Free AI Gradient Removal - the GraXpert Beta is AMAZING! Ultimate Laziness!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

To try everything Brilliant has to offer-free-for a full 30 days, visit brilliant.org/cuivlazygeek/. The first 200 of you will get 20% off Brilliant’s annual premium subscription. UPDATE: No need to download the AI model anymore, just download and install the latest version of GraXpert, everything is included! Also quick note: GraXpert can open xisf files or fit files natively! I completely missed that for some reason! Astrophotocologne video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d6undZSciNeNbc0 GraXpert Beta download: bit.ly/3PXx8IR AI Model: bit.ly/3PtzX39 Support me on Patreon!: www.patreon.com/cuivlazygeek If you're planning on buying equipment (or anything from Amazon), it will help me if you first click the affiliate links in the description!

[@astrophotocologne]

Hey Cuic, thanks for that wonderful Video and I hope you, and anybody else will enjoy GraXpert. Stay tuned for updates. CS Frank

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Thanks so much for your work!!

[@krzysiekk1616]

I've just tried it, it is not an app, it is magic!

[@AndySova]

I look forward to your guides. This was another super helpful one.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Oh wow, thank you so much for your support, I'm glad this was helpful!

[@kanellosdimitropoulos9759]

Tried it as well on a photo with horrible gradients that background extraction on Siril was struggling on and I was really impressed as well! Great tool and FREE! 👌

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Awesome!!

[@imranbadr]

Thanks for the video. The link to download bg model isnt working. Where can I find the bg model?

[@robmcpherson5974]

Thanks Cuiv. Applied it to a TIF that had previous resisted my gradient removal attempts and it worked a treat. Great videos!

[@kristofcappoen43]

The link for the AI model does not work anymore is there another place we can download it from?

[@revolting887]

excellent video again Cuiv - you are quickly becoming my #1 source for keeping up with the evolving products and programs in the astrophotography space! Huge props for highlighting Open Source projects too 👍

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Thanks so much!

[@beatsntoons]

Hey Cuiv. Been watching your videos for a while. Just wanted to say thanks for all that you do for the community. Your enthusiasm, knowledge and content really help us all. Hope you have a great day!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

I appreciate that! Thank you!

[@40Sec]

This is great. I'm only 11 months into my astrophotography journey (although a decade into my astronomy journey as a whole) and gradients have been one thing I just have not been able to get a good handle on removing. Flats generally work, but when they don't, I have only had good results one time from creating a fake flat and subtracting it. I also didn't find GradientXterminator very helpful (although NoiseXterminator is an absolute BEAUTY), so really looking forward to giving this a shot.

[@karlisberzins9476]

Hi Cuiv! Great video! Great job! Could you please upgrade the link to the AI Model (you probably have moved it, the curent one is broken)?

[@BlueLightSpecial2023]

+1

[@anata5127]

I have tried it. Total killer! 10 times more effective than DBE. It brought some frames from dead!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

It's really amazing :)

[@sevengrey2408]

I love seeing videos like this. it is so helpful to me as I'm struggling with glare from a full moon and had several images similar to the ones in your video

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

GraXpert should definitely help a lot there!

[@icpass]

How do I get the AI model

[@philleng480]

Your Sunflower gradients look like my broadband from B7/8. Cropping was the only option to get something salvageable. So impressed and might be able to salvage some data and speed things up. Thanks Cuiv

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Hope it will work well for you!

[@stanmacdonald1073]

You don't seem lazy to me! Your videos are a great contribution astrophotography! Thank you.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Thank you!

[@JohnSmith-sm8oz]

Hey great video. Amazing results and I had no idea I was getting 30% less cloudy wether subscribing to your channel lol. No really great info as always. Gonna be trying that one for sure.

[@robertvanvugt3371]

Just gave it a try, nice tool! Will keep it around for a while and play with it.

[@AstroQuest1]

WEll I am a believer Cuiv and will be trying this on my next image. Your 'Laziness' has been my guiding principle for processing! - Cheers 😃

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Hahaha thanks Kurt, stay lazy!

[@adventuresofshadowdog]

Wow! Thanks for making and sharing this video. I’ll be downloading and trying GraXpert today!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Have fun!

