Astrophotography: Stars within nebulae problems

[Astrogeezer]

Hi, I'm an Affinity user trying to process astrophotography images.  The problem I would like your help with is whenever I work with nebulae I like to reduce the number of stars and size of stars in my photo so that the nebulae stand out.  Unfortunately, when I use Star Eater or Star Eater Extreme to make the stars shrink, dark rings appear around the stars.  (See photo below.)  How can I avoid making those dark rings appear?  I realize the rings are a consequence of my shrinking the stars.

[IanSG]

13 hours ago, Astrogeezer said:

Unfortunately, when I use Star Eater or Star Eater Extreme to make the stars shrink,

The only vaguely relevant hits I'm getting from Google relate to the Sony Alphas - do you have any links for Star Eater?

[Astrogeezer]

The Star Eater function are macros that James Ritson designed for Affinity photo so they're part of the program.  Hopefully, someone else uses them.

[Callum]

Hi Astrogeezer,

I'm investigating this problem at the moment with a member of our senior support staff but its taking longer than we anticipated I should hopefully have some information for you soon.

Thanks

C

[Astrogeezer]

Thanks @Callum!  That will be a great help!  If I can get it to work, it will be the end of a lot of frustration.

[Callum]

Hi Astrogeezer,

I have just had a quick read through the PDF that comes with this Macro pack and noticed the Nonlinear Sharpening macro which, according to the PDF that comes with the pack, it removes "Panda Eyes": "you may find an Unsharp Mask or High Pass filter produces distracting black halos (“panda eyes”) around stars and other detail" Please could you try this Macro to see if it solves your problem?

Thanks

C

[Astrogeezer]

Hi @Callum, I tired the Nonlinear Sharpening macro.  It's kind of mixed bag:  While it removes some of the Panda eye effect, it tends to make the stars larger and more plentiful, making the picture less pleasing if you're trying to show of the deep sky object's nebulosity.  Anyway, with some careful editing, I can reduce the Panda eye effect a little bit.  However, when I see other people's photos I see very little if any Panda eye effect.  I appreciate anything you can do.