PixInsight: A Thank You and Starless DBE Trick

[@DylanODonnell]

You’re the GOAT Block, you should have 10x that number, and will in time I’m sure.

[@coloradoastro6139]

Thanks Adam!

[@AvleenVig]

You went very Bob Ross at the end, I fully expected to hear you talking about happy little stars 😄 Fantastic video!

[@AdamBlock]

Yeah... I didn't want to do too much of that...I do plenty of it in my videos on my site.

[@JasonRWait]

You are simply an outstanding community member. We are all so lucky to have your expert guidance!

[@timburgess1528]

Here here, simply fantastic content and so much appreciated.

[@johnadastra1754]

Checking Normalize in DBE is the big trick. Thanks!

[@danvranic2306]

Thank you so much!!! I have consistent flat frame issues with my Luminance integrations and this has SAVED my last project!! Thank you!

[@AdamBlock]

Thanks for watching. Please consider joining AdamBlockStudios.com ! :)

[@sjweemie]

Thank you for the great video!!

[@PhilippeNoth]

Very useful info, thanks Adam. Due to cloudy nights, I have been imaging with a Seestar lately. While the device is amazing and produces surprisingly good subs, the gradient and the edges can be tricky to clean. Learnt a lot with your Fasttrack course and will likely upgrade to Fundamentals when I have more time.

[@paulnaquet]

Well deserved Adam!

[@malcolmdent241169]

Congratulations on the 10k Adam. Here is to the next 10k

[@tommes9537]

Thanks very much. the procedure is great. so easy to use and with such tremendous impact. I'll include that in my workflow.

[@AdamBlock]

Keep in mind ...this is kind of an emergency method. To be more careful, you would need to correct the star image as well. But for cases where things are terrible..this can help.

[@tommes9537]

@@AdamBlock Thanks for the hint

[@bauer100]

PixInsight is by no means a user friendly program. I started as an absolute beginner not knowing where to start first. Thanks to your videos here and on your website ive made huge progress in my photo processing. Thank you!

[@AdamBlock]

Thank you!

[@Spaced_Out_Bill]

Thank you Adam! Your videos and tricks are top notch. Every time I watch one of your videos I learn something new. Can't wait to try this!

[@PopeAstro]

Adam you rock!! ❤️🤘🏿 Aris Pope

[@jesusbilbao]

Congratulations on your new achievement. The community is always anxious and grateful for your new videos.

[@richardstillman9789]

Thanks, Adam! That was very helpful.

[@jimtaylor5802]

Outstanding information, wisdom and perspective - none is better…

[@gefest2007]

Thank you! Great idea! I live in a city and often image in Bortle 9 area, but even with dual band filter I get lots of gradients to remove. Luckily your technique will save me hours of fighting DBE.

[@u2b4laz]

I just made it 10,000 + 1... Thanks for the great tips and insights Adam. BTW, I was always one of the ones who incorrectly believed that your imaging looked great because you used your own data - I stand corrected (mea culpa).

[@AdamBlock]

Thank you. A significant fraction of the workflow videos I have on my site at AdamBlockStudios.com are from members.

[@Zealor365]

Hey, I learned something new! Yea!

[@pcboreland1]

Much appreciated. Neat trick

[@Lacquerhead-TX]

Thank you SO MUCH Adam. What I've learned has justified my years of data hording! I knew the data was there, I just didn't quite know how to extract it until I the more recent versions of PixInsight, Russell Croman's FANTASTIC modules for PI, *AND* the tutoring you provide. Absolutely money well spent on ALL accounts.

[@yervantparnagian5999]

Thank you from Rhode Island for all your help

[@malek2900]

Thanks you, it already helped me for a processing with hard gradient.

[@John_Hudson_922]

this is great, love seeing techniques with less than professional data :-)

[@anavarrocoquimbo]

Thank you very much Adam!!! I will start working immediately. Best regards!