[@TheArizonaman1]

Huge thanks for this Cuiv!

[@wodle]

Been experimentig the last few days with it and have to say the improvement is amazing. Great work from all involved.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Completely agree!

[@py97as]

Amazing tool. I’ve been using it on some wide field Milky Way data the last couple of days and it’s been hugely impressive. More than just the gradient it seems to neutralise any residual colour cast that exists after the initial stack as well.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

That's really cool! :)

[@jparth167]

Hy Cuiv, Nice video, it seems that the link to AI model is broken ?

[@Butzemann123]

Since the sunflower is so small on your FOV, for that image i would just remove stars with starnet and remove the Sunflower with the Spot Healing Brush or Clone Stamp. Then gaussian blur (or even better "dust and speckles" in photoshop) and substract that from the original. Its a super destructive method with big nebulas, but works best for small targets + complex gradients.

[@anata5127]

Until you open computer, he will finish processing. Have a nice day.

[@ssrattus]

Thanks Cuiv!

[@ubergarm]

Wow GraXpert AI one-click gradient removal blew me away on the first try! I had just spent 10 minutes adjusting boxes in Siril's Background Neutralization. Then I tried the 1-click GraXpert way. The final result with GraXpert is noticeably better: darker more contrasting background, numerically better noise scores, less vignetting in the corners! Perfect for this lazy guy who doesn't shoot flats hahah... Cheers and thanks!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Awesome! It is really nice for sure :-)

[@tubedude54]

I'll admit that my weakness in astronomy is taking astrophotos. I started in the hobby when film was the media. I have tried and tried my hand at digital but processing images is not my strong point. I have contemplated at times of just selling all my equipment and getting a HUGE dob (28-32") and just doing visual observing. Maybe this could be a game changer for me...

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Although if you're in a relatively dark area and you can keep your dob assembled, that would be an awesome setup for visual :D

[@Astro_George_]

Wow this is awesome!!! I’ll certainly give this a bash. Hopefully they can integrate it with Pixinsight too which would be super handy! Another brilliant video Cuiv!! ✨

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

It's super cool for sure!

[@Astro_George_]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek can I ask where in the processing workflow would you do gradient removal with GraXpert ?

[@gomanastro]

great job and enthusiasm !

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Thank you!

[@adrianbeadell9149]

Thanks for the video. Been awhile since I've done any processing, can I ask where this would sit in say, a Siril workflow. 🤔

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

At the very start basically

[@ctortolini]

The AI beta works really well... I'd love to see it turned into a Pixinsight process or script.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Yes that would be amazing

[@lazy_panda_plays9970]

I find APPs remove light pollution tool to do about the same but you have to do it manually so this is peak laziness and I love it!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

And to be clear you're only removing the light pollution average, but it's randomness (LP shot noise) remains :(

[@lazy_panda_plays9970]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek completely true! Didn't think about that.

[@lazy_panda_plays9970]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek it's also hard with nebulae to choose boxes without getting the nebula itself.

[@shaunozs1ra92]

Thanks for this. Makes me think that flats won't be needed soon

[@IAMDRREMULAKK]

The link for the AI model is no longer valid. Hopefully there's a new link somewhere?

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

It's now no longer needed and comes with the install package!

[@JohnDoe-ol3yz]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek Thanks for the info. Unfortunately I'm still using windows 8.1, and I just read that graXpert only works with windows 10 or later. It installs fine, but spits out error messages when starting up. Oh well.

[@davidwillis5396]

Thank you Cuiv keep it going I love your very informative vids

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Glad you like them!

[@johnqm15]

Hey Cuic, the link is broken. The link to the AI model is broken. Could you check on that for me please?

[@KevinRudd-w8s]

Hi Cuiv, this looks pretty awesome, have you tried this against RC Gradient eXterminator?

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

It's really cool! I don't have Photoshop (nor have I ever used it) so no I'm unable to compare since afaik GXT is only for Photoshop...

[@KevinRudd-w8s]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek Thanks for that Cuiv.

[@astroshooter1960]

I've been using this program for a while now... definitely I'm going to update.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Enjoy!

