PixInsight - Finalizing the Image

 Star Reduction

updated: 2025-10-01

Purpose

A very effective method for reducing the number of visible stars in a photo of a nebula is EZ Star Reduction as part of the EZ Processing Suite from Elveteek Ltd — PixInsight Plugins. The instructions for downloading and installing the suite can be found here

Activation

Script > EZ Processing Suite > EZ Star Reduction

Input

Any non-linear image is suitable, but images that contain only stars are best. These should therefore be separated beforehand, e.g., into a starless image and one that contains only stars. 

Output
  • Enhanced image with postfix: _EZSR in folder "Work"
  • a Star Mask (non RGB), see the Star Mask process

Previous Step

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Resource(s)



Here is an example of an non-linear image (the EZ Star Reduction only works on non-linear images!) post-processed with EZ Star Reduction:

Fully streched non-linear image with many stars

same image post-processed with EZ Star Reduction with lesser stars


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