How to use Blink efficiently - Forums

Hi,

I am using the Blink process to select my good frames. But I think I do not understand how it is meant to be used. Here is what I am doing:

Open all relevant subs in Blink - this gives me a long list, all items are checkmarked
Go through them with the arrow keys, uncheck all bad subs using the space key
Manually select all unchecked images
Select “Move selected images” to move the images to a discard folder
Close the tool and process everything that remains in the image folder

My problem is with the second to third step: As the Blink tool apparently does not care about the checkmarks at all, they only serve as a reminder for me so that I can manually select the frames I want to move. This is inefficient and feels wrong. Am I missing a way to do this better?

Thanks

Hi,

I keep the mouse over the button “Close selected images” and with that I remove the bad subs from the list instead of unchecking them. That way only the good subs remain => select all => move them to a folder for the good subs.

Michael

My process is that during the initial run through I just uncheck the bad images. Then I go through the list manually and click on the bad ones and move them to a different folder. If there are multiple in a row you can click on the top or bottom one and drag to select multiple easily.

I wish they’d add a “select all checked” and “select all unchecked” because it seems like a massive oversight that they don’t have that option.

Quinn Groessl · Jan 5, 2026 at 11:10 AM
My process is that during the initial run through I just uncheck the bad images. Then I go through the list manually and click on the bad ones and move them to a different folder. If there are multiple in a row you can click on the top or bottom one and drag to select multiple easily.
I wish they’d add a “select all checked” and “select all unchecked” because it seems like a massive oversight that they don’t have that option.

I do the same, after selecting the unchecked, I send them to my downloads folder to be deleted. I don’t understand why we can’t uncheck the images and have a trash button. I find the blink process to be very frustrating at times to use, at least on Mac, or maybe it’s lack of full understanding on using it. I would like it to do an STf for each image as well, because sometimes when it moves to images taken under different conditions I have to hit the stf again to get a proper stretch.

ScottF · Jan 5, 2026, 02:28 PM
Quinn Groessl · Jan 5, 2026 at 11:10 AM
My process is that during the initial run through I just uncheck the bad images. Then I go through the list manually and click on the bad ones and move them to a different folder. If there are multiple in a row you can click on the top or bottom one and drag to select multiple easily.
I wish they’d add a “select all checked” and “select all unchecked” because it seems like a massive oversight that they don’t have that option.
I do the same, after selecting the unchecked, I send them to my downloads folder to be deleted. I don’t understand why we can’t uncheck the images and have a trash button. I find the blink process to be very frustrating at times to use, at least on Mac, or maybe it’s lack of full understanding on using it. I would like it to do an STf for each image as well, because sometimes when it moves to images taken under different conditions I have to hit the stf again to get a proper stretch.

There is an option for the STF part. Just to the left of the list of images there are two buttons. The one that looks like the histogram transformation button will apply a different stretch to each image in order to make them look similar. First thing I do after opening my images is hit that button. By default the other icon is selected. That one does an STF stretch on the current image and applies the same stretch to all.

Hmm, thank you all for your responses. At least it appears I am not missing something obvious. Good to know.

Michael Sleeman · Jan 5, 2026, 09:32 AM
I keep the mouse over the button “Close selected images” and with that I remove the bad subs from the list instead of unchecking them.

I will try if that works better for me.

Quinn Groessl · Jan 5, 2026 at 03:03 PM
ScottF · Jan 5, 2026, 02:28 PM
Quinn Groessl · Jan 5, 2026 at 11:10 AM
My process is that during the initial run through I just uncheck the bad images. Then I go through the list manually and click on the bad ones and move them to a different folder. If there are multiple in a row you can click on the top or bottom one and drag to select multiple easily.
I wish they’d add a “select all checked” and “select all unchecked” because it seems like a massive oversight that they don’t have that option.
I do the same, after selecting the unchecked, I send them to my downloads folder to be deleted. I don’t understand why we can’t uncheck the images and have a trash button. I find the blink process to be very frustrating at times to use, at least on Mac, or maybe it’s lack of full understanding on using it. I would like it to do an STf for each image as well, because sometimes when it moves to images taken under different conditions I have to hit the stf again to get a proper stretch.
There is an option for the STF part. Just to the left of the list of images there are two buttons. The one that looks like the histogram transformation button will apply a different stretch to each image in order to make them look similar. First thing I do after opening my images is hit that button. By default the other icon is selected. That one does an STF stretch on the current image and applies the same stretch to all.

