Image Processing Software, Advice for image processing newbies Options

[Juramike]

What kind of image processing software would be good for a newbie interested in starting to manipulate basic images (JPEG, TIFF, PPG)?

Is there a big difference between Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended?
What do y'all recommend?

(And how can I get this cheap? Man, this stuff looks expensive!)

Any advice would be helpful, but I am so NOT an IT guy: I still move my lips when I try to read software manuals. (I usually just click the default option on installation windows and jsut hope everything works OK.)

-Mike

[Ian R]

I use Paint Shop Pro 8; it's cheap and fairly powerful, in addition to having a shallow learning curve.

[Dominik]

I'm still using Paint Shop Pro 6 .

Combined with some additional filters and an DDS exporter it's still enough for my purposes. I'm creating textures for Celestia with this tool.

[jamescanvin]

And how can I get this cheap?

Use The GIMP - nothing cheaper than free.

James

[tedstryk]

I am still using Photoshop CS2. I haven't found any convincing reason to go to CS3 yet.

[djellison]

I haven't found any convincing reason to go to CS3 yet.

And I don't think that you will either. CS 2.0001 is more appropriate than CS3 to be honest.

Doug

[Juramike]

Thanks, all!

I'm in the process of downloading the free trial of Paint Shop Pro. Based on the slow-as-molasses transfer rate everyone else must be, too (325 Mb file at an average transfer rate of 25 Kb/sec - groan). I've also pulled down the GIMP and all it's associated run-time enviroment stuff.

I'll load both up and do the flight test. (ease of use, functionality)

Oh yeah, I snagged both from download.com: http://www.download.com/Digital-Photography/?tag=dir


-Mike

[Reckless]

Hoping this is the right place to post this query
I've been using PSP to colour combine MER pictures just by grey scaling then combining RGB however my new machine has Photoshop elements 2.0 I can grey scale the picture but don't know how to recombine them.
Do I have to upgrade to CS3 or is there an easy way to combine RGB in Photoshop elements 2.0
Roy

[Juramike]

For any wanna-be imagesmythes to put on their list for Santa, here's a really excellent book on using Photoshop for space photography:

R. Scott Ireland "Photoshop Astronomy" , 2005, Willman-Bell, Inc. (Amazon listing here)

The tutorial includes a DVD with step-by-step exercises. The author does a phenomenal job of working through the common techniques and also weaves in shortcuts and multiple ways to do things with each example. I can't recommend it enough! You will not be dissapointed!

-Mike

[Jeffrey]

Use The GIMP - nothing cheaper than free.

James

I downloaded GIMP and also found a plug-in for making gores out of (presumably) Mercator projection maps. However, I'd have to insert the plug-in into the source code, which I'd have to download, and it looks like the tarball comes in several files, and how do I maniupulate the tarballs, etc. I'm pretty lost, any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

jY

[imipak]

Are you on Windows, or a Unix-y OS like Linux, OS X etc? It's going to be a lot easier if the latter. A very quick google turned up http://www.gimptalk.com/forum/topic/Compil...ows-8606-1.html .

[Ryan Balfanz]

What kind of image processing software would be good for a newbie interested in starting to manipulate basic images (JPEG, TIFF, PPG)?

Is there a big difference between Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended?
What do y'all recommend?

(And how can I get this cheap? Man, this stuff looks expensive!)

Any advice would be helpful, but I am so NOT an IT guy: I still move my lips when I try to read software manuals. (I usually just click the default option on installation windows and jsut hope everything works OK.)

-Mike

Since you're not an IT guy this might not help you very much but ImageMagick is a great command line utility.

For those Python developers out there, there is the Python Imaging Library, which I have found to be quite powerful and easy to use.

Both are be great resources when processing large data sets containing images, as I have been doing recently.

[maschnitz]

Dittoing ImageMagick. ImageMagick is the lingua franca of computer image libraries. Note that ImageMagick may be accessed programmatically from all major scripting languages (Python, Perl, and Ruby, eg) and C/C++. So it's well worth learning.

[machi]

This is very brief description of basic morphing with Sqirlz Morph, which can answer some question from EPOXI thread and belongs more
to Image Processing Techniques.

You can download program from here http://www.xiberpix.net/SqirlzMorph.html.
Animation process is really simple.
Key parts of the procedure are:
Preparing initial images (cropping and centering).
Opening two close (in time) images.
Matching corresponding key points on images.
Testing and repositioning key points (most time consuming part, most difficult key points are those on sharp edges without distinctly quidance).
Making output video (if it's video for follow-up processing, choosing compression to lossless is good idea).
Making same procedure for all images and joining videos (in different program, I use VirtualDub).

EDIT: Squirlz => Sqirlz

[Drkskywxlt]

Has anyone used IDL for image analysis? I'm processing images in ISIS and I know there is an ISIS DLM to read .cub files in IDL. What I'm really trying to figure out is if and where map-projected lat/long information is maintained. Thanks!

[JohnVV]

What I'm really trying to figure out is if and where map-projected lat/long information is maintained. Thanks!

