Astrophotography Editing in 10 Minutes | Photoshop Tutorial

I'm going to show you astrophotography editing in 10 minutes using Adobe Photoshop. This video is aimed at complete beginners who are new to image processing, or more experienced astrophotographers who just want to quickly edit an image when time is short.
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[@hkanderful]

Thank you so much for sharing! I've seen a lot of astro editing in PS. The main key to it all is "Curves" and "Levels"

[@joneslu1377]

Thanks a lot! I did learn a lot from your tutorials about AP processing using PS, especially the stretching by channel!

[@PatJones82]

Excellent Tutorial. Very helpful! THANK YOU!

[@davidaylsworth8964]

Another interesting video Nick! I’ve been using some of your method on my images, with great success. Thanks for making these videos accessible.

[@raymajrowski8046]

Excellent 10min tutorial, very impressive, looks so easy, I think a small learning curve and I will be there.

[@craiglowery4427]

Thanks so much. I’m new at this and your video was perfect

[@LightsOnMultiMediaMindArts]

Very helpful.

[@michaelmccrory2220]

Thanks Nick. Your explanation is an excellent insight of astrophotography, enjoyed watching your tutorial, it was interesting to see the start and the ending of the editing techniques/tips you used in Photoshop.

[@AstroExploring]

Thanks Michael, I appreciate that!

[@martincuevas1071]

Outstanding.

[@framed-tales]

First of all, your 5 hours of data was fabulous! the stacked image was flawless! This is why the processing was so smooth! Kudos to your data collection and eloquent explanation. One of the best processing videos in 10 minutes! As the nebulosity filled the frame, you didn't have to do any gradient correction for the background sky. Maybe other objects will be tougher to process than this, won't it?

[@AstroExploring]

There can be challenges with objects that don’t fill the screen but that’s where the Gradient XTerminator plugin comes in. It’s saved my images more than once!

[@bushcraftandastronomer.3775]

Hi Nick. 10 mins and still great looking image! Thanks for this little tutorial and you get this in 10 mins. Soon I'm getting new laptop and I can look forward to this. Thanks for sharing this little video and stay safe!

[@AstroExploring]

Thank you!

[@michaeldavis2818]

ANOTHER great video Nick! I like how you break your process down! Thanks for creating this content! Clear skies!

[@AstroExploring]

Too kind as always Michael 🙂 I hope you’re getting better weather than we are, it’s been nothing it foggy for about a week here!

[@michaeldavis2818]

@@AstroExploring On average, I'm getting about 1 clear night a week or so and therefore can't complain. Best to you!

[@andymay6522]

what a brilliant video Nick staight forward and easy to understand.

[@AstroExploring]

Thanks Andy!

[@alisonthomas47]

Thank you, that was great. I only just watched the deep sky stacker video where you said at the end don’t ask about photoshop as I’m not good enough at it to make a video so was happy to find this 🙂

[@AstroExploring]

Thanks Alison! There was a long gap between those videos but I’m reasonably competent in Photoshop now so I’m glad you found this video helpful

[@aaronhutt274]

Step by step tutorials like these really help novices like me to understand the process. I've never used PS before and after watching a few of your videos, I understand it really well. Hats off to you.

[@AtlanticCanadianAstronomy]

Mich appreciated from Atlantic Canada! New sub

[@collins7299]

Thanks for this! Going to grab that astro plug-in as well.

[@AstroExploring]

Great! 😃

[@astrocarone9671]

I just shot this for the first time last night! Great photo, Nick!

[@AstroExploring]

Thanks! It’s a great target, hope you got some good data 👍🏻

[@enriqueestebanSchott]

Excelente

[@robertstuck3214]

Nice job. Very helpful

[@AstroExploring]

Thanks Robert

[@rickcudmore8156]

Very interesting. What processing would you do to the left side as it looks like there is a division of stars.

[@WelcomeToTheCosmos]

When you click to add a new layer, what exactly is happening? Heading into the second level adjustment, when you add a new layer, it’s an empty layer but then you do something to add to that layer. What was that?

[@django1364]

very interesting, I want to get into astrophotography, some many options, what I have noticed is that you don't actually see some of the things in a final processed image as you would see through the lens

[@khq3253]

I recently subscribed to your channel. Thank you for the usefull content. It would be nice to have prosessing tutorials for Affinity Photo. A few months ago I switched from PS CS6 to Affinity. Really liking Affinity Photo. I am done with Adobe.

