I hear what you are saying Max, and I can (almost) agree with you
My concern is that, once you enter the arena of 'paint-on masks', then you have left the world of 'science' and entered the world of 'art'. And, the way I see things is that you are no longer using the information contained WITHIN your image to coax extra detail out of your image.
As soon as you reach for that 'extra crayon', then you are artificially adding extra information to your image. You have become an artist.
Now, there is nothing actually WRONG with that - artistic images are perfectly acceptable. But, you don't actually NEED a telescope or CCD to create them.
This is VERY MUCH a 'personal' viewpoint. When I 'create' an astro image, what I really want to be able to say is that 'this image' is the 'direct result' of the capturing, calibration and processing stages. I just would not be 'comfortable' with an image that had been 'artificially enhanced'.
So, my point of view is that PixInsight does actually give you ALL the tools that you need - RIGHT NOW - if you are trying to achieve the equivalent of a 'paint-on' mask.
Perhaps what we need more is some ability to invoke a real-time 'multi-layering' approach - where a tweak to one image, that may perhaps be a mask to another, which might, in turn, be combined with a third image, the resultant fourth image then acting as another mask to a fifth image, allows us to view the changes (in real time) to this final image.
And, each image, or mask, at each stage could have an associated set of 'inspection' processes (STF, HistoView, Statistics, PSF, etc) that would allow the user to (optionally) monitor how changes were 'rippling down' to the final image. Similarly, each of these intermediate images could be tied to Process Control windows, allowing intermediate processes to be applied to them - with resultant 'tweaks' also being 'fed down the chain'.
This would require ALL PI processes to become 'dynamic', such that any change to a 'source' image (or view, preview, etc.) would IMMEDIATELY require a re-application of the process to regenerate the 'output' image (which, naturally, might be a 'source' image for some other part of the overall process).
Any image could be defined as a 'Mask', connected to a Process - meaning that Masks then also become 'dynamic'
'Ripple down' processing could be 'suspended' under user control - to allow one level to be 'tweaked' without having to regenerate ALL susbequent images.
Individual processes could be 'disabled' to temporarily inhibit their effect.
The clever use of multiple Workspaces could be used to separate the heirarchy of the 'ripple down' process into discrete levels. Similarly, key stages in the process could be allocated to a specific Workspace, perhaps even on a secondary 'multiple instance' of PI (a facility soon to be available in PI). which could, in turn, be allocated to a secondary monitor on a multiple monitor setup. The same idea could be applied to the 'inspection' panes (Statistics, HistoView, PSF, etc.), and even to key 'Process' dialogue boxes.
I have even been seriously thinking about a 'Control Panel' process - which might be simply a user-customisable set of sliders, mixers, faders, rotary knobs. etc, each capable of generating a varying 'value' that could be 'assigned' to some adjustable parameter in a Process Dialogue. So, all you are 'looking at' would be your 'final image' - and you can 'shift' some ('invisible' slider and affect that image by way of some VERY CLEVER 'science').
Take this to an ultimate conclusion, and it would be relatively simple (and cheap) to provide a 'mixing desk' of REAL control knobs and sliders, that plugged into a USB port - that would give you this power of control over your image.
So, yes, more crayons ARE what we want. And, hopefully they will become available. And, I am not even really against a set of 'PS' crayons - but I would hope that they would be used to help those PI users who are 'in transit' from PS more than those PI users who have already started to love the power of PI itself.
(And, if you have been reading this Juan, can we assume that all of our suggestions will be out by the end of summer?
)
Summer 2010, that is
Cheers,