[@tomzukouski6041]

I download some of my sbig camera files to gradient,and try to g e t rid of lp gradient and it hardly does anything!...and when I try to load a color processed ccdops fit file ,gradient says error occurred and won't accept it.

[@steffen1181]

Hi, that's strange. Could you share the images with us? Astrophotocologne's video in the the description explains how to send us images. CS Steffen

[@nastasedr]

Did the model URL change. It seems to be broken when I click on it.

[@deep_space_dave]

Hi Cuiv! I would like to see how this compares to Automatic Background Extractor in PixInsight! The problem with ABE is sometimes it over corrects or deletes nebulosity so a IA powered tool like this would be great! Very interesting, I have to try this on some old data from when I was bad at taking flats LOL! Clear Skies!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Hi Dave! I didn't even think of comparing since ABE is a completely different approach and far more limited. ABE can only deal with regular gradients that can be approximated by a polynomial function and could never deal well with gradients in those examples (I would typically do ABE then DBE). GraXpert is effectively an extremely smart DBE, so very different

[@deep_space_dave]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek Thanks for the explanation 🙂

[@PilotPhteven]

So, when is the best time to do this in the editing process? at the start? at the end? at the middle? and how does it compare to the extraction of pixel processor or other gradient tools. And how much does it affect processing after.. like.. great if it extracts the background, but if it introduces artefacts or noise that might affect any editing in pixinsight after, it might not be ideal?

[@steffen1181]

I recommend to do background extraction directly after stacking and removing stacking artifacts at the borders. The background generated by the AI was trained to be very smooth, so I don't expect there to be any significant artifacts or noise.

[@fazergazer]

Very cool! Cuiv, do you know if the neural net is able to use the GPUs to accelerate? Can’t wait to try it on my “new” used computer ❤

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Not possible, but honestly it doesn't take that long either :)

[@fazergazer]

It is relatively fast. The more layers the slower I suppose. We’ll see what the future brings. I plan to contribute some data, having watched Frank’s video he outlines the process❤

[@NatarajanGanesan]

I am getting this no file or directory found at C:\users\...\bg_model . I do actually have it and carried out the procedure as shown. I tried reinstalling and it keeps repeating. It even has the preset background choices in the memory.

[@steffen1181]

Hi, with version v1.0.6cAI you can go to the advanced menu on the right and manually set the directory of the bg_model folder. Also make sure that you have already unzipped the folder and that it does not contain another bg_model subfolder.

[@Robert-zm2rk]

@@steffen1181 Thanks!

[@simonpepper5053]

Thank you been banging my head with this for hours! @@steffen1181

[@bbroastro]

I would *really* like to see this done on some dark nebula / IFN regions. Those are the ones that'll be plagued by gradients much more and where AI models really need training. I would like to give it a go, but ironically, where I now live means my data has very minimal gradients which I know is extremely fortunate.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Unfortunately I can't take such images from Tokyo haha

[@bbroastro]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek I can do so where I am - I'll still see about submitted my data as it'll still hopefully help train the AI further :) If it can do dark nebula and IFN well, then it's going to change astro imaging for sooo many people :D Thanks for sharing as always Cuiv

[@adrianmorar2428]

I tried this on 10 hours of LDN1251 (Anglerfish Nebula) and the results were considerably worse then what I get with a simple ABE in Pixinsight

[@Martincohenphoto]

Pretty awesome!!

[@vicariousaviator9742]

Great videos fellow PG pilot! I see you subscribe to Marc Leavesley. Awesome instructor and good guy. You should see his model jets! 😃🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Absolutely agree!

[@matthieubastianel8642]

Wow, Just Wow !

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Exactly!

[@saltydogbwi3]

I can’t get graxpert to run at all windows 11 put bg folder and graxpert exe into its own folder…following instructions specifically but when I click the exe it doesn’t open. Tried downloading several times deleting old files, running as admin, right click and open nothing seems to work. The cursor turns into a spinning wheel for a few seconds like it’s trying to open then goes back to a pointer and nothing opens. Anyone have any solutions?

[@steffen1181]

Hi, could you try to start GraXpert from the console? We had a similar issue with another Windows 11 user where starting from console solved the problem.

