Welcome to the pre-order page for Ron Wodaski's new book, Image Processing: The Zone System for Astro Imaging. Our goal was to get the content out as soon as possible, so Ron is busy writing the book, but things like the cover design, outline, and title are still in the works. See below for the cover designs currently under consideration.

About Ron Wodaski's New Book

The Image Processing Book will provide detailed tutorials on astronomical image processing, with the focus on Photoshop CS (version 8).

The key features of the book include the following:

  • By popular request, the new book will be in full color throughout. This triples the printing costs, but we believe it's critical to have a book about color processing in color!
  • The book is based on Ron's Zone System for image processing. The basic idea is to break the image down into manageable zones, and to apply the appropriate types of processing to each zone.
  • The book will be full of image processing exercises, from basic to advanced.
  • For each exercise, the book provides introductory material that explains in a detailed way what Photoshop or other tools are used, how those tools work, and some tips on getting the most out of each tool.
  • Each exercise is very detailed, with many illustrations. A landscape page layout is used (wider than tall) so that screen captures can be shown at a reasonable size.
  • The book will be in a "fold flat" format, such as spiral binding or similar, to make it as easy as possible to work with at the computer.
  • The DVD-ROM contains additional detailed exercises and tutorials with live video of Ron and actual image processing sessions. Some of the exercises in the book are offered in a more detailed format on the DVD.
  • The DVD also includes numerous practice images and some free software. The software will include some of the most popular image processing utilities currently available from New Astronomy Press, and will add substantial value to the book.
 
Cover designs
(click to view)

Pre-order Edition with advance online access - $89.95
(plus $9.00 UPS ground shipping)

A pre-order for Image Processing: The Zone System for Astro Imaging provides you with the following:

  • Advance access to the book content as it is being written. Ron will post new content on a daily or weekly basis, in the form of Acrobat (PDF) files. These are posted as they are written, so they are un-edited and un-indexed. Given that it will take several months to write the book and several months to lay it out and print it, the idea here is to get the content out as early in the process as possible.
  • A printed copy of the book when it is ready, scheduled for spring of 2004.
  • A DVD-ROM, with image processing videos and lots of practice files, as well as free software.
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Shipping for the printed copy is $9.00 per copy via UPS Ground. Rush and overseas orders pay additional shipping. Most countries are about $20.00 for international airmail, but some are higher. DHL rush shipping available at additional cost and is much faster and more reliable. Not all airmail copies make it to their destination!

About the order process: I receive a notice of your order by email. I then use a secure internet connection to get the complete order information - name, address, etc. I try to process orders within 48 hours Monday through Friday, but I'm a one-person operation and sometimes fall behind. If you haven't gotten your username/password within two business days, send email so I can follow up and see if there is a problem.

Topics that will be included:

  • Overview of Photoshop processing for luminance images.
  • Detailed techniques for non-linear histogram changes
  • RGB combining
  • LRGB combining
  • Color balancing
  • Making lunar mosaics
  • Integrating H-alpha or OIII data with RGB data
  • Tips on selecting zones, such as background and stars only
  • Processing techniques for each zone
  • Working with layers
  • Solving typical real-world problems - light pollution; gradients; high clouds during some but not all of the exposures; etc.
  • Removing halos around stars
  • Dealing with reflections

And so on. I will also include some of the best processing stuff developed by other imagers, such as Rob Gendler's h-alpha stuff (listed above). Suggestions for additional topics are also welcome.

Copyright © 2000,2001 by Ron Wodaski. All rights reserved. Material may not be used without permission. If you provide a link to these pages, please send me an email message at about the link, and I will add a reciprocal link to my site.