Processing Astrophotography Images: Color Cast and Color Noise and how to minimize it

[@kerrykennedy6398]

Using the Filter>Average >Subtract method to white balance the image: Mind blown. Thanks for the new editing technique!

[@AVAstronomy]

You’re welcome! Clear skies and God bless!

[@michal_king478]

yeah thats really game changing for me. my images are full of whacky colors and gradients from a noisy camera and a ton of lightpollution and lamps around my balcony

[@talhazia1401]

My new go-to astro-processing yt channel 👍👏

[@-Jantje]

Oh man, where have you been all this time - thank you so much for this tip - so happy now. 👍👍👍👍👍

[@Handles-R-Lame]

Man, out of all the Astrophotographers here on youtube, you sir are KING of photoshop! Ive learned more on this channel than any other! I hope that RC is coming along nice, i know how finicky they can be as i have the iOptron RC6 and dont dare try imaging any DSO's until i get my guiding down to the T. Until then i will just continue imaging with my SW Evostar 80ED and GSO 6" imaging newtonian... lmao much more forgiving.. Clear Skies!

[@AVAstronomy]

Gee, thank you sir! Glad to hear you’ve learned so much on my channel. And yes, the RC is coming along nicely. As finicky as it is, I do enjoy imaging with it. Clear skies and God bless!

[@flintandsteelpro]

I am shocked on how great and useful your content is. Keep it up man!

[@AVAstronomy]

Thank you sir! New videos coming soon!

[@Ryan-ct1oc]

This video along with "make those clouds pop" for North American Nebula helped me a ton for processing my exposure shots - thank you!

[@AVAstronomy]

Awesome. Glad it helped you out. Clear skies!

[@yervantparnagian5999]

Another great video. Thanks a bunch. So glad I found your channel.

[@AVAstronomy]

Thank you! Glad you find it helpful! God bless.

[@Tihpem]

Now that was a good amount of things to try out what I have never attempted, great stuff! Would be awsome to have someone like you to look over my shoulder as I attempt to process a image and receive this practical lesson. Been using PS now less than a year and it can be rather taunting and confusing.

[@AVAstronomy]

Thanks for watching! Glad you found it helpful!

[@avt_astro206]

Excellent Tutorial Aaron. Beautiful Capture Of The Witches Head Nebula and The Bright Star Rigel. Keep It Up 👍👍

[@AVAstronomy]

Thank you!!

[@Mr77pro]

Excellent tips! Thanks so much and love your channel!!

[@AVAstronomy]

Thank you!!

[@llamarvasquez1803]

Man this is awesome! Thanks for this kick ass image 🔭📸

[@AVAstronomy]

Thank you!!

[@suzannebeers6238]

Thanks for another great processing video Aaron! You touch on everything I need to learn - I so appreciate it! Could you (or have you already) create a tutorial on how to stitch together mosaic tiles? I'm finally figuring out SGP and it's mosaic creation feature, but I have no idea how to stitch the tiles together into a single image.

[@AVAstronomy]

You’re welcome Suzanne. Wish I could help you with SGP but I use APT. Clear skies!

[@timvaucher]

Nice video! Btw, a way I do to avoid stacking artifacts from multiple session is to load, plate solve and sync my mount with the first nights results. I mean, you still loose the few pixels on the edges due to dithering but that's all I need to crop. Also, to get rid off unwanted green noise, I don't know if you're familiar with the (free) plugin called "Hasta la Vista Green" (HLVG) it does a pretty nice job at removing green noise in DSLR images. Keep up the good work and clear skies

[@AVAstronomy]

That’s awesome Tim, thanks for the tip. I’ll definitely be checking out that plug-in. 👍

[@theastrophotographerjudah9421]

What exactly did you do to the layer at 1:48? Whenever I would make a layer, it would always be transparrent

[@domino089]

I love the mess behind you 😃 That you are not trying to look perfect. Thumbs up.

[@AVAstronomy]

😂. Yeah, 3 kids and 2 jobs keeps a dude busy lol! One of these days I’ll make it look a little more professional. Thanks for watching!

[@zubruu]

Will test it! thanks!

[@AVAstronomy]

You’re welcome!