[@flyingairedale]

Very clever. I was struggling with a color image full of weird gradients and this really cleaned things up. Like a turbo boost for DBE.

[@rocketfast09]

Wow! Outstanding video and techniques.

[@AdamBlock]

Thanks! Consider becoming a member of my site!

[@barryallen5744]

Thanks for the incredible insightful information. Because of astro-imagers like you, my transition from a visual astronomer to an astrophotographer has been much less difficult than it should have been.

[@trinigunbankashi8871]

Oh, Adam, you have no idea what a great help you have given me. I am a beginner in this hobby, and I struggle quite a bit with DBE.

[@gregerianne3880]

Thanks for some great tips here, Adam! And thank YOU for all the great videos and instruction both on KZbin and your excellent Web site. All your hard work as well as the many hours of work behind the scenes are very much appreciated.

[@AdamBlock]

Thank you Greg.

[@slmdaddy1]

Excellent technique Adam- its nice to see the less then perfect data being used as its likely more representative of what a lot of people are getting that are watching your videos and trying to learn understand processing.

[@jasondain8713]

This is a really great technique! Fixes an issue I'm having right now with my 135mm lens with a slight ring. Awesome!

[@steveweintraub1113]

Thank you for another great tutorial. I’ve been experiencing the same challenge with my OSC camera related to DBE; this is a game changer. Congrats on the 10K!

[@robb7342]

Wow Adam, another great approach and example. As a fundamental student, I can affirm that the plethora of techniques and working examples are not from pristine captures. Much like this presentation, the data needs correction and you go into great detail outlining the techniques towards pulling a rabbit out of the hat in real-time. Moreover, with all the updates to PI, its greatly appreciated that you take the additional time to update your work where needed. Would love to see your approach to Mosaics - point me in the right direction if I've missed it.

[@AdamBlock]

Yeah..that is another thing! I do need to do that... It will basically be a tutorial on Photometric Mosaic.

[@roymedina638]

Congrats on reaching 10K Adam and thank you for being there for all of us in the community!

[@AdamBlock]

Thanks!

[@franksteffens6502]

Congratulations on the 10,000 subscribers, Adam! About the DBE trick: I do it a bit differently: First I create a copy of the image and remove the stars there. Then I put the DBE boxes in there exactly as you described in the video, select Normalize, Substract and Replace target image, but then execute the process first on the original image with the stars by dragging the blue triangle of the DBE process onto the image with the stars. Only then do I apply the same process again to the starless image with the green tick. I don't know if it matters much, but this way the subtraction of the background model is also applied to the stars.

[@AdamBlock]

This could be more accurate..but I wonder in practice how much of a difference it makes.

[@paulwilson8367]

I returned to try this technique again after really struggling with a mono RGB image. I just tackled the red integration and removed the stars using Starnet 2 (I don't have starXterminator). I have to say, that worked pretty well! Everything takes practice. I live in a bortle 7 suburb where the big city is on the east, so half of my image is always saturated with LP while the other side is noticeably better. A big gradient, and they are difficult.

[@darrenwarne9005]

I recommend the Baader Varilock extension tubes. They are infinitely adjustable without adding an extra ring to the train.

[@Makrem]

Im a bortle 9 shooter and I use always this trick with an OSC camera ;) and this is the best and only way to remove a hard gradient

[@RyansAstrophotos]

Great video. I'm curious if you have a video or can make one on continuum subtraction process with some examples? I've heard of it recently being used for Oiii data.

[@AdamBlock]

I have such a video on my site. It is in my Horizons collection: www.adamblockstudios.com/categories/m51

[@mr.o4588]

Hey Adam, that trick helped a lot. Trying to work on NGC 6888 Data taken with QHY 268C and Optolong L-Xtreme and I simply don't get rid of the gradient. Think there where just to many Stars in the image. Thanks for sharing and greatings from vacation in Croatia! Jürgen

[@AstroHunter5280]

Phenomenal. Wanted to comment on the "white shirt" reference that you made. Is that "not" the ideal way of taking flats when you do not have the option of taking flats during the daylight?

