Image Enhancement
When you have managed
to capture an image, and you look at it on many occasions it may
not look ideal. Whilst it is not possible to make a great image
out of a poor image it is often possible to enhance a reasonable
image into something quite acceptable. I will not go into too
much detail, (because I don't know enough about it!), but simply
say - Think before you throw away an image. Several packages exist
out there, Adobe Photoshop is a classic, but expensive, Paintshop
Pro is a useful cheaper system. More specialised packages like
Maxim CCD, and even Astroart can be useful additions to one's
desktop. Several packages are available as either freeware, or
shareware.
Like I said I am just
getting into this side of imaging, so I will leave it there, and
simply illustrate some of the images I have changed.
Basler digital image
with brightness and contrast adjusted, with a little sharpen as
well.
Basler digital camera
with brightness and contrast adjusted, a little colour added,
an some contrast, crop and unsharp mask.
Another technique which
can be useful is building composites using small images. This
has been completed using the Archive4Images software - Panorama
module.
This gives you an idea
of what may be achievable from apparently poor images. Give it
a try before you consign the images to the bin. Make sure you
do not add any artifacts though.
When you get into CCD
imaging you can be shocked at how little actually appears on your
first image, before you stretch the levels of you image. This
was an image of M42 with an ST-7E, my first attempt at CCD imaging.
Processed in MaximDL. Scary Hey!
I must admit I was
quite stunned on what was really there in the image. The latter
is a selection of 10 30 second images stacked, and then processed.
The intermediate is just to prove it is from the same shot!
CCD Imaging
Astronomy
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