Solar Eclipse Image Processing w/ Photos

[tradesmith45]

First post here.  I've been working on a composite of images captured during totality & getting some banding artifacts in PS when forced to use 16 bit mode rather than 32 bit for sharpening steps.  I'd like to make sure Affinity Photos has the adjustments I need in 32 bit mode.  The complete workflow for PS is describe in this tutorial by Russell Brown: PS Spin Blur Eclipse Processing

 

From Photos tutorials, I see there are spin-blur filters, Apply Image: Equations panel & an Equations panel.  So maybe everything I node is there but done differently in Photos.  The key step I'm unsure about is in one of the equations panels.  In PS, a duplicate image is spin blurred & the alpha channel of that image is subtracted from the original alpha w/ an off-set of 128 in the Calculations panel to give a low contrast mid-gray frequency mask.  That mask is then Overlayed onto the original.

 

I'd like to confirm that all this can be done in Photos in 32 bit mode?

 

Here is a version of my PS work from 77 images w/ artifacts & a mask.  The frequency mask reveals the finer corona detail.

 

Thanks!

[IanSG]

Sorry, I don't know enough to help you!  That's a great image of the corona, but I'm intrigued by the pink spots - were some of those 77 images taken in H alpha?

[tradesmith45]

Thank you.  The exposures range from 1/4000 to 4".  The pink spots on the moon are caused by lens flare from the red prominences on the solar surface in the long exposures.  This particular approach to post processing this mother of all HDR can not reveal the prominences against the super bright inner corona so all that can be seen is the flare.  Several additional steps will be needed to tease out the prominences.

[IanSG]

Thanks for that!  I'm surprised it's possible to see the prominences in white light at all! 

[lepr]

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[tradesmith45]

Thanks, this looks promising.  I'll go back & look at the radial blur tutorial to make sure that step will do what's needed - blur in the range of 10-20º.

[lepr]

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[tradesmith45]

Got it, thanks.

 

Have gotten to compare my images to others today & the impact of smokey air I had is starting to look like the main cause of the banding artifacts I'm getting.  Not sure what do do about that.  

 

I'll give a demo version of AP a spin to see if it helps.

[DETolliver]

I am a newbie, both to Affinity Photo and to advanced eclipse processing.  I have been struggling to use the Russell Brown method to process some 18 images of the corona that I managed to capture, without success.  owenr, I would appreciate any tips you can provide on how to do it in Affinity Photo.  Thanks.

[lepr]

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[tradesmith45]

I've learned lots that I can add.  Depending on your 18 images, some of Browns recommendations are just plain wrong - namely strong pre-processing adjustments & especially 60+ Clarity. But then he never mentions the need to stay in 32 bit mode.  My images (I'm using 77) were shot through light smoke so I have daunting light scatter problems that lead to banding in the sky.  

 

Image alignment is probably something you are struggling w/.  Of course the lunar disk & sun are not moving together so the lunar disk will be miss aligned when the corona & prominences are aligned.  The best tip I have there is use a Levels Adj layer at the top of the stack to increase the contrast in the difference images.  When aligning images at different exposures, you need to adjust the Level so that the increased contrast occurs in the overlap region of the difference image.  If you have big bright Regulus in your images, you can use that for alignment.  

 

OWNER, question for you.  Can Photos be set to move images in sub-pixel amounts?  PS goes 1 pixel each time the arrow key is tapped.  Sometimes sub-pixel alignment is needed w/ these images.

 

Here's the best I've gotten so far out of PS & am about to give Photos a try.

[lepr]

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[tradesmith45]

Wow!

[DETolliver]

Thanks.  I've been busy with other projects.  I'll try working through the Russel Brown procedure in AP.  If I get stuck, I'll post a question.

[marcr1230]

I’ve been playing with the radial blur technique on some images from the July 2, 2019 eclipse in South America using the affinity photo iPad version

 

First , I’ve empirically found that using a 10-20 angle on the blur result in very little or no effect

when I bump the angle up higher 30,60 even 90, then I start to see a significant effect

With a 90° angle I get a decent result, but only in one plane, X or Y, depending on whether I choose S-D or D-S

I’ve included an image of the original , S minus D, D - S and then the composite of the two ( brightened a bit)

I did not add the 128 offset which would lighten up the results overall

I understand that I am supposed to use the original minus the blur as an alpha layer on the original, not ready for that yet

If anyone can explain why I get the results I do as opposed to the people using PS w 10 or 20° radial blur

id appreciate comments and pointers

thanks

[marcr1230]

Well - after some trial and error, I realized that the 128 “offset” referred to in the various photoshop tutorials, is equivalent to 0.5 in Affinity-land, which makes sense in retrospect. So the Apply image equation is D = D - S + 0.5  ( using DR,DG,DB etc)

 

As a test, I took 3 images and applied the radial blur method. Below is the series of 4 steps for one single component image, then the composite of all 3

it’s a little crude, but now I can refine the process using 7 images from a bracketed sequence . This was done on an iPad:

 

 

 

[tradesmith45]

marcr1230, keep at it.  I worked on my images several times to exhaustion & would stop for long periods & come back to them.  Took maybe 5 try before I figured out what works.  The breaks help refresh you & encourage insight that leads to new progress.  I've done lots of astro but nothing comes close to the demands of processing a eclipse @ totality. 

