Registax tips

Having some free time in my hands I decided to remaster some old stacks originally stacked in Photoshop. At the time when the new RegiStax is out, stacking has become the easiest part of the whole process.

Some RegiStax tips:

1. Always shoot RAW ! Shooting jpeg's instead raw's makes your files 8bit and it shows later. Lower bith depth is prone to artefacts which can be largely avoided with 12bit raw images.
2. To save time don't try to load your raw files directly to RegiStax, convert them into 16bit tiffs. In RAW conversion keep the original colour space and bit depth.
3. Sometimes it's good to process your files in raw-converter before send them to stacking. This might add that extra tip it needs, but either way it all depends on the image. Adjust temperature, tone curve and exposure settings. Usually the latter two are hard to fix later.
   Basically you can change all the basic settings (blacks, brightness, contrast) but don't touch the saturation part - you might screw up the fine colour detail in halos. Don't over-do your images !
4. After loading your images into RegiStax choose a desired (1)alignbox size and (2)place it. The size of the alignment box depends on many things: the blocker's size, lens zoom etc. Sometimes you have to play with it to get the best results.
5. Hit (3)Align and then (4)Limit button, this will automatically take you to the next action, the Optimizer-page. After pressing Limit button you cannot start alignment again ! In case you haven't pushed the Limit it's possible to start alignment again if you are not happy with the results of alignment.
6. Before completing the final stack you can decide how many frames will be used by (5)clicking the upper arrow on Frames/Alignpoint parameter. For an example if your original frame count is 50 but you have selected 40 frames then this means that RegiStax would use 40 best frames out of total 50 for the alignbox. I recommend to use all available frames because only one alignpoint is used. The story might be different when several hundred frames are used.
7. Choose the frame count and hit (6)Create.
8. After optimization, RegiStax automatically stacks all the frames. After completing this task, it ends up on Wavelet-page. At this point it's possible to save your stack. Go back to Stack-page and hit Save image button.
9. Note: all the settings in RegiStax has been left to default, except the ones above.

19.2.2009 (12 frames)

08.5.2008 (11 frames)

October halos continues

11.10.2009

16 frames


20 frames

October halos

10.10.2009

27 frame stack





08.10.2009

19 frame stack

September optics

04.9.2009




11.9.2009


12.9.2009


16.9.2009




18.9.2009


24.9.2009

Morning halos

26.8.2009

A nice beginning of the day...a faint upper suncave Parry, 22° halo and tangent arcs...
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Ilus päeva algus...ülemine päikesepoolne Parry kaar, 22°halo ja puutujakaared...


...later around a lunch time the sun climbs higher and the Parry stuff is gone for good.
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...hiljem, lõuna paiku, päike ronib kõrgemale ja Parry kaared on kadunud.

Fogbow at Tallinn-Tartu highway

24.8.2009

This fogbow was simply spectacular ! If looked carefully one might notice the faint and broad secondary bow which is a rare phenomena. Natural fogbows unlike the divergent light fogbows rarely shows the secondary bow. This is due the poor contrast against the background sky.

Circumstances that the observer is facing on a fog-wall and behind the back stays clear sky lit by bright sunlight happens not every day. Usually the contrast is lost when the sky is visible through the fog. A very tall and uniform fog-wall is needed for the secondary supernumerary bow, best places to observe are mountain regions and bridges.

I was able to take only a handful of frames, too bad that I had to go to a meeting that could not be skipped.
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See udukaar (uduvikerkaar) oli lihtsalt hämmastav. Kui hoolikalt vaadata, siis on võimalik näha ka teist udukaart. Loodusliku udukaarega (erinevalt tehisvalgusega tehtud udukaarest) kaasneb haruharva ka teine udukaar. Põhjuseks on peamiselt nigel kontrast taeva taustal.

Udukaar tekib samat moodi nagu vikerkaar. Valguskiired, mis peegelduvad veepiisakeses ühe korra tekitavad esimese kaare. Teise kaare tekitavad valguskiired, mis peegelduvad veepiisakeses kaks korda. Sellega, aga esialgsed sarnasused lõppevad. Vikerkaare puhul võime rääkida valguskiirtest, mis peale vihmapiiska sisenemist, peegeldumist ja väljumist järgib talle kindlaks määratud n.ö optilist geomeetrilist teekonda. Udukaare tekitavad vihmapiisast kordi väiksemad veepiisakesed, mis murravad valguskiiri ulatuslikult. Selline valguskiirte murdumine annab udukaarele peaasjalikult valge värvuse koos ähmase punasega väliskaarel ja ähmase sinisega sisekaarel. Erinevalt vikerkaarest on udukaare värvid laialivalgunud, sest iga värvi spekter kaarel on väga lai ning värvid kattuvad omavahel.

Teise udukaare vaatlemiseks oleks ideaalne kõrge ning ühtlane udusein, kusjuures vaatleja selja taha peab jääma selge taevas ning päikeseketas. Tihtipeale läheb kontrast kaotsi, kui udu tagant paistab ka taevas. Parimad vaatluskohad oleksid sillad, künkad ja orunõlvad.



Btw: this is another image which made it's way to Les Cowley's magnificent OPOD page.
Edit: Taken Tallinn-Tarty highway, near Vaida, about 500m away from the pedestrian bridge.
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PS: see on juba minu teine foto, mis on avaldatud Les Cowley imelises OPOD veebilehel.
Ja veel: Pildistatud Tallinn-Tartu maanteel Vaida lähistel, umbes 500m jalakäijate sillast Tallinna poole.

22 tangent arcs

23.8.2009

A bright halo. My old Canon dslr simply can't present the brightness-contrast rate and colours properly. I guess modern dslr's can do this job way better.