My goals were to use PI as a "one stop shop" for basically all of my processing needs, as I don't know Photoshop and I'm a bit reluctant to purchase it (just yet anyway).
Welcome aboard!
Well, your goals fit perfectly with the aims of PixInsight - to be able to provide a one-stop shop that will meet all of your needs! Unfortunately, the idea of a one-stop shop does not mean that you are going to get a 'one-click' solution !! As time goes on you will perhaps remember this stage in your image processing career - until then, be comforted by the fact that
all of us were, at some time, at this very same step as you !!!
My main question now involves using the BatchPreprocessing script to calibrate and stack ("integrate")
In fact, I would recommend that you 'step back' from the BatchPreProcessing Script. This will give you a better feel for all of the individual stages required for good pre-processing. By tackling each stage 'manually' you will get the chance to 'make changes' as you see fit - or even to ask for help when you can't seem to move forward. You will also see when the data that you have acquired might need to be improved. And, most importantly, you will learn the patience that you must endure if you are to be successful - astroimaging is not a 'point-and-click' process, and the processing steps are not 'one-click' steps either. The pleasure actually comes for the acquisition of the knowledge required to acquire and pre- and post-process the images. (At least, that is how I see it - I don't publish my images anywhere; I am not creating them for that purpose, I am creating them to allow me to master a skill)
I've shot with . . . patterns barely visible
You talk about predominantly 'gray' images - well, if you are working with non-deBayered 'RAW' images (direct from your DSLR), then that is what you should be expecting. You do not want to be deBayering the images until the correct stage - much later in your pre-processing workflow (and, with the new tools in PixInsight v1.8.5, this can be held of right until the very last stages of the process.
. . .The output "master light" . . . is very very green and often grainy and noisy
Don't get too bogged down by 'colour' when you have completed your pre-processing steps and are starting out on your post-processing stage. You will work on extracting colour much later on in post-processing. Just trust me - it
is there (or, it
should be, providing you actually captured it in the first place). When you perform your first AutoSTF (with the 'radio-active' symbol !!) you can end up with some quite horrible colour-balance issues. Learn how to un-link the channel sliders before applying the AutoSTF (which will give you a better colour balanace), and then how to re-link the sliders again to modify the automagic slider positions (as a 3-channel groups) to deal with the black-point (shadows) and mid-point of the image (you will almost never need to move the white-point 'highlights' sliders). Learn how the STF does not, and cannot, affect your image data - it only affects "what you see on screen".
I can use the "SCNR" program to remove it. But should that green be showing up at all? Is something missing or wrong with a setting that will cause this green to appear like it does?
Don't bother with SCNR - not yet. You might want to start playing with DBE first, then the BN and CC processes (yes, go and look up what these shortcut names mean
). You also now have a super-powerful new tool at your disposal - PCC - but, again, get a feel for what PCC is doing by understanding the BN and CC tools first.
OK - I'll leave your other comments for just now. You have something to work with, and remember to come back to the forum if you are still struggling.
Most of all - have fun
