Handbook for
2)The resulting image will probably look faint and dull, with a bright background due to light pollution. It is now time to process the ‘luminance’ (brightness and contrast) of the image to get the best visual appearance. First, use the ‘Normal’ contrast stretch to darken the bac kground by setting the ‘Black’ slider just below the main peak of the hist ogram. Alternatively, you can use the ‘Remove Background’ option to let the s oftware decide on the best setting. This will greatly reduce the background brightness and the image will begin to look rather more attractive. You can now try brightening the highlights with another ‘Normal’ stretch, in which you bring down the ‘White’ slider to just above the main image peak. The best setting for this is rather more difficult to guess and you may need several attempts before the result is ideal. Just use the ‘Undo last filter’ function, if necessary, to correct a mistake.
3)The image will now look quite impressive and I hope that you are pleased with your first efforts! Further small refinements are usually possible and you will become expert at judging the best way to achieve these as your experience increases. As a rough guide, the ‘Filters’ menu can be used to shar pen, soften or noise reduce the
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