[DutchieOnABudget]

Hello all,
I know this post is from a few years back, but it is relevant now, after the 2024 Total Solar eclipse earlier this week.
I am trying to establish the same thing that Russell  Brown did a few years ago (and recently again), to enhance the corona using PS + equations.
However, as I do not have PS nor have I ever worked with it, I am wondering if the method that seems to have been figured out by the people in this discussion, using Affinity Photo (2), can be shared in detail here, for us non-Adobe people.... And beginner users of Affintiy Photo 2.
Please provide a more detailed step-by-step instructions (preferably with examples and screenshots) here, if at all possible.
Specifically by marcr1230 and tradesmith45, as it seems that you both have figured it out.
I would be very grateful for that and I am sure others would appreciate it as well! A Youtube video would be even better, I am sure...
Thanks in advance. Eric.

[Ulysses]

14 hours ago, DutchieOnABudget said:

I know this post is from a few years back, but it is relevant now, after the 2024 Total Solar eclipse earlier this week.
I am trying to establish the same thing that Russell  Brown did a few years ago (and recently again), to enhance the corona using PS + equations…
Specifically by marcr1230 and tradesmith45, as it seems that you both have figured it out.

I, too, would be greatly interested in this. We were able to experience totality for 3.52 of the fastest minutes of my entire life. A lot of things went wrong, but at the end of the day, I have the raw images I need to produce what I hope will be a satisfying final image. 

However, Russell Brown’s tips aren’t entirely analogous to what I’d need to do in Affinity Photo v1.10. If someone can be of help with some details, it would be really helpful.

In particular, I have zero idea what to do with the Equations portion of the Apply Image tool. And I’m sure I’m missing several other important steps to bring out the detail in the corona. What I have is “pretty” but I’m sure it could become much more.

Thanks for any experienced advice that this excellent group can offer this amateur astronomer.

ETA: Another issue I’m having is aligning the longer exposures (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 seconds in particular). I’m pretty sure this misalignment is crushing the potential for detail. My motorized mount had quite a bit of movement due to my needing to manually press the shutter release, but I believe the exposures are usable.

[Ulysses]

On 9/5/2017 at 1:13 PM, IanSG said:

Thanks for that!  I'm surprised it's possible to see the prominences in white light at all! 

Solar prominences are completely visible to the naked eye in white light. They’re visible on the Sun’s limb when the much brighter disk of the Sun is completely obscured by the Moon during a total solar eclipse. In this configuration, the solar prominences aren’t competing against the rest of the Sun’s comparatively brighter disk. No dedicated H-alpha telescope required.

With the 2024 total solar eclipse, there were several large prominences easily visible to the naked eye even without the use of a telescope or telephoto lens. My unaided eyesight is poor, so when a nearby 10-year-old child asked, “What are those pink things around the Sun and Moon?” I was thrilled! When my eyes finally focused—much more slowly than the child’s—I could also see these large pink spots. So the prominences this year were unusually large and plentiful. I counted maybe four or five of them. Three are particularly big ones.

[Alfred]

5 hours ago, Ulysses said:

My motorized mount had quite a bit of movement due to my needing to manually press the shutter release

It sounds as though you need to treat yourself to a remote shutter release!

[Ulysses]

6 hours ago, Alfred said:

It sounds as though you need to treat yourself to a remote shutter release!

@Alfred, my friend, believe me—no one is kicking me harder than I'm kicking myself over this. The cruel irony is that I actually have one in my camera bag!! 😭😅

However, traffic was even more horrendous than we anticipated, and the crowding by other eclipse chasers was over the top. By the time we got to our destination and I got most of my equipment set up for my multiple projects, I completely forgot that I even had a remote shutter release—which I'd actually rehearsed using over and over again.

I learned a lot from this first-timer eclipse experience. Everything that can possibly go wrong probably WILL go wrong if you don't have enough time to set up prior to the very brief moments of totality.

