From: Milton Aupperle <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: March 26, 2011 1:48:28 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] a bit better..(?)

Mark;

On 26-Mar-11, at 1:22 PM, Mark Gaffney wrote:

Hi Milton,

I`ve seen your excellent work before..!

Is this image obtained using Focus magic add on in Photoshop a reasonable beginning?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mark_gaffney/5540825188/

It's still blurry when you look at it at original size. The image was never focussed sharp to begin with and I don't see Focus Magic doing much to it.

I realised when looking at the Astro IIDC processing section again that similar refinements of my original image (it was basically the fix out of focus blur option I used in PS) might be obtainable with Astro IIDC..! However FM (Focus Magic) arrives at this conclusion automatically..!

It isn't much of a conclusion then. It's still soft and blurry at original size, especially since you just paid $45 USD for something that just "fixes" sharpness,

There are seven sharpness sliders in Astro IIDC that affect different feature sizes (1.0 to 5.0 radius so).  That's too hard to drag them around and maybe learn something  in the process about noise versus sharpening?  Heaven forbid someone actually read the Astro IIDC manual (Page 66 to 68) and learn how to use them.

If the FM image (above) is OK would it be possible to make something in Astro IIDC which arrives automatically at an optimum (or suggested) color balance?

I already suggested what to do if you had read my last message.

I realise this is intuitive & may be also be subjective but you`ll perhaps agree that the possibilities are virtually endless..

Of course they are endless - unless you use common sense in your choices.

As I said I spent about 3 hours working on it & was never sure I was actually ever coming to the right conclusion..(?)

The right conclusion is when it looks "right", which involves common sense.  Does a bright green, over saturated, overly contrasted, overly sharpened moon look right too you, when comparing your results to other peoples moon images?

Milton J. Aupperle