[@AdamBlock]

My feeling is that cloth as a diffuser is not ideal in almost all situations. It is causes so much trouble and heartache for people (especially beginners who do not know this is part of the problem...and think it is something else.)

[@AstroHunter5280]

@@AdamBlock What would you recommend?

[@AdamBlock]

@@AstroHunter5280 For years I double scattered light off of two surfaces with a bulb similar in temperature to the Sun. Of course the best answer is a flat field panel of some sort.

[@timmyers3428]

@@AdamBlock I have been using an app on my tablet that provides illumination very similar to what you get on a flat panel, but using cloth to difuse out any smudges I might get on the tablet. Would you suggest I try using the tablet without the cloth?

[@AdamBlock]

@@timmyers3428 I suggest the tablet illuminate a white piece of paper and take images of that. You will have to take some small care to try to illuminate the paper evenly... but it isn't super critical. Astronomers actually put lights at the front of their telescopes sometimes to illuminate a panel on the dome/enclosure.

[@krzysztofchmielewski9246]

Hi, Thank you for making this great video. Would you consider this DBE Trick as your primary way of doing DBE for OSC images now? For what kind of cases you would not recommend it?

[@AdamBlock]

This is one of many options. I would not do this if the gradients are simple and the field is easy enough to add samples to. There is some benefit to having the correction occur with the stars in the frame (which does not happen if you do it this way).

[@filipgloria]

Very very interesting!!! Just a question about the stars: Aren’t the stars going to have a different “black point” than the background when you first remove the stars, do DBE and then put them back in?

[@AdamBlock]

That is why you use "normalize" when using DBE. The background level is maintained by SXT (that is what the AI is good at figuring out)- and then the background is maintained by DBE.

[@egratudo1974]

great video!!!! how do you print your images?

[@allen4564]

Thank you again for another excellent tutorial tutorial for all of us. I got lost at about 13:00, when you took the overly contrasty, recombined image and did something to get a smoother look. How did you manage that?

[@AdamBlock]

That only thing being adjusted is the screen stretch. That is all.

[@bartbogaert1057]

Hi Adam, thanks for the video. One question however. You used SCNR after having applied SPCC to calibrate the color. On the PI forum Juan Conejero recommends *not* to use SCNR after having appied SPCC (instead he suggests to apply color saturation in the c or S channels). I am a newbie in PI but I understood that SPCC would correctly calibrate the color so that SCNR is no longer needed, or stronger: not advised (even for OSC cameras). What is your take on that recommendation?

[@AdamBlock]

Sounds very technical. I get criticized for this level of granularity ALL THE TIME. ha! Anyway, saturation (or C channel) does not really take care of green directly. Remember SCNR will only affect primary green pixels strongly. This tends to exist mostly in the noise. Real signal isn't typically of this sort unless OIII emission (like PNe or Wolf Rayet) where then you need to be more careful.

[@LLA2008]

Hey Adam, Great video, even better trick... Question Between the 12:54 -13:12 mark, what was the final adjustment? STF adjustment? Thanks

[@AdamBlock]

I am not certain now..I may have run DBE again having paused my recording or something. Not all of my recordings are 100% straight through "real time"... sometimes I need to pause and come back but hopefully not break the flow.

[@LLA2008]

@@AdamBlock Hmm, "run DBE again"... I'll give that a try. Thx much

[@AdamBlock]

@@LLA2008 I am not suggesting to run it again... I am saying when I record my videos you may see incongruities because I ain't perfect man!

[@LLA2008]

​@@AdamBlock ​ ...then add it to your already extensive repertoire of tips and tricks my friend because it worked beautifully! At about the 11:30 mark you mention that "...this may not be the perfect correction...", running DBE a 2nd time, with fewer samples, solved this issue and reduced the noise/banding considerably smoothing the background even more. Mileage may vary... You may not be perfect but you're a whole lotta help, thats for damn sure.