[@saltydogbwi3]

Hi It works running it from the console Thanks! However that is the only way it will run tried running it normally after closing the program and it still wouldn't start. Tried running from cmd prompt again and it works. Tried pinning to the Task bar once program was running closed program but it wont open clicking on the icon in the task bar. Only way to run it is through CMD Prompt @@steffen1181

[@steffen1181]

@@saltydogbwi3 Thank you for testing, we will look into it.

[@zbnmth]

6:12 There does seem to be a lot of H-Alpha mistaken for background, if you ask me... But otherwise very time-saving tool and interesting development that will get more optimised as AI is displaying to be doing so far... Nice video, thanks!

[@steffen1181]

Hi, it's always best to check the image against images from other astrophotographers as a reference. It's not always so easy to differentiate between a red background and a red color which comes from H-alpha nebulae. And sometimes the two even coincide.

[@Bogfra1]

Best Cuiv You just have to test this out I also have an image of M13 taken with a ZWO294 pro color; but if I edit the stacked master image of pixinsight first in GraXpert with the AI edit it was no longer possible to use SPCC which is normal but then you can fix this with imagesolver but there it goes wrong didn't work anywhere; so the other way around it worked first SPCC or after imagesolver and only then GraXepert then everything went back to normal in Pixinsight.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Ooh interesting tip, thank you!

[@Bogfra1]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek Best Cuiv I need to revise my comment from yesterday I retested it with the image of M13 and probably did something wrong somewhere in GraXpert or in pixinsght because now the imagesolver did work; But I'm going to test this further on some other images Greetings from Belgium

[@bigmark17]

Hey great video, but when I choose the AI method it tells me that the SavedModel file does not exist. I did everything the same as you in the video and yet it still will not work. Any suggestions?

[@steffen1181]

Hi, you can go to the advanced menu by clicking on the blue button on the right. There you can manually select the directory of your bg_model folder.

[@flutesofmontereypeninsula4169]

I discovered if I want GraXpert to work properly, both GraXpert-win64.exe and bg_model need to set up in a folder or subdirectory where I want it. Simply moving from downloads (Windows 10) to elsewhere wouldn't work. Also if the exported tiff file is to be used by Gimp, then save as 16 bit.

[@steffen1181]

Hi, you can also manually set the directory of the bg_model folder in the advanced menu on the right

[@nikaxstrophotography]

Hey Cuiv can you post a link to the guy who installs the mac version? Thanks mate

[@JulioLopez-gs3mu]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gavPpHmvord6jJI It works!

[@viewintospace]

That you would find here: GraXpert AI - One-Click Gradient Removal for Astrophotography kzbin.info/www/bejne/gavPpHmvord6jJI

[@davidswinnard7565]

Downloaded fresh today for Linux (Kubuntu 22.04) and still get an "Exception encountered when calling layer 'conv2d' (type Conv2D). error. when using the AI interpolation method. Using one of the other three methods works fine. Note that these are mono images. Hmm.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Mmh that's disappointing... I haven't tested on Linux

[@user-dz3ph7dl4m]

Just gave it a test on Arch and was working fine for me. Noticed someone has posted an issue with kubuntu 23.04 on the github page - may be a ubuntu/deb issue.

[@celiaxel3448]

Really interesting thanks!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@TwoHandUke]

Hi Cuiv, another great upload. I always look forward to your next one. PS I love your T shirt 😎. THU

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Thanks so much! You can buy the t-shirt in Spreadshirt ;)

[@TwoHandUke]

Is there any initiation ceremony to join the order, or can I just buy the T-shirt ? 😂

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

@@TwoHandUke we're too lazy for ceremony 🤣

[@TwoHandUke]

🤣🤣🤣 Well, sign me up !

[@Cragfire]

Couldn't download from google drive using Firefox, but Edge worked fine. Probably a setting on my side someplace but wanted to post in case someone else ran into the issue.

[@CanArmyGuy]

Same for me

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Thanks for letting everyone know!

[@qonos68]

Same problem here, If you have among your settings "block third-party cookies", you need to add an exception for drive.google.com and allow for this site third-party cookies. At least this worked for me.

[@DTWINING]

Would this work better on star extracted images? ...or doesn't really matter?

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Yep it would, it doesn't care about stars as far as I can tell

[@steffen1181]

Hi, the AI was trained with images with stars, so it should already know how to ignore them.

