Stretch Academy
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Learning Path Content & Exercises
The STF and the Shape of Stretching
By the end of this masterclass you will become masters of contrast and curators of color. You will be in control of the data... not the other way around!nSome sections have high quality data included so that you can follow the stretch parameters precisely (GHS in particular).
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STF Utilization
Published 03/13/2023 This video shows you how to use the STF tool in a definitive way. I refer to more STF videos in this lesson…
STF to HT Transfer
Published 03/13/2023 Learn the secret handshake between the STF process and HistogramTransformation.
Connecting with the Histogram
Published 03/15/2023 The video illustrates in a number of ways the important skill of identifying what aspects of an image map to particular parts of…
STF and Histogram Transformation Section 03 (Original lesson from 2018)
Published 2018 This is an older video- but the information is still perfectly valid. This information has been explained subsequently in a number of…
Where the USEFUL data is
Published 03/21/2023 Just because you can see it in your data…it doesn’t mean you can use it! This video highlights that stretching images comes…
Non-Linear Images in a Straightforward Way
Published 2018 This video explains the idea of non-linear relationships in data and how that plays a role in image processing in PixInsight. This concept…
Shape of the Stretch : Midtones Transfer Function and Gamma Curves
Published 03/21/2023 When you perform a midtones adjustment you are making a non-linear stretch. However, what exactly is this function. It is called the “Midtones…
Shape of the Stretch: Zoology
Published 03/21/2023 As shown previous the MTF curve in Pixinsight is just one of many kinds of shapes we should understand in terms of input/output…
Midtones Transfer Function Demonstration
Published 03/31/2023 This video demonstrates how to employ the mid-tones transfer function stretch (HistogramTransformation) using a real example. One of the key points also demonstrated…
Multiscale Adaptive Stretch
Published 2025-12-30 Multiscale Adaptive Stretch (MAS) is a new stretching (delinearization) process in PixInsight. It offers some benefits over the standard stretching using the…
MultiScale Adaptive Stretch Update
Published 2026-01-28 This video is a second demonstration of MAS. A few new features have been introduced include a scale size now shown in…
Slow Stretching
Published 04/18/2023 Slow Stretching (a term I made up) is the technique of applying different stretching amounts to an image based on a threshold of…
Masked Stretch
Published 04/18/2023 The ultimate “slow stretch” is a MaskedStretch (the process) in the brightest values are masked and a small mid-tones transfer function/degree is…
Masked Stretch Real Example
Published 04/18/2023 Summarized here are some real-world examples of the usage of Masked Stretch. Parts of this section are derived from an older processing galaxy…
Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch
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GHS Tour
Published 04/20/2023 NOTE. I would prefer that you use these images for your educational purposes but not publish them (unless you give me…
GHS Diving In
Published 04/20/2023 NOTE. I would prefer that you use these images for your educational purposes but not publish them (unless you give me…
GHS Stretching M51
Published 04/20/2023 In this video we use GHS to stretch a greyscale (luminance) image of M51. Please see the download buttons below this video to…
GHS Stretching M51 RGB Color
Published 04/21/2023 The stretching of M51 using GHS continues with RGB color data in this section. (Images can be downloaded below.) Error: It was pointed…
GHS and M42
Published 04/26/2023 This video represents the culmination of GHS demonstrations in that I take up the challenge of stretching the most difficult target there is……
GHS Comparing Paths (M42)
Published 04/26/2023 Having created a stretched version of M42 via GHS- a quick comparison to another path (what I would typically do pre-GHS). This workflow…
More Stretches
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Consequences of Stretching
Published 05/06/2023 This video demonstrates the effects that stretching an image has on the PSF of stars as an example of the thoughtfulness that needs…
Starless Images and Stretching Part 1
Published 05/06/2023 The use of starless images is now a nearly customary part of processing. This section of the first of several that explore different…
Starless Images and Stretching Part 2
Published 5/14/2023 This video highlights the more flexible (and perhaps tricky) method of extracting stars while an image is linear, stretching the stars-only and starless…
Exponential Transformation
Published 08/20/2018 (This is also now part of Stretch Academy) This section takes a deep dive into Exponential Transformation. This process contains two methods for…
Slow Stretching demo
Published 07/24/2018 This short lesson demonstrates a common method of dealing with objects that have a very bright central region and everywhere else in…
Resources & Downloads
Description
By the end of this masterclass you will become masters of contrast and curators of color. You will be in control of the data… not the other way around!
Some sections have high quality data included so that you can follow the stretch parameters precisely (GHS in particular). There are 7 hours of material in this course.