[@TheMje1963]

Thanks Adam, Something that was mentioned to me by someone was to also run DBE after the image is streached to help with more corrections. Good idea or bad idea?

[@AdamBlock]

Gee...I wonder if that someone else is a member of AdamBlockStudios.com and I am getting my own damn techniques cited back to me?? lol Become a member, get the inside information see the innovations I teach.

[@arisblan5171]

thanks Adam! could you please remind me where you talk about unscreened stars? Is that in Foundamentals?

[@AdamBlock]

Among other places...I explain in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j5SQgodvf9OErK8

[@MrGuitar50]

Thanks Adam! I noticed (I think) that you didn't run DBE Div in the trick. Is there a reason for this? Just for grins, I ran DBE Div in my process and it made things worse. But I'm not sure why. I backed out of it and used HT to eliminate most of the bad stuff that was left over in the background by moving my shadows point up. But when I tried to do color saturation the slightest tweek brought back the bad background.

[@emuhead]

Instant StarXTerminator & BlurXterminator.. is that a video edit, or what pc are you running? Do you also use the Tensorflow tweak? Good tip also, thanks, im having this very issue as we speak.

[@AdamBlock]

Yeah... I just pause the video. No need to have you watch my computer crunch. However, this size image only takes 12-15 seconds with my GPU.

[@emuhead]

@@AdamBlock 😮 Mine takes 30 minutes.. I haven't taken the tensorflow leap yet.

[@johnmeggers5059]

Anybody know how you remove samples in the Mac version of PI? I can't seem to find it.

[@johnmeggers5059]

Never mind, I found it. Fn-Del removes a sample.

[@AdamBlock]

@@johnmeggers5059 Also the red x at the top of the DBE process.

[@robertzaballa572]

What happened at 10:13?

[@AdamBlock]

StarXTerminator was running...at the completion of the task the windows refreshed. I was multitasking explaining and processing simultaneously. Give it a shot... it is tough to do! lol

[@robertzaballa572]

@@AdamBlock Thanks, great videos.

[@arthurlamy5535]

Congrats and I love your work. However, you tend to be overly verbose and most of your videos could be significantly shortened without any information loss. Except the beginning this one was not a major culprit of the tendency.

[@AdamBlock]

I have heard this critique many times. There are a couple of comments I have. First to many of these commenters... there is a good reason you will not find that many high quality instructional videos out there. It is not easy. Secondly, just because a viewer of the video understands a concept and it appears the repetition is unnecessary is thinking only about his own experience. As an instructor I have learned that saying the same concept or idea in multiple ways helps capture a greater fraction of the audience/viewers. If you want to argue specifics about a particular video- contact me through my site and offer feedback.

[@pompeymonkey3271]

@@AdamBlock I can sometimes find your pace to a little bit errrr..., a litlle bit orrrr, and a little bit Hey Missus! But the vast majority of the time your delivery is just right. :)

[@AdamBlock]

Can't win. Too fast, too slow, too much.. not enough- The audience is large. But again, I am perfectly happy to accept feedback on particular presentations! I find that many KZbin creators leave out too much important information to make their demonstrations or explanations complete. Sure, you will hear from the 55% that understood or it worked for them... but you will not hear from the other fraction. I strive for better percentages. :)

[@pompeymonkey3271]

@@AdamBlockI am involved in computer modelling of systems for my day job. One of my pet peeves is not knowing how the proprietary tool, that we are required to use, actually "works". This is extremely frustrating for the edge cases... lol. I, and many others, appreciate your explanations of how the different tools in PI work. Thanks

[@MrFlyer201]

I say don't bite the hand that feeds you! As a career teacher at the graduate level I fully second Adam's comment that things need repeating to be fully absorbed. We would be pretty much out of business if this were not so!