GraXpert - The Gradient Remover - Better than PixInsight DBE?

[@astrophotocologne]

Hello Sascha, Great Video! And thank you for mentioning my KZbin Channel Astrophotocologne. Shout outs should be given to the the programmers of GraXpert, they did the amazing work, I was just the initiator of the project. Btw. the software was developed on our discord channel dark matters, and a new, breathtaking denoise software is under development there! You´ve tested Graxpert here on a real tough image and i was surprised that it worked better than DBE in this case. This is for sure due to the advanced kriging algorithm. But you summed it up very nicely, that in most cases it gives equal results as DBE. But its easier to use and its for free (and open source btw.). There is a crop tool in GraXpert and you really should crop those edges out where frames overlap from stacking. I think the tool will be improved further and also, as i mentioned above, the team is working on new software. Thanks again, and all the best for 2023.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Very interesting and excellent work! Something I'll need to test out for extreme gradients :-) I wonder what tolerance and smoothing you used in PI. In DBE for that kind of gradient, I'd likely use a smoothing of 0.05 to 0.1!

[@jeffhusted6663]

Thank you for this video Sasha. Your videos are very instructive and clearly presented. I have been imaging for 17 years though relatively new to PixInsight. GraXpert solved a problem gradient that I struggled with in DBE. Perhaps DBE will be better in some situations, but glad to have GraxPert as another tool in my arsenal.

[@rodbell4222]

I agree with you on the effectiveness of this software over ABE and DBE...Nice work, and thanks for the great video!

[@BipTunia_Microtonal_Cats]

Good tutorial for cool program. I always dig your vids.

[@nikaxstrophotography]

Just tested it and it works very well thanks

[@StephenPetersen-cr3to]

PixInsight's DBE is one of those tools that has so many use cases that it cannot have a one size fits all. Less samples with bigger sample sizes with specific targeted areas works very well for me. Laying out grids with many small sample points is just asking for trouble in most cases. It is, however, good that this option is out there for people who struggle with DBE. All the best for the new year.

[@tonyclark1504]

Very informative as usual Sasha. Thanks for your efforts this year. Have a safe and happy New Year. Cheers from downunder.

[@viewintospace]

Same to you!

[@ivanjaen6094]

Sasha, I am late watching your video but happy that you confirmed that GraXpert works marvels with though gradients particularly axial ones that DBE cannot remove. Keep doing such great videos.👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 I stopped using flats to remove vignetting and gradients. Now I only care about having a dust free optical train to avoid dust motes that GraXpert still do not remove.

[@scottrk4930]

Hello . At the 4:13 Mark you mention not having a view of the samples however I do see , in the extreme lower left , x & y values and RGB values for wherever you hover the mouse . Is that not helpful or does PI produce an easier display of this . I don't know PI , sorry . /SRK

[@viewintospace]

PI - respectively DBE - shows all the pixels of a sample graphically and color coded. That helps for example in selecting the right tolerance.

[@osamadessouky802]

Hi Sascha Excellent video as always. One question though. At the start of the video you mentioned that GraXpert could not remove those dust doughnuts at the top left of the image? I would have thought that would have been something for your FLATS to manage and remove? I am under the impression that any Background Extraction tool, wether in PI, APP or GraXpert have nothing to do with dust bunnies and doughnuts? Please correct me if I’m wrong. BR Ossi

[@viewintospace]

You are 100% correct - this was caused by reusing old flats. It was still interesting to see if GraXpert could remove that but in no way a negative that it could not.

[@charliemiller3884]

So, how long will we have to wait for GradXTerminator?

[@viewintospace]

It actually already exists - it is just not supported for PixInsight.....

[@chrismcgrew4692]

For PI, hopefully soon. Russ's tools are excellent. Hopefully he makes it with a real time preview like he did BxT

[@photonbucket]

Great vid Sasha, thank you 👍🏻

[@rudolfbenner4802]

I cannot see the script, I cannot findthe settings.

[@viewintospace]

You find the link to download in the description of the video

[@rudolfbenner4802]

The print is too small.

[@giohelp]

thankyou very much ❤

[@christianvulpescu1398]

Very interesting. My thoughs during watching the video were what Adam Block would have answered: He has a tutorial about a cyclic gradient, as yours. Then he used that DBE function to make each sampel cyclic in order to cover the round areas of the same backround values. In my case Adams trick never worked, though. 😅 Thank you again for the nice tutorial. CS, Christian

[@viewintospace]

Same experience here - I tried that too and failed 😄

[@ivanjaen6094]

Same happened to me with AB video on removing axial strong gradients. GraXpert is a winner.

[@Mr77pro]

Just settling in to watch this!! I soooo hope it works..If ABE didn'twork right off the bat , DBE drives me crazy. So often it just does not work at all. And there are so many variables to try it's almost impossible to try them all. I got spoiled with gradientXterminator in PS. Only 9 options!!

[@MrPedalpaddle]

Thanks for this. Another interesting comparison would be with AstroPixel Processor’s Background Calibration & Light Pollution Removal tools

[@christopheguigot841]

excellent boulot...top tes videos ...

[@chrislee8886]

Thanks. Have you tried the free SiriL background extraction - i would be curious as to how they compare?

[@viewintospace]

To be honest, I don't know SiriL at all - I heard of it but never used it.

[@schmeIIy]

Hi Chris, a GraXpert developer here. Steffen ported and contributed one of GraXpert's interpolation algorithms (RBF) to Siril. Hence, results should be very similar for that one. CS David

[@chrislee8886]

@@schmeIIy thanks for the insight👍👏

[@chrismcgrew4692]

FYI you can remove a sample box simply by right clicking on it.