[@pemongillo]

Are the Arc Sin stretches you have loaded into curves of your making or is it a download?

[@AVAstronomy]

They are a download from cloudy nights forums

[@pemongillo]

Yes I downloaded them . Thanks

[@jean-marclemoine9636]

Hi. I think the opposite of green is magenta. Anyway nice video and thank’s for sharing. Clear skies. JM.

[@AVAstronomy]

Yeah I couldn’t remember off the top of my head 😂. Thank you!

[@timvaucher]

@@AVAstronomy Btw a tip to remember the opposites of RGB is to take the subtractive color model CMYK (same as a printer) and you get the pairs (Red, Cyan), (Green, Magenta) and (Blue, Yellow) 😉

[@projectelrond1817]

this is outstanding, so good i think you should redo the audio, that feedback is distracting from really good content.

[@GrowingAnswers]

I was playing around with some processing recently. I found that with my canon 70d, if I only use flat and light frames I get a good result but I see some walking noise. If I only stack light frames I get a good result with some extra work and I have no walking noise. It seems to be a trade off. Do you know of any reason why I see more walking noise due to flat frames and is there a setting in DSS that manages that?

[@AVAstronomy]

That walking noise you’re talking about, from what I understand, is a combination of drift in polar alignment and pattern noise from the camera. I’m not sure about its correlation with calibration frames. Do you use random dithering in your imaging? And how accurate is your Polar alignment? Those two factors may help improve your situation, although it is possible A newer camera with less pattern noise could help reduce this problem. Hope that helps clear skies and God bless!

[@GrowingAnswers]

@@AVAstronomy the only dithering I get is from the natural jogging back and forth of my skyguider pro. If I just stack light frames, the noise is very uniform and relatively smooth. If I add flats then I’ll see walking noise. By walking noise I mean some faint pattern lines in the noise. The lines are not made of color noise. It’s just darker pixels. It’s not bad, but it’s there and I wasn’t sure if there is something In dss that would change that.

[@AVAstronomy]

@@GrowingAnswers I wish I had a more definitive answer for you on that. I suppose it’s possible to change some of your stacking settings and DSS and see if that helps illuminate the problem but honestly not sure where to start on that. I have found, however, that Astro pixel processor sometimes stacks images better Dan DSS does and vice versa. You might want to give that a shot as well if do you have that program.

[@GrowingAnswers]

@@AVAstronomy ok thanks!

[@GrowingAnswers]

@@AVAstronomy after some extensive processing of the same image over and over, I found that the worst flat frame stacking method is "maximum." The other methods are all exactly the same in the final image. Maybe "adaptive..." has a 5% improvement over the others, but the minor walking noise is still there. Just in case you wanted to know.

[@johnnyredfireastroimaging5266]

How did you learn this stuff? I use your techniques in all my images!

[@AVAstronomy]

Awesome! I’ve been tinkering with photoshop for 15+ years and have watched a lot of different tutorials over the years. Despite that, there’s still a lot left to learn in photoshop. Clear skies amd God bless!

[@harabara9451]

How long integration is this? Do you think I can get anything with just 2 minute exposures without filters with dslr from bortle 5? If yes, how much integration time is needed?

[@AVAstronomy]

Hi Hara, yes you can get this in bortle 5. However, it will take a lot of integration time. Plan on taking at least 8+ hours. Mine was 11.5 hours.

[@lachezarkrastev7123]

Good tutorial.

[@AVAstronomy]

Thank you!!

[@northtexasskies7786]

My photos always turn yellow when stretching they used to turn magenta but now they turn yellow. Idk why. I haven't changed anything. I only have DSS and Gimp so I'll have to find a way to work around this stuff. I don't think Gimp has an average mode for the blur filter.

[@T-Bear]

Download HLVG (Hasta La Vista Green) plugin for PS to kill the Green. Much easier

[@AVAstronomy]

I did and like it but I find that I still to tweak color balance to get it right. Clear skies!

[@rcraigmacrae]

Kids manhandled that room for sure

[@AVAstronomy]

Oh yes! It’s next to impossible to keep it tidied up. I really need to invest in a green screen or even just a plain white backdrop. 🤣