When to do color calibration?

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wedgef5
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Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2015 11:55 am

When to do color calibration?

Post by wedgef5 »

I was just reading the following article.

http://dslr-astrophotography.com/right- ... trophotos/

It states that color calibration should be done while the data is still linear. Most workflows I have seen posted on this forum do the color calibration toward the end of the process, after the image is already stretched. I found the article an interesting read and wonder what others on here think about it.

Matt
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Re: When to do color calibration?

Post by admin »

HI Matt,

The article is absolutely correct!

StarTools' secret is the Tracking feature, which keeps your data in a "super position" of states. Tracking knows exactly how to undo all your processing steps to arrive at the linear data again, correct the colors, then reapply all your processing steps. It's a little like time travel, changing the past to affect the present (and future).

Because trying to perform luminance processing (e.g. processing the detail) causes color information to also be affected (for example highlights become washed out, falsely depicting bright cores as white even though they have the same color as their surroundings), what better time to perform your color balancing at the very end to negate all the impact that your luminance processing had on the colors in your image!

Does this make sense?
Ivo Jager
StarTools creator and astronomy enthusiast
wedgef5
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2015 11:55 am

Re: When to do color calibration?

Post by wedgef5 »

Thanks Ivo!

That makes perfect sense. The tracking in ST is brilliant!

Thank you for providing this excellent tool at such a reasonable cost. I am trying to convince a fellow APer to buy a copy.

Matt
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