[@robertovolpini9359]

Hi Cuiv, I would like to try graXpert for windows, but is blocked during the download by the antivirus due to malware, Do you have a secure download link? Ciao Roberto

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

GraXpert AI now has a stable version you can get from their official site! Also I hope you're not using Norton because that thing is worse than useless!

[@astrobri]

Hummmm, Followed step by step multiple times and unfortunately, it's not working for me. The Ai dose not show ?

[@astrobri]

Hi, It's me again. Please ignore my above comment. It was an "ID 10 T" error at my end. Thank you for the Great video 😁

[@likbezpapuasov4888]

By the way, can you share what software did you use to make this clip? Is it for PC or Mac?

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Do you mean the screen capture software? It's OBS.

[@N4GW]

So cool!!!

[@dmunro9076]

Apparently GraXpert has an unresolved bug where it cannot start when a PC desktop uses certain display resolutions (in my case 1440P).

[@steffen1181]

Hi, what operating system are you using? There currently is some kind of problem where GraXpert can only be started from the command line in Windows 11. Apart from that, GraXpert should run on any resolution.

[@flutesofmontereypeninsula4169]

Hmmm. Will GraXpert replace flat files?

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Dust motes would still be an issue but otherwise.....!

[@N4GW]

Seems to save it as a TIFF instead of a FIT file. The old version saved a FIT file

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

I'll double check but I can save as different formats

[@steffen1181]

Hi, you can choose between tiff, fits and xisf directly above the save buttons in the left menu.

[@N4GW]

I will look again but could not find that before. The software is amazing though

[@andynowlen]

Sorry to say I can't run the AI Beta on MacOS Ventura 40GB ram.

[@steffen1181]

Hi, what exactly is going wrong? Have you followed the instructions in astrophotocologne's video for macOS?

[@andynowlen]

The download ends up failing after opening Terminal for some reason. Which video has the instructions you mentioned? Thanks. @@steffen1181

[@steffen1181]

The video in the description includes some brief instructions shown as a text

[@steffen1181]

If you have trouble with the download you can try to use another browser

[@andynowlen]

Success!! Thanks for the guidance.

[@TL1000S97]

Yet another super video from The Lazy Geek to fellow lazy geeks (like me). Just tested a couple of horrible stacked images and the results are just mind blowing. 👍

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Awesome! It's incredible software for sure

[@lex6vasques544]

I believe at some point AI tools will be all we use for our astrophotography image processing. Taking darks, flats , bias etc, will be a thing of the past.

[@zevapini6485]

Now if only graxpert had a cli tool, a siril integration would've been possible

[@steffen1181]

Hi, that's the next thing we will be working on :)

[@zevapini6485]

That's awesome, thanks for the amazing software!

[@MazzifLOL]

Looks like a great tool! would of loved to see it as a vs AutomaticBackgroundExtration (ABE) in Pixinssight and or Siril

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

I didn't even think of that, since ABE is a completely different approach and far more limited. ABE can only deal with regular gradients that can be approximated by a polynomial function and could never deal well with gradients in those examples (I would typically do ABE then DBE)

[@thiagoprado7540]

Amazing tool!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

It sure is!

[@qonos68]

That's a game changer.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Yep!

[@Bomber_fireworks]

WOW

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

Oh how I wish we'd get 30% clearer skies by subscribing ha ha good job I've already subscribed so next weeks star party had better have 30% clearer skies 🤣Seriously this Graxpert with Ai looks awesome I'll definitely be trying it with all the data we'll be getting next week!!😉

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Guaranteed clear weather! Lol And yeah agree on GraXpert!

[@ConnorRoss]

3:35 "windows can be very overzealous" never try a mac haha or you'll have to adventure into, security settings, permissions every install with admin password pop-ups ever other click.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

I know I'm in the minority but I hate MacOS, I find it horribly hard to use. Give me a good Linux DE or Windows any day

[@grimbeast]

Holy smokes.....just tried ALL my stacks from the past 6 months - Only 1 of them failed. The rest seems to be really good.

[@steffen1181]

Cool! It would be great if you could share the one that didn't work with us. The video in the description by astrophotocologne explains how you can do that :)