Ok, thank you. I will try that. I’m pretty sure I tried that in the past and it didn’t work. Maybe I didn’t fully select it and just thought I did. I’ll try it again.

Christoph B · Jan 5, 2026, 03:09 PM
Hmm, thank you all for your responses. At least it appears I am not missing something obvious. Good to know.
Michael Sleeman · Jan 5, 2026, 09:32 AM
I keep the mouse over the button “Close selected images” and with that I remove the bad subs from the list instead of unchecking them.
I will try if that works better for me.

I don’t think you are missing anything Christoph. It just works in the opposite way to most of our work flows. SubFrame selector is similar in that it makes a new copy of the good ones rather than moving or deleting the bad ones.

It is a bit unusual indeed: checked controls whether it is blinked or not, selected controls copy/move operations. But once you get used to it, it works well.
My workflow:
- Blink images in their temporary capture directory
- Uncheck the bad ones
- Select all, then deselect the unchecked ones (Cmd-drag to (de)select multiple)
- Run the move command to put the good images in their editing directory
The bad images are left in the capture directory which can be emptied, the good images are where they need to be.

The benefit of (un)checking, rather than (de)selecting is that it is sticky. No matter what you check/uncheck down the line, earlier checks remain intact. While selections often disappear if you make one wrong click.

I use the Zwo ASI studio’s FITsview. So much simpler and faster than blink IMO. I just go through the images and delete the ones I don’t want in the stack with the delete button. No other steps to go through.

Rick Krejci · Jan 5, 2026, 04:12 PM
I use the Zwo ASI studio’s FITsview. So much simpler and faster than blink IMO. I just go through the images and delete the ones I don’t want in the stack with the delete button. No other steps to go through.

I do this too. Definitely find it easier than using blink, especially with the way I have my folders structured for different filters and such.

Willem Jan Drijfhout · Jan 5, 2026, 04:07 PM
It is a bit unusual indeed: checked controls whether it is blinked or not, selected controls copy/move operations. But once you get used to it, it works well.
My workflow:
- Blink images in their temporary capture directory
- Uncheck the bad ones
- Select all, then deselect the unchecked ones (Cmd-drag to (de)select multiple)
- Run the move command to put the good images in their editing directory
The bad images are left in the capture directory which can be emptied, the good images are where they need to be.

The benefit of (un)checking, rather than (de)selecting is that it is sticky. No matter what you check/uncheck down the line, earlier checks remain intact. While selections often disappear if you make one wrong click.

Maybe it is just me coming from the smart telescope background, where I may have 500+ subs on a single night. Manually selecting all unchecked ones feels unreasonably tedious. With longer exposure time, the problem becomes much less pronounced.

I of course appreciate that checking/unchecking is sticky.

Good point, with lucky imaging or anything going into the many hundreds or even thousands per night doing anything manual is a pain.

The simplest solution to this awkward tool is to implement a “right click-delete” which would remove a bad image for the blink list and file system. I asked for this in the PI forum a couple of years ago and while Juan responded positively, it hasn’t happened. It was recently improved and a new tool called Blink2 was created. Its repository is https://pixinsight.arcturus.ch/blink2/. I believe the source is available and maybe someone could grab it and make Blink3 with a right click delete.

