6 Easy Ways to Stretch Your Astro Image

Get that perfect image stretch with this tutorial on astrophotography image processing! The five programs used in this tutorial are Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, PixInsight, Affinity, and Gimp. Follow along as Mack Murdoc shows you the best tips for amazing image stretching results! Show us your results on social media using the hashtag #opteam!
What’s your favorite processing program? Let us know in the comments below.
More ideas on what to do when it's cloudy: bit.ly/3ltToct
Click here to get free data to learn from. Data Provided by Dustin Gibson
we.tl/t-tjB2P3hbyP
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#astrophotography #imageprocessing #tutorial #astrophotographytutorial #opt #imagestretching

[@frankieg7575]

just what i've been looking for! subbed

[@Dylans_astro]

Mack forced me to hit the like button... 😂

[@epic_playz4283]

Not me

[@jamesmcleod4335]

I used to really dislike people grabbing for likes and subscribes but after watching several of your videos now I saw this one and I just died laughing. You have earned a like and subscribe. On another note, I have always enjoyed your videos and content. Keep up the great work.

[@Saiphouse]

Thank you for all the help

[@JonnyBravo0311]

Wow! When I clicked the thumbs up button, not only did my image stretch way better than it ever has, but all my flats suddenly perfectly calibrated, my stars weren't over-saturated and my skies became Bortle 1!!! Amazing! 😜

[@3SistersAstroOldAcct-fh3hd]

Mack and OPT once again going above and beyond! Much love to you and the team.

[@joshuaeli2789]

Thanks for the awesome content my dude!

[@bethbryson7407]

Very helpful! Simple instructions and great tips. Good work, Mack! 😁

[@terrypowell8900]

Nice video as always, looking forward to many more!

[@emunoz487]

Mack you're the best!

[@peterlaubscher3989]

I use Nebulosity and Gimp - thank you, this is so helpful.

[@starromano3232]

Awesome info!!!!!!!!!! And Mack is dope.

[@alvisedorigo5650]

Nice, short, effective and clear video! Congrats! I am following this channel and look forward for the next video.

[@figzastro-photography]

Hey Mac nicely done.

[@aneka78]

Not only is Mack an Astro wiz... He’s also a Magician!!!

[@eMPHA5ER]

Such a good video, on point, with markers, no bullshit talk, just the help one is looking for. Thank you, Mack.

[@vsawyer61]

I'm 59 and now back to looking up at nights instead of watching my feet . Having my first telescope as a 11yr. Old youngster . Well I guess in the long run tutorials such as yours are very helpful in much appreciated. And by the way if you haven't already smash the like and subscribe button Thanks much one of your subscribers Vic

[@garyvarney9955]

Hi Mack. Awesome work man!

[@markbmc9712]

Great video! I had used Maxim DL until recently, now Photo Shop. I really liked your demo on this program. Thanks👍

[@astrocarone9671]

I use Photoshop to process my data :). Great video OPT!

[@markszkil]

Thanks for the demo. I use DSS and GIMP and consistently have difficulty using masks.

[@backyardspacedude4238]

Nice and useful content, but that production is top level!

[@starman6092]

Nice video. I'm using GIMP and cannot figure out how to star mask. There are not any good tutorials on this. Could you make one for us beginners? Thanks.

[@kylecormier9930]

Are use deep sky stacker and gimp for my Astro photography. I would love to know more about editing with gimp especially when you use a one shot color camera but your photograph comes up gray in gimp, how do you get it to show an actual color?

[@anata5127]

Photoshop is really great. Curves could be done there as well.

[@stuartburns9177]

Hi, How do you bring a single image into photoshop? Beginner AP, building a rig and while I wait for all the pieces to arrive I'm learning as much as I can. I'm advanced in Photoshop but not in the astro processing world (if that makes sense) Cheers if anyone can help.

[@mr.d.8121]

👍Mack

[@cloudynights8796]

For me GIMP is best and Easy😁

[@davepastern]

BTW either the download link is not working or wetransfer is USELSS...

[@Neanderthal75]

For a super fast - quick check of a sub is I use ASIFitsView, free software from the ZWO website included in the ASI studio. It reads .fits files as long as they are 16bit. Just associate your .fit files with ASIfitview and you can double click to open your .fits, then right click and select histogram from the pop up menu and you can play with the sliders or zoom in on the histogram to fine-tune to see how you are doing.

[@AstroRef68]

Hi Question What photoshop do you use?

[@Dre4886]

Niceness

[@A5ra3lA]

Does that work on a single photo frame. Like no stacks

[@AstroForumSpace]

Great beginner tutorial. It's only logical you start with a Mac...given your first name :-). Keep looking up Mack!

[@kantoskan4314]

These instructions are really straightforward and actually enjoyable to watch...great quality instructions, thank you. But, after a couple of stretches in PS, my image went from a very dim, wispy pic of M81 and M82 to a bright white rectangle. Total fail. What could be wrong? Argh.

[@davepastern]

over stretched.

[@mohammadranjbaran1897]

I use PixInsight for planetary moons I capture.

[@jamesbasile6978]

In Pixinsight, I also set the view to the image I'm stretching so you can see the histogram stretch along with the preview window.

[@davepastern]

yup, you should *always* track the image (blue tick on the HistogramTransformation tool) and also reset after each stress to reset the histogram and preview window to correctly show the data.

[@davepastern]

I winced at the PixInsight section...that is *not* how you would do it lol. Bad boy Mack, bad boy.

[@bsabadifilms4439]

Why you dont use Lightroom?

[@ahmedelmorsy8429]

Very helpful video, buy the way you can easily install Windows on MAC and have both operating systems on one machine and give up on the magic part :)

[@davepastern]

why would you ever ruin a Mac by doing this?

[@ahmedelmorsy8429]

You don't ruin anything, each systems run separately in a very smooth way. This is my own experience for over one year now since I installed Windows on my MAC.

[@anupamp8608]

Loved the guide to Like button 😂😂 Didn't know it worked like that.

[@quantumspace7937]

The quality of these videos speak by them self Clear Skies!!! OPT

[@Kyle_Hubbard]

Might want to know 1:50 The part you're looking for 2:20

[@brianfulda]

I followed the instructions to like and subscribe but it didn't stretch my image...why???

[@abufaris5868]

Grayscale is a toy, show us how to do it in RGB

[@jamesp5408]

If the content in these videos wasn't so good, all the pandering for likes, subscribes, and all the other horseshit would be intolerable.

[@jamescrawford3014]

Good info but terrible loud anoying music

[@ndzick718]

thoughts and prayers