Remove Gradients in Your Astrophotos with Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is the preferred weapon of choice for many astrophotographers of varying levels of experience. The intuitive user interface and limitless image processing capabilities make it a real contender in the astrophotography world. The seamless integration with the .RAW image files produced by a Digital Camera makes Photoshop an attractive choice for photographers using popular Canon and Nikon DSLR's. It continues to be my personal favorite tool for processing astrophotography images. Whether you are brand new to astrophotography image processing, or a seasoned veteran, an…
Deep Sky Image Processing in Photoshop
Well, this is it. In this deep sky image processing tutorial, I'll be combining all of the data I was able to collect on the Orion Nebula this winter. As we transition into Spring, a new array of deep-sky imaging targets will present themselves. The winter astrophotography targets in the Orion constellation will have to wait another year to get photographed. The camera used for this image was a Canon EOS Rebel T3i (600D), an excellent choice for beginners looking to dive into deep sky astrophotography. Deep Sky Image Processing Processing Walkthrough - Orion Nebula with a DSLR…
Manual Stacking in Photoshop for Reduced Noise
Even without a tracking mount, your astrophotography images can benefit from manual stacking in Photoshop. This method involves aligning exposures and combining them into a master composite. It can make a big impact on your astrophotos by reducing noise and improving the signal-to-noise ratio. [caption id="attachment_4045" align="aligncenter" width="713"] This night sky photo contains 11 exposures stacked manually in Photoshop[/caption] This technique requires no darks frames, no stacking software, and no tracking mount. The 2 software applications used in this tutorial are Adobe…
Screen Calibration
Screen Calibration for Astrophotography With my recent purchase of a new laptop computer, I am reminded of the importance of having a well calibrated computer monitor for editing and viewing astrophotos. The brightness of my new laptop screen is intense. It appears to be about 25% brighter than my well-calibrated 23 Inch external IPS monitor. This results in astrophotography images that are less-than pleasing to the eye. I had to re-process many of my own photos in the photo gallery, once I discovered that they did not look the way I intended them to on different screens. Having a mo…
