Many astrophotography targets, like galaxies and nebulae, contain dramatic dark structures – the dust lanes that highlight areas of star formation. However, image processing techniques brings out faint details, but it can also unintentionally brighten those very dust lanes, washing away their intricate features. With PixInsight Dark Structure Enhance, it is possible to reestablish the dark regions within astrophotos.
Dark Structure Enhance – Basic
Dark Structure Enhance operates on the stretched version of an astrophoto, where dust lanes might appear brighter than desired. It analyzes the image and focuses on enhancing the contrast specifically within the dark structures.
Unlike traditional contrast enhancement techniques, the script avoids affecting the overall brightness of the image or introducing unwanted noise. It only enhances the dark structures by making them darker.
With the luminance image loaded, launch the PixInsight Dark Structure Enhance script (Scripts – Utilities – Dark Structure Enhance).
The default settings work well and it is rare to ever change them.
What’s Next
Save this file as the new Luminance image and continue on with the luminance workflow.