[DutchieOnABudget]

Hello All,

Thank you for the feedback, but has ANY of you had a chance yet to experiment with the editing of the corona shots in Affinity Photo?
So, the best detail I have managed to "concoct" out of my RAW editor (Capture One Pro), is the attached image.
Haven't even tried to improve on that in any other editor (Affinity Photo or any other ones...), to see if I can get more out of it, like the Russell Brown versions.
I know there is much more potential in it than this... 
I just can't seem to get more out of it right now.

I have also added couple composites I tried my hand on.

Anyway, very interested in seeing all-a-y'all's efforts...

Thank again, Eric

[Ulysses]

On 8/19/2019 at 8:11 PM, tradesmith45 said:

marcr1230, keep at it.  I worked on my images several times to exhaustion & would stop for long periods & come back to them.  Took maybe 5 try before I figured out what works.  The breaks help refresh you & encourage insight that leads to new progress.  I've done lots of astro but nothing comes close to the demands of processing a eclipse @ totality. 

I agree with you there. Although I'm a pro photographer and have plenty of experience with the Affinity products among many others, eclipse photography and processing isn't quite like anything else. At all. And the adrenalin level during the shoot is through the roof—far higher than when I work for any high-end clients. 😅

If you have some input on what led you to success with your images, several of us just now finding this thread would really appreciate it.

 

2 hours ago, DutchieOnABudget said:

Thank you for the feedback, but has ANY of you had a chance yet to experiment with the editing of the corona shots in Affinity Photo?
So, the best detail I have managed to "concoct" out of my RAW editor (Capture One Pro), is the attached image.
Haven't even tried to improve on that in any other editor (Affinity Photo or any other ones...), to see if I can get more out of it, like the Russell Brown versions.
I know there is much more potential in it than this... 
I just can't seem to get more out of it right now.

Fantastic work, particularly with your composites. I didn't have the opportunity to capture the basic sequences necessary to do anything like that. We were still on a very crowded highway attempting to reach our destination when the partial portion of the eclipse began. I can tell you put a lot into this. If you don't mind saying so, what lens focal length did you use to achieve the wide-field shot of the Sun across the sky? I'm also guessing you took one photo every four or five minutes as the Sun moved across the sky?

Additionally, Capture One Pro is my raw image editor of choice as a professional photographer. However, on its own, it won't produce on its own what I believe you're looking for. For those sorts of images, the best approach is to stack a series of varying exposures. For a total eclipse of the Sun, this is a challenging art form. That's what I'm attempting to do, but using Affinity Photo 1.10 instead of Photoshop—which I no longer have. I'm hoping some of the good people here will be able to point me in the right direction for optimal results. 

[DutchieOnABudget]

On 4/12/2024 at 6:01 PM, Ulysses said:

Fantastic work, particularly with your composites. I didn't have the opportunity to capture the basic sequences necessary to do anything like that. We were still on a very crowded highway attempting to reach our destination when the partial portion of the eclipse began. I can tell you put a lot into this. If you don't mind saying so, what lens focal length did you use to achieve the wide-field shot of the Sun across the sky? I'm also guessing you took one photo every four or five minutes as the Sun moved across the sky?

Additionally, Capture One Pro is my raw image editor of choice as a professional photographer. However, on its own, it won't produce on its own what I believe you're looking for. For those sorts of images, the best approach is to stack a series of varying exposures. For a total eclipse of the Sun, this is a challenging art form. That's what I'm attempting to do, but using Affinity Photo 1.10 instead of Photoshop—which I no longer have. I'm hoping some of the good people here will be able to point me in the right direction for optimal results. 

Thank you. Ulysses.
Sorry for the late response. We were pout doing touristy things yesterday...

I actually had two setups going:

The one for the landscape (trees in foreground) composite:
- My Sony A7III, with the Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35 mm F4 ZA OSS (SEL1635Z). I had that set to 21mm, F/8, ISO 100. Manual focus. Stacked ND 1000 and ND64 filters.
I took a bracketed shot (9 brackets @ 1.0 stop) every 4 minutes. Starting from C1 all the way through Totality and out past C4. Took off ND filters at C2, totality and put them back on at C3.

The one for the clos-up shot and close up composite:
- My Sony A7IV, with the Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG DN OS | S (Sony E). I had that set to about 570-ish mm, F/8, ISO 100. Manual focus and re-framing like every other shot.
I took a bracketed shot (9 brackets @ 1.0 stop) manually Initially every so often, with solar filter on. After that (almost) continuously without solar filter, starting from right before C2 all the way through Totality and out past C3. Then went back to filter and every so often until after C4.

This was ALL my first time EVER trying a solar (or any) eclipse...

Yes, I LOVE C1 and Affinity. Still learning Affinity, but have been suing C1 for about 5 or so years (if not longer).

Edited Sunday at 04:26 PM by DutchieOnABudget