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How I stretch my images

How I stretch my images

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After integration, I tend to LRGB Combine, Spectrophotometric Photo Calibration, then BlurX, NoiseX, and then Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch.

Here's a video showing how I do this starting at BlurX. I've already done the first two steps.

I will do additional work in Photoshop after this, but this is essentially my whole workflow within PixInsight. Also, a note on this type of stretch, you do need to have sufficient signal in the dim parts of your image. Otherwise, an extreme stretch like this can really highlight poor signal in those areas. Use with caution and don't overdo it.

The video has no audio, but what I'm showing is how I set my SP, then increase the stretch factor to bring out the faint background details to a point where I like it. I then increase the local intensity until stars are back to pinpoint. From there I make a linear adjustment to bring the black point to where I like it, then use curves transformation to add saturation with a luminance mask.

After this I save as Tiff 16-bit, and work on things in photoshop. I usually extract the stars, and do additional stretching or curves of only the background if I think I can get more detail out of it. I also tend to do minor color adjustments of various parts of the image and finally flatten it out saving down to 8-bit final image.

Here's the final processed image Epsilon Orionis "Image of the day 1/21/24" https://www.astrobin.com/wdfcv4/

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How I stretch my images, Andrew Burwell