Manipulating Photos Taken with BackyardEOS

[sjc436]

I am finally getting proficient enough at taking pictures with DSLR  that I am ready to move on to the next phase. I use Backyard EOS to take pictures. What format should I save them in? Should I store them on computer, on camera or both? When I get ready to do something with them what program do I use to enhance or stack them or both. I am a complete novice at this so any help will be appreciated.

Sid

 

[sjc436]

Thanks for all the good information. Does anyone use Serif PhotoPlus?

Sid

[PoppaChris]

Once I started using Autostakkert2 and PixInsight, I dumped all of the others...  (Psst!  Anybody want some slightly used Photoshop CS6, Deep Sky Stacker, and Registax? --- [not really, Just joking] )

[astroman133]

Sid,

 

I shoot mostly with a monochrome CCD camera, but some times with a DSLR, so my answers come from that perspective.

 

My suggestions:

 

1) Shoot only RAW (.CR2) and save to your computer's hard drive.  This also gives you the ability to see the images on the PC display immediately after they are downloaded.  The only reason that I may also save to the camera's memory card was if I planned to process (stack) the images on a different PC and there is no network connection between the two PCs.  Then I would get the images onto the processing PC by removing the memory card from the camera and inserting it into the PC.

 

2) You will get several answers as to what software to use to process your images because there are several choices of applications. I use both ImagesPlus and CCD Stack 2.  They work differently, but basically do the same things.  Other options that come to mind are Nebulosity, PixInsight, and MaximDL.  I also use Photoshop.

 

Good luck on your journey...BTW there is a Yahoo! group called dslr_astro_image.  It is frequented by people who do astroimaging with DSLR cameras.  You may learn a lot from looking through some of the old posts in that group.

[s3igell]

I use both ImagesPlus and CCD Stack 2.  Other options that come to mind are Nebulosity, PixInsight, and MaximDL.  I also use Photoshop.

You forgot the most popular DSO Imaging Stacking Software of all:  DeepSkyStacker (DSS)

[worcspaul]

Make sure they're taken as RAW and store them on computer. Perhaps the easiest program for stacking of DSOs is DeepSkyStacker. If you're using your DSLR to take images in Planetary mode (where LiveView is used to create an AVI file) then Registax, AVIStack2 and Autostakkert are all capable.

 

There are other software packages but the main be efit of the ones I've mentioned is that they're FREE!

 

For final processing start off with The GIMP (free, but only handles 8-bit images) and then maybe think about PhotoShop Elements (or CS if you have the budget), PixInsight and/or Star Tools

 

Paul