[@Pipe-organ-recordings]

Would this work with wide field images i have take with like a 70mm lens. I have trouble with the dark clouds in the milky way and some light pollution in the distance under some hills in the distance. Thx

[@viewintospace]

You know what? TRY IT!!!!!! It is free, so no harm done. It might work or not, but it is definitely worth a try!

[@Pipe-organ-recordings]

@@viewintospace how do others deal with wide field when you have dust cloud that you dont want confused as a gradient?

[@viewintospace]

@@Pipe-organ-recordings Just don't put samples on the dust clouds but only where they don't are....

[@Pipe-organ-recordings]

@@viewintospace it is sometimes difficult to tell where the dust is

[@BipTunia_Microtonal_Cats]

Will GraXpert work on stretched final images, or only unstretched and at the beginning of the PI process? I see it has a stretch view function, but if that's ignored, can it be used on a stretched image?

[@viewintospace]

Usually you always do gradient removal at the very start of the process. Especially when stretching you kind of bake the gradient into the pic. That said, if you have a stretched pic which still has gradient to remove, why not try it? GraXpert is free and the worst thing that can happen is that your attempt fails.....

[@Rob_1472]

Great content Sasha. I have a question about your into. When you say”I’m Sasha from Switzerland…” is the next part in Swiss. What does it mean?

[@viewintospace]

Great question! Yes, this is SwissGerman - "Grüezi mitenand" means "Hi everyone"

[@bokvaj]

seems nice piece of software. But, have you tryed to use it on some nebulosity? this example of yours is hard to deal with, but the result you want to see is simply black background (kind of...). I tryed it now very fast on some of my rozette image, and i must say, it stripped a lot of faint red nebulosity, even if there were no points in it. But yes, tryed it very fast, as i dont have much time today :) - and again, thank you for your videos :)

[@viewintospace]

The tool has a lot of bells and whistles and I guess when adjusting it correctly it should do fine with nebulosity. But I think the effort to learn the tool in that detail only justifies for people who do not own PixInsight and want to use GraXpert as their main gradient removal tool. I myself really see it and an emergency solution for these cases where DBE drives me totally nuts ;-)

[@bokvaj]

@@viewintospace So true about that DBE xDD

[@elythomaslumber]

It should be added that the GraXpert Algorithmus is integrated into SIRIL stacking SW

[@KMuffel]

The easy use is the most positiv aspect.

[@DSOImager]

Very cool.

[@N4GW]

A great tool.

[@Canov73]

I would love to try it but the windows version wont install on any of my 4 computers, it just hangs...

[@viewintospace]

You might find here on Github a version that works: github.com/Steffenhir/GraXpert/releases

[@jeffhusted6663]

I run Windows 10 and it hung also. Some other programs do too. I have found that opening Task Manager helps wake up some hanging pgms as it does with GraXpert.

[@franzmeier]

The main creator is Steffen Hirtle. Greetings from Germany und guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr.

[@saarikkophoto]

I'm amazed with this software of yours. Great tool tbh. Way better than DBE in PI. DBE gave me donuts, this one actually got rid off the vignetting from my lens which I wasn't able to get rid of with flats and the background got flat as wanted. Now I need to find a way to extract the motif properly. Any tips on this front?

[@viewintospace]

Could you be more specific what you mean with extracting the motiv?

[@mickwhitaker4086]

Won’t open in Mac.

[@viewintospace]

Make sure that you download the latest release. Find them here: github.com/Steffenhir/GraXpert/releases

[@schmeIIy]

Hi Mick, please note that GraXpert is not signed by an Apple Developer Certificate. That means MacOS won't execute it without explicit whitelisting by the user. The following steps do this for me in a reproducible way: - (if installed previously) remove the old GraXpert installation from the programs folder (i.e., move it to the trash). - double click on the downloaded .dmg. MacOS 'mounts' the .dmg file and should open it in a new window in Finder. - copy 'GraXpert' from this window into the programs folder (e.g., via drag & drop) From here it gets a little bit strange and I have to open GraXpert always two times until it starts: - Start GraXpert via double click from the programs folder. After a short time MacOS complains that it can't analyze the application. - Open GraXpert again, but this time via ctrl + right-click -> Open. A slightly different dialog should open, where you have to explicitly confirm the launch again. As I understand it, this step is equivalent to allow application startup via System Preferences/Security & Privacy/General (just a bit shorter). Unfortunately, this ctrl + right-click "workaround" won't work the first time you open it - for whatever reason. Afterwards you should be able to open GraXpert simply via double click. These steps have to be repeated for each new GraXpert release / download Please also note that GraXpert probably won't run on MacOS Mojave (10.14.) or older. CS David

[@mickwhitaker4086]

@@schmeIIy cheers fella, I managed to get it to work by moving the download to applications and opening from there after the usual open, open anyway routine. Thanks for your help.

[@lupixus]

You should try siril's gradient removal. Siril is free, never will do what pix can do, but it offers alot of free tools

[@viewintospace]

Siril is actually using the code from GraXpert for gradient removal. For someone on a budget Siril is a great alternative to PI, fully agree!

[@monteroder2708]

It seems like GraXpert may be a bit more intuitive and user friendly for me than DBE.

[@pompeymonkey3271]

You did not do the same STF on each image, so it is not a valid comparison. The correct way is to copy the first image STF parameters by dragging the process icon over to the second image with the "tracked view" off. Otherwise each image will get its own individual stretch. :)

[@arnsteindale5531]

Happy new year