I Captured My Most Detailed Portrait of the Wizard Nebula Yet
Last week, I photographed the Wizard Nebula with my camera and telescope in the backyard. The final image includes 24 individual exposures of 4-minutes each, for a grand total of 1.5 hours. Despite a bright moon interfering, it is by far my best image of the Wizard Nebula to date. In this post, I'll explain how I captured the Wizard Nebula, and what to expect if you're new to the world of deep-sky astrophotography. You don't need the latest and greatest gear to capture this nebula, although I'll admit, it helps. Along with a few best practices, I'll share a few ways that you can ac…
Selective Color Boosting (Photoshop Tutorial)
In this astrophotography image processing tutorial, I will explain an easy way to selectively boost the colors in your image. I like to call the technique "selective color boosting". Increasing the saturation of your deep-sky object can bring out the true beauty of your subject, and better showcase the contrasting elements of the nebula or galaxy. The amount of "boosting" is up to you of course. Some prefer bright, vibrant colors, while others prefer a toned-down "natural" look. I'd like to consider my images to be somewhere in the middle. The definition of a "true-color" image…
Topaz Labs DeNoise AI Review
The goal of Topaz Labs DeNoise AI is to reduce digital image noise while preserving detail and increasing image sharpness. If you're no stranger to astrophotography image processing, that almost sounds too good to be true. I was skeptical of the application myself but now find myself using it in some capacity for every astrophoto I process. I believe that Topaz Labs DeNoise AI is a powerful tool that amateur astrophotography enthusiasts should consider adding to their bag of processing tricks. In fact, I even added a new section about Topaz DeNoise AI in my premium astrophotography image p…
Andromeda Galaxy Astrophotography Tutorial
In this post, I'll walk you through the image processing steps I used to create the image of the Andromeda Galaxy shown below. This astrophotography tutorial uses Adobe Photoshop to bring out the intense colors and detail of a galaxy that was photographed using a DSLR camera and a small telescope. You can follow along and process the exact same data I did (download here), or you can try these techniques on your version of the Andromeda Galaxy taken using your own equipment. If you choose to download my data and process it, you can skip straight to the Photoshop portion of this tutoria…
Use the Select and Mask Tool in Photoshop
The Select and Mask Tool in Photoshop CC is a powerful way to edit selective areas of your astrophotography images. Whether you want to separate the stars from your deep-sky target, or apply subtle noise reduction to the background sky of your image, the select and mask feature will get you there. Adobe Photoshop CC is an effective way to process astrophotography images, in a very creative and enjoyable way. If you use Photoshop to process your astrophotos as I do, this tutorial should be very useful to you. Download Photoshop CC (Single App Plan) var uri = 'https://imp.tradedoubler.com…
