I'd highly recommend!!

[@darkrangersinc]

Thank you kindly it’s been fun to see you produce images far ahead of your time in hobby that’s for sure

[@MicheleHernandez-d2e]

to use dorky photoshop terms, you have accelerated my learning curve!! @@darkrangersinc

[@danjensen9425]

I started using Telescope Live to get targets in the southern hemisphere. It’s nice they now have planetary data as well.

[@darkrangersinc]

Glad to hear!! I’ve done almost 40 images now and wouldn’t be where I’m at with processing without them. Hopefully you took advantage of the discount if not it’s still a good value for high quality data

[@tylerpalmer6549]

Thanks for this one Ryan, I was able to download the same Telescope Live Image as you and follow along to see where I could improve. I'd recommend this to anyone, and maybe Ryan can do some more like this with shared data so people can see where they are going wrong or right. Thanks again!

[@darkrangersinc]

I did offer telescope live data on a previous video (blue HH nebula) and asked them if I could share it as an exception, and they did allow it but I don’t think they want me to give away their data on the regular. The nice thing is with my promo code, you get 50% off for the first two months so you could go in for very little money and grab several data sets. But yeah, I really appreciate the compliment and think that following along is a great idea because then you can use the exact same data.

[@tylerpalmer6549]

@@darkrangersinc I signed up before you partnered up with them :( but for anyone else reading this definitely use the promo code for a decent amount of data!

[@backyardspacedude4238]

Love it, thanks!

[@craiglowery4427]

My first time seeing your videos. I like your style

[@darkrangersinc]

Appreciate that, thank you!

[@tomecar1]

Nice video, Ryan! A comment about the weird GraXpert behavior you experienced with this SHO image, Frank Sackenheim, GraXpert author, mentioned the following on 2023-12-20, "For NB images, you need to do the gradient extraction on the single monochrome channels before combining them into an RGB image. The Ariel version of GraXpert is not trained on colour NB Images."

[@darkrangersinc]

Yeah, I kind of figured out that the inconsistency was basically when I use NB because it works pretty well with color images for me. So that makes sense. I still did see slightly better results with DBE for my color images, but the color images were definitely acceptable and didn’t have any problems. Or two it’ll be able to be done in one step I’m sure, and then I’ll switch back from DBE. I didn’t want to take it as a diss to Grax. I love this contributions to Astro and know it’s only a matter of time. And when it’s sorted I’ll be one of the first to let folks know that for all images it’s the way to go 💪🏼

[@darkrangersinc]

For now, if I have to do gradient extraction on each channel, it’s just much faster to do DBE and I’m very happy with the results. Once it’s down to a single step that I’m happy to use it.

[@charliewatts6895]

Great video - it really helps clarify the process around these new tools. I notice that the first time when you ran BlurXterminator - the correct box was not checked. I've been checking that off. Then after SPCC, I uncheck and run BlurX again with PSF checked. I believe that's the approach suggested by Adam Block.

[@darkrangersinc]

That’s only broadband color, and I also mentioned that in the video. The 2 step method is for color or Broadband monochrome. SPCC isn’t really designed for Hubble pallet images as it’s false color. I spoke to Adam on the phone about this specifically a couple weeks ago. If you watch again, you’ll hear me mention the difference between color and Narrow band in the video

[@egratudo1974]

Great video. Thank you!!! Have you ever generated NB stars with the Foraxx script? that tool is amazing for getting a pretty close RGB star look from NB data. I have fallen in love with foraxx stars with my NB images

[@arthurfernandez7878]

Great tutorial, thanks. I was wondering: where would SPCC would fit into this workflow?

[@darkrangersinc]

I mention it for color cameras when I was talking about blurXterminator. Basically at the same spot I did Auto Linear Fit with the SHO. I kind of used that as an analogy for SPCC since we don’t use that on narrowband monochrome images typically. But we do correct the channels and the do BXT. So I would do crop, DBE or Grax, then SPCC, BXT, and so on you always want to do SPCC before BXT now per the latest version instructions

[@arthurfernandez7878]

@@darkrangersinc Thank you very much!

[@Spaced_Out_Bill]

Wow! Ive been looking for a workflow like this forever! You even made a powerpoint, thank you!. I do have a question about the OSC part. On slide 10 you mention StarXterminator but on the next step it's GHS with the the stars in the image. Do you have a preferred method of stretching the stars before adding back to the image? Thanks again for all your hard work making these videos!

[@darkrangersinc]

Glad it’s helpful! Yeah, that’s a good question. I typically will remove the stars but not always. It depends on the image if it’s something where the nebula is really bright like Orion, and so worried about overstretching the core, that I often know that I won’t overstretch the stars. But if it’s a faint nebula where I really want to get the most out of it, I’ll definitely separate the stars so that way when I stretch the nebula harder than I would want to stretch the stars, I won’t blow them out. So in general yes I do remove the stars first but I don’t 100% of the time depends on what I’m trying to do. If you’re looking for a rule of thumb though, I would say it’s a good practice to remove them first.

[@KaidenBainAstro]

Great video Ryan! Always enjoy your Pix tutorials. I am curious as to why you didnt use BXT 4.0?

