CloneStamp pokes holes in Nebulosity

[SeattleStarGazer]

Working on tone maps, I have a couple bright stars remaining after the star removal steps. When I try to smooth them out with CloneStamp with a nearby point with lots of Nebulosity, instead I poke dark holes. I've tried different settings but haven't been able to remove the stars without leaving an obvious spot. I'm sure it's something simple....

[aworonow]

I've experienced this too. On thing you can try is really turning down the Opacity (I mean way down, maybe to 0.05 or so) clicking without dragging over the area to heal. Many small clicks sometimes seems a better choice than an "painting" motion.
On the same general thought, I process images from a truss scope that sometimes reflects small streaks across small portions of the image. Healing them in pixinsight is a task too far! To bad PI doesn't have a type of "resynthesizer" such as GIMP does.
Alexw

[Niall Saunders]

Hi both,

Just keep in mind that PixInsight is far removed from a 'painting' application and, as such, the CloneStamp Process is about the only concession that PixInsoght makes to the concept of 'painting'.

Where CloneStamp is perhaps best used is in the creation of a Mask - where all other attempts may not have had total success. Even in that situation though, experience may help users achieve what they require without recourse to the CloneStamp tool at all.

Personally, I have never even opened the CloneStanp user-interface - my reasons being simple, "If I can't fix the image by other means, then the image is not getting fixed - I will be starting again, and trying not to create whatever artefact it was that has spoiled this current attempt".

But, that is not an ethos that will suit all users and so, if you have determined that the only solution to your problem lies with the use of CloneStamp, then you will have to try and create a methodolgy that gets you (close to) where you want to be, without tearing holes though your image of the space-time continuum!!