High dynamic range (HDR) and mask for processing?

[Forum_2014]

I recently started to use AA5 more to processing my mono image. And I was impressed to learn how AA can do comparing to what I used to use in StarTools for my OSC image. I can unsharp mask with "adaptive" option to do deconvolution for dust lane details. Low-pass filter with "Adaptive" option for non-blurred noise reduction. And "Compress Stars" to reduce star blooming.

However, there are some tools that I cannot find in AA5. For example, I need some tools to tame the high intensity core of M81. Hence I wonder if there is similar tools or some a procedure in AA5 to do that.

Also, I noticed that there is no "mask" similar to the the layer mask in Photoshop or StarTools. Did I miss something? I would love to have that for localized processing.

Thanks!

[Forum_2014]

You could try Filters/DDP or Filters/HistogramStretch with Curves (at least two points, for a "N" shape).

There are no masks, but they are on our todo list (not this year BTW). They are really useful for cosmetic processing, especially with soft edges and manual selection.

[Forum_2014]

For HDR, I need to only adjust the core (highlighted area) but not the rest of image. Hence a mask may be handy.

I guess that I just have to use other tools to do at until then. Look forward to the new capability.