Author Topic: Pixel Rejection Percentages  (Read 3078 times)

Offline Luigi

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Pixel Rejection Percentages
« on: 2012 March 05 20:46:10 »
Is there a 'target' percentage of pixels that you shoot for during image integration? 1%? 2%?

When doing an LRGB image, for example, should I use the same 'sigma high' and 'sigma low' for each of the channels or do I combine each image 'targeting' a certain percentage of rejection?
Regards,
Luigi Marchesi

Offline bitli

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Re: Pixel Rejection Percentages
« Reply #1 on: 2012 March 06 04:09:52 »
Hello,
Obviously the right answers is "it depends". 
More usefully, in general I have less than 1% of rejection.  But this is not the key criteria.  I mostly look at the "rejection-high" (after STF extending it).  In general it has a random pattern of pixels (a few hundreds, say) - if it is all black or looks like strong noise you are eliminating too few or too many pixels.
In my area I cannot take more than a few pictures without having a trail of a plane or satellite. They can be clearly seen on the "rejection-high", even if not obious on the images.  In these case I take a preview on the "rejection-high"  to cover the trace (or part of it), carry it on the resulting image and examine it magnified.  You want the elimination to be high enough to hide the trace, but not much higher (you loose S/N ratio when you eliminate too many pixels). In two or three iterations I get the desired result.  You can monitor the calculated S/N ratio to check that you are reasonable.

Between rhe RGB I have very similar sigma high (typically 2 to 3), I use the same one unless one has a difficult plane trace. The L has a somewhat smaller sigma, usually because there is more of them. I look at the percentage only to see if it is reasonable (if very near 0 or much higher than 1% I have a second look).

For the low side I do not know, I leave it a a signma of 3 or 4 and almost never have pixels eliminated.  I am not sure this is right.
Hope this helps.
-- bitli

Offline Luigi

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Re: Pixel Rejection Percentages
« Reply #2 on: 2012 March 06 17:20:06 »
I should have figured that 'it depends.'

It just seemed odd that with the R+G channels I was at about 2%, say. But when I did blue it was in the 8% range (with high and low sigma set to 3).

Looks like I need to fiddle with the controls some ..
Regards,
Luigi Marchesi

Offline bitli

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Re: Pixel Rejection Percentages
« Reply #3 on: 2012 March 06 22:26:57 »
My numbers were for about 10 images.  I guess that if you have significantly less images, the spread around sigma may be higher.  Maybe also one image has a different illumination?
The purpose is to reject "wrong" pixels (typically traces of planes, satellites, hot pixels not in the same location from image to image). Look at the resulting image (a magnified preview) to see if the enhancement materializes.  If not, avoid rejecting too many pixels, they are part of a (low S/N ratio) signal and you need every bit of it. With ideal images the rejection should be 0%...

-- bitli