Mike Mulcahy · Jan 5, 2026, 11:20 PM
The simplest solution to this awkward tool is to implement a “right click-delete” which would remove a bad image for the blink list and file system. I asked for this in the PI forum a couple of years ago and while Juan responded positively, it hasn’t happened. It was recently improved and a new tool called Blink2 was created. Its repository is https://pixinsight.arcturus.ch/blink2/. I believe the source is available and maybe someone could grab it and make Blink3 with a right click delete.

Interesting and thanks for the link. Although to be honest, I like the checking/unchecking approach in principle. I am just missing a “select checked” and “flip selection” option. That way I also could keep my hands off the mouse in the blink process.

I never bother with the checking or unchecking. I go through the images either one-by-one or in slow-motion video, looking for a visible defect. If I see a defect, I stop and Move the bad frame to a Rejects folder. It’s not rt-click delete, but I find that easier than the checking, unchecking and highlighting.

+1 to Mike Mulcahy’s suggestion of a rt-click delete function.

Jeff

ScottF · Jan 5, 2026 at 02:28 PM
…
I do the same, after selecting the unchecked, I send them to my downloads folder to be deleted. I don’t understand why we can’t uncheck the images and have a trash button. I find the blink process to be very frustrating at times to use, at least on Mac, or maybe it’s lack of full understanding on using it. I would like it to do an STf for each image as well, because sometimes when it moves to images taken under different conditions I have to hit the stf again to get a proper stretch.

On a Mac, GraphicConverter will display stretched .fit or .xisf files in its browser window. Makes scanning a folder of subs a bit easier than blink. You can highlight bad ones (hold command key to select multiple ones), then drag to move elsewhere or hit delete to trash them.

I use ASI FITSview also, highly recommend it for its simplicity

Blink is just my basic screening tool.
I use it for rejecting the worst frames, cloudy etc.

After blinking I use the subframe selector to obtain the sharpest subs with the best stars. There is a very good youtube on this subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u30MDfl5xxY&t=7s

Using this with the sigma expressions you can obtain the best of the best.

I have created a sigma expression as described in the video which I saved into my process:

FWHMSigma < 2 &&

EccentricitySigma < 2

These are explained in the video by “SkyStory” and I find this is improving my overall sharpness of my final image after batch processing.

Regards,

Vic

Oscar H. · Jan 6, 2026, 12:07 AM
I use ASI FITSview also, highly recommend it for its simplicity

I totally agree. Just use the right arrow key to cycle through your fits files. Hit the trash can if I see a bad frame. No moving files to another folder. And AsiStudio is free.

I’ve heard some photographers don’t bother culling the images and just let WBPP do the rejection for them. Anyone doing this? I’ve tried it the images seem to stack ok, but it seems counter intuitive to not reject the bad ones first.

I made a video for Blink that may help as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKAi51jdIxI

Clear Skies.

Tony Jerig · Jan 6, 2026, 02:45 PM
I made a video for Blink that may help as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKAi51jdIxI
Clear Skies.

I liked the Spacebar tip. 👍️

I am also on „team FITSviewer“ for culling after giving up on blink.

Thanks to your explanation I have an idea at least how I could use it effectively.

But I dislike that the long initial wait for all images to get loaded into blink instead of allowing to click through immediately and loading in the background - whereas you have to go one by one anyway to delete bad ones.

I always wondered whether and how its creator ever used it …

Arny

After the positive feedback on ASIStudio FITSviewer, I gave it a try.
FITSviewer does indeed open files immediately, whereas Blink takes a while to load. But once Blink has loaded the frames, it is super fast, whereas FITSviewer takes a second or so for each frame to load, each time again. That is a much slower workflow. Also I miss a 'move' option. And each operation has to be done directly on each image. Maybe there is, but I have not found a way to (de)select images and then do some kind of operation on them (move, delete, save, etc).
As an extra, FITSviewer can show tilt, which is a nice bonus.
But as an extra Blink has statistics export, batch export of stretched PNG's (nice for making an animated GIF) and (batch) export of custom defined crops.
Everyone's workflow is different, and Blink is certainly not perfect, but at this point I am firmly on 'team Blink'.