Processing Toolbox

Updated Sep 2017.

Professional/commercial or community tools? The choice is not an easy one.

• Sometimes the functionality does not exist in the commercial software (yet)
• Commercial software can be quite expensive
• Platform dependence: a great tool might be Mac-only, or Linux-only, or Windows-only
• Community tools are typically not "plug-n-play"
• Depends on your "time is money" ratio: is it worth dozens of (sometimes frustrating) hours to save $100?
• Don't want to abandon the time you have already put into an approach

Here's what I use (on Windows):

• Viewer: XnView - free, fast, convenient image manipulation; has batch interface
• Manipulator: GIMP - free Photoshop-like tool (seems to be missing a batch facility)
• Batch manipulator: ImageMagick - powerful command-line tool, and readily used for batch (called in loops) - comes in Linux/Window flavours
• Perl (ActiveState for Windows) - powerful scripting language; used to create loops for batch calls to ImageMagick
• ProShow Gold movie maker ($75) - much more flexibility/control than Windows MovieMaker
• EnfuseGUI for HDR High Dynamic Range
• Hugin for Panorama/HDR sticthing
• Blender - overpowered for time-lapses, but free, no watermarks; my Blender tutorial

Camera:

I use Magic Lantern firmware for extra functionality on the Canon: flexible control for intervalometer and bracketing. Have yet to use the ramping.

Homegrown ImageMagick scripts

A big thank you to the very helpful community out there - couldn't have done this without you!

Issues:

• Flicker and deflickering (basic)
• Brightness difference between Moon and foreground (basic composite with "lighten")
• Deflicker based on EV changes
• Dust shadows and flat fields