?
in the isis cub file it is in the header and from spiceinit
the time is given in the header and the location is imported from the spice kernel
with the time and location the lat/long for every pixel can be calculated

now some cub files like a map projected file like this example

CODE

  GROUP = ISIS_INGESTION
    PDS2ISIS_VERSION = "2003-05-01"
    PDS2ISIS_TRANSLATION_TABLE =
      "/usgs/isisd/galdata/ssi_pds2isis_translation.def.1"
  END_GROUP = ISIS_INGESTION
  GROUP = ISIS_MOSAIC
    SPACECRAFT_NAME = (GALILEO_1,GALILEO_1,GALILEO_1,GALILEO_1)
    INSTRUMENT_ID = ("SSI","SSI","SSI","SSI")
    PRODUCT_ID = ("C9I0005","G2I0073","E6I0060","21I0170")
    IMAGE_NUMBER = ("0401740700","0359986578","0383758500","0506406839")
  END_GROUP = ISIS_MOSAIC

  GROUP = IMAGE_MAP_PROJECTION
    A_AXIS_RADIUS = 1821.46
    B_AXIS_RADIUS = 1821.46
    C_AXIS_RADIUS = 1821.46
    POSITIVE_LONGITUDE_DIRECTION = "WEST"
    KEYWORD_LATITUDE_TYPE = "PLANETOCENTRIC"
    LONGITUDE_SYSTEM = 180
    MINIMUM_LATITUDE = -90.0
    MAXIMUM_LATITUDE = 90.0
    WESTERNMOST_LONGITUDE = 180.0
    EASTERNMOST_LONGITUDE = -180.0
    MAP_RESOLUTION = 31.7904741933759
    MAP_SCALE = 1.0
    MAP_PROJECTION_TYPE = "SIMPLE_CYLINDRICAL"
    CENTER_LONGITUDE = 0.0
    PROJECTION_LATITUDE_TYPE = "PLANETOGRAPHIC"
    LINE_PROJECTION_OFFSET = -2861.5
    SAMPLE_PROJECTION_OFFSET = -5722.5
  END_GROUP = IMAGE_MAP_PROJECTION
END_OBJECT = QUBE
END

is set in the "IMAGE_MAP_PROJECTION" group

or for this cub of dione "N1507741140_2.cub"( after spiceinit and NOT map projected ) it is in the
"Group = Instrument "( the time) &"Group = Kernels " part of the header & in the body rotation

CODE

Group = Instrument
    SpacecraftName          = Cassini-Huygens
    InstrumentId            = ISSNA
    TargetName              = Dione
    StartTime               = 2005-284T16:30:24.493
    StopTime                = 2005-284T16:30:24.553
    ExposureDuration        = 60.0 <Milliseconds>
    AntibloomingStateFlag   = On

------------------------------------and in the kernel ------------------------------------------------
Group = Kernels
    NaifFrameCode             = -82360
    LeapSecond                = $base/kernels/lsk/naif0009.tls
    TargetAttitudeShape       = ($base/kernels/pck/pck00009.tpc,
                                 $cassini/kernels/pck/cpck15Nov2005.tpc)
    TargetPosition            = (Table, $base/kernels/spk/de405.bsp)
    InstrumentPointing        = (Table, $cassini/kernels/ck/05282_05287ra.bc,
                                 $cassini/kernels/fk/cas_v40.tf)
    Instrument                = Null
    SpacecraftClock           = $cassini/kernels/sclk/cas00139.tsc
    InstrumentPosition        = (Table,
                                 $cassini/kernels/spk/051114R_SCPSE_05275_05293.bsp)
    InstrumentAddendum        = $cassini/kernels/iak/IssNAAddendum004.ti
    ShapeModel                = Null
    InstrumentPositionQuality = Reconstructed
    InstrumentPointingQuality = Reconstructed
    CameraVersion             = 1
  End_Group
End_Object
---------------- and the body rotation-------------------------
Object = Table
  Name           = BodyRotation
  StartByte      = 4284569
  Bytes          = 40
  Records        = 1
  ByteOrder      = Lsb
  Description    = "Created by spiceinit"
  Kernels        = ($base/kernels/spk/de405.bsp,
                    $base/kernels/pck/pck00009.tpc,
                    $cassini/kernels/pck/cpck15Nov2005.tpc)
  SolarLongitude = 339.77037710307

so if it is not map projected then it is calculated on the fly
qview does that when you view an image

[Drkskywxlt]

Thanks John! That's what I was unsure of. If this data was part of the .cub once the file was imported to IDL or if the .cub file just had pixel value data.

[PDP8E]

I was playing around with one of Oppy's deck pictures... I cant wait to see a good mosaic..
I just don't have a mosaic tool that would do these images justice... I could do this with the right tool!

**** what's your favorite mosaic tool for MER images ? ****




In this test image, I tried to bring out the terrain below the solar wings and just ended up amplifying the JPEG artifacts on the solar cells (darn down sampled image!) I was going to grab the below wing terrain and paste it onto a regular L456 ... But I really should try a mosaic...

[JohnVV]

ISIS3 or for a normal mosaic Nip2
http://www.vips.ecs.soton.ac.uk/index.php?title=VIPS

uses tie points
http://www.vips.ecs.soton.ac.uk/supported/...ipguidese2.html

[Zack Moratto]

Quote removed - Mod

You could also use Hugin for a normal mosaic.

http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

In the past (3 years ago), I had bad experiences with the software. Now-a-days it's actually pretty awesome and can stitch things together automatically. You can also swap out the automatic tie point software with whatever you like.