[@darkrangersinc]

I switched to the 4.0AI later on. To be honest, I don’t really need it with my data or telescope. Lie of the stars are very round just needs a little bit of shrinking and mild sharpening. The version before this was doing everything I needed so like I say in the intro, I don’t just jump on the latest upgraded unless I actually need to or need to test it. I did compare it though on this image, and there was no visible difference for me, but I think if the stars were elongated, V4 would probably be better

[@Shouldbeworking47]

Not sure what I am doing incorrectly but when doing Selective Color Correction and try to apply I get error: "Sorry, but this is not supported in current PixInsight versions." Any advice? Also my color balance seems to be off from what I see then my preview on SCC.

[@darkrangersinc]

Do you have the latest version of Graxpert installed? I know for some people the tools in the toolbox didn’t work until they installed that.

[@Shouldbeworking47]

I just updated my pixinsight to latest version and I few months ago deleted Graxpert as I went to doing only DBE. So I need Graxpert installed to make the toolbox scripts work?

[@rvoykin]

@@Shouldbeworking47it appears so yes

[@dpalms24]

Why do you have the Photoshop Logo (Ps) on the video link when your are talking about PixInsight?

[@darkrangersinc]

I explained it in the video… Pixinsight added some new scripts to mimic some of the features in PS. Hence the area pointing from Photoshop to Pixinsight with the label “new scripts”. Selective color adjustment being the main one I was referring to.

[@jaketomasik]

Great Video, as always. I was very interested in the Auto linear fit script, but the Tool Box Link is broken or incomplete.. or I need help in placing it in the repositories in Pixinsight

[@darkrangersinc]

You need to have GraXpert installed already if you don’t. I added a note above the link about 10 minutes ago.

[@Safestassets]

Does it no longer matter if you do StarX before NoiseX? RC Astro once said you should always do NoiseX before StarX. I'm wondering if that changed since the new AI algorithms were released.

[@darkrangersinc]

You can use NoiseX even after stretching, it’s the most flexible of the tools that’s coming from Russel himself so it’s not necessarily a bad thing. One could be slightly more optimal, but I think it’s kind of splitting hairs at that point. You also have to take the date of the video into consideration. KZbin doesn’t let you go back and re-upload a newer version of an episode not that I would anyway I would just release a new workflow, but if you prefer to do it after StarX that’s totally fine.

[@Safestassets]

@@darkrangersinc Thanks for replying. I'm not satisfied with my processing abilities and I can't seem to mimic the results found in you tube tutorials. Do you offer one to one training?

[@omarlorentz99]

Hi, is your tutorial on Patreon only in English? Are there multilingual subtitles?

[@darkrangersinc]

I’m not sure if Patreon offers that. I don’t know if I can do that with my editing software either.

[@darkrangersinc]

Join our growing Community for additional help and support including 1 on 1 time if needed! www.patreon.com/DarkRangersInc? Support the channel and a company that supports astrophotography for all gear related purchases Agena Astro has the best prices and fastest (free) shipping times ! agenaastro.com/?rfsn=7545037.59bc8b

[@Deerob]

Did you have affiliate links for the RC astro plugins?

[@darkrangersinc]

@@Deerob thank you for asking that I did in the past but have decided to go in a different direction for now. I appreciate you for checking first though!

[@Phillyo118]

Nice video, but you cropped half of your image away! :o

[@darkrangersinc]

Thanks! There were some issues with the data towards the edges… it’s a full frame sensor, so even with the crop I was still bigger than an APSC sensor would be. I’ve done this exact same area at a similar focal length with a 2600 MM, and this one is still wider than my image

[@mr.d.8121]

The GraXpert developers advise leaving Smooth at 0%, always.

[@darkrangersinc]

Tried both as I mention in the vid it doesn’t help with NB unfortunately. Sounds like there is a two-step process you can take and I think he’s working on a fix for the future versions. With color it’s working great for me but with Narrow band, DBE is still the best. I have a feeling in future updates it will be solved and I can switch back

[@astrodad-simonb277]

Subscribed ! Need PI help :-)

[@BeardedCrow1701]

I hate GHS. It's too subjective and my eye leads me astray every time.

[@darkrangersinc]

You have to do what works for you! That’s why I show the star stretch I do where I just pull from the mid tones. I’ve done a lot of one on one sessions just on GHS and folks that were struggling for months are able to pick it up in just an hour. So if it’s something you want to explore in the future, let me know. Otherwise, there are many ways to stretch an image you don’t have to use GHS it’s just what works best for me.

[@TheTeaguecowley]

toooooo fast, slow it down

[@darkrangersinc]

You can watch at .75x or even .5x and then it will be much much slower! Unfortunately people really like my channel because it moves a bit faster. Anything past the 20 to 25 minute mark and people don’t watch unfortunately.

[@leonardoleo5250]

Hey honey, grab the wine because there’s another Dark Rangers video to watch. PLUS my name is on the credits now 🥲✌🏼

[@darkrangersinc]

Ha ha I love it. Yeah I appreciate all the support. I tried to keep up with adding the names because it means a lot that you guys do that