[@robertwilshire3741]

Thank you for taking the time to help all of us out! This was a VERY informative video, and I'm looking forward to trying it out on my next open cluster photography session. However, I am not getting the same result you are at the 3:23 mark, where you add a new layer on top of the one you just did a curve adjustment on. When I click on new layer, I just get a white empty box above my first levels adjustment layer, but you get the background image. Can you please help? You've got a new sub! 🙂

[@marceegee9277]

HI Nick, If only these type of tutorials were available 6 years ago. Thankfully I have always been savvy with PS. Great video for beginners & the plug in is well with the investment to all astrophotographers. Take care. Marc

[@AstroExploring]

Thanks Marc, really appreciate it 👍🏻

[@Mr77pro]

Great tutorial! One question about your levels adjustments...you always adjusted the black levels EXCEPT the very first time you used it, You brought the white level of the Red channel down to 224, and never touched the white level again for any channel. Was this on purpose?

[@toolan]

Him Thx for this tutorial. QQ, For the initial level adjustment for RGB channels, that you did at 2 min. You were bring the black point up, so you were moving histogram down for each channel to align with each other. Would it make any difference if you would use the white point for this instead? So brining the histogram up for each channel.

[@paulradford6902]

Could you do one on M31? I really struggle to process that.

[@Bakrybaso94]

Thank you Nick. Your channel is one of the best astro channels here. Thank you for your efforts!

[@AstroExploring]

Thank you, that’s very kind 😃

[@TK-cb7ww]

Hey I am a new subscriber and I love the videos! I've learned alot about astrophotography! Could you make a detailed video on how you polar align your Heq-5?Thank you very much.

[@AstroExploring]

I have a plan to do this as part of my getting started in astrophotography playlist but I’m not sure when exactly that will come out, it might be early Jan. thanks for subscribing!

[@naumenko2008]

At 3:27 after clicking "New Layer" you exist transparent layer but after one second it becomes like a copy of all previous layers. Which hotkeys you use for that?

[@AstroExploring]

The keyboard shortcut for a new layer is shift, ctrl, alt, n, e

[@naumenko2008]

@@AstroExploring Thanks a lot!!! Great experience for me :)

[@Kcb_creations]

How do i create that new adjustment layer i cant continue

[@OneSpirituality]

When you say 5 hours of data what does it mean? I’m new to astrophotography so forgive me for this question, and which lens did you used for this and what would you recommend gear wise? I have the 90D

[@ChristianPuppo]

do you think the same result could come if I take the photo from my iphone 12?

[@leili621]

thanks for this great tutorial. Did you use a modified dslr or cooled CCD？ how long is your sub？ thanks

[@AstroExploring]

This was taken with a modified DSLR using 2 minute subs

[@zuellercanaresplaza7869]

What did you do with the first layer? it turned black. did you copy the background?

[@wonderer8629]

Is it possible to provide the output image from DSS so we have something to work with on our own? Thnx for the tutorial, much appreciated.

[@AstroExploring]

Hi Tom. This particular image I made available on Patreon to download and play with but I’ll have a look at making other data available for free and put a pinned comment on the video so keep a look out. I won’t be able to do this until tomorrow night at the earliest though. Thanks so much for the feedback 👍🏻

[@RocTheReaper]

So noob question on an old video lol... How should we be able to tell that our signal is good on our subs? I mean, you practically couldn't see anything in your subs, even stacked, until some processing was done. Sooo should most of our DSO photos look like almost nothing, so long as our histogram on cam looks well balanced? THANKS!

[@ianmacdonald2307]

Enjoyed the simplicity Nick. Like you, I have similar equipment, albeit I am using the SA pro. A question if I may. When you create new layers do you ‘duplicate’ or use the keyboard shortcut - Shift, Control, Alt N+E? I’ve watched so much these last few months and techniques differ enormously. But I don’t really understand the difference. I use the keyboard commands. I just wish I could enjoy more clear nights and less time confusing myself sat in front of Photoshop.😂🤝

[@AstroExploring]

Thanks Ian! I use the keyboard shortcut 🙂 more clear nights would certainly be very welcome here!

[@doka777-3]

can we have a link for the plugin.

[@kuronekosan2830]

hi why when i do this method on my milky way shot ..the sky starts to become more noisu how can i make it pop without making the sky noisy?

[@Seethrulee]

First time me doing this- when I do a new layer, the image is blank. any solution?

[@astrosathya1984]

Please may I know the Bortle scale of your location? You've got amazing data there. The end result is absolutely amazing. Very much inspired by this. Have you used Darks for this please? I remember in one of your videos you mentioned you never take darks, but dither 3px.

[@AstroExploring]

Thank you so much! Officially I live in Bortle 4 but it’s actually right on the edge of Bortle 5 on the scale. No darks used in this one, just flats and bias. I didn’t even either with this image. Just lots of 2 minute subs but I was using the Optolong L-eNhance filter with a modified DSLR which really helped

[@astrosathya1984]

@@AstroExploring thats really nice because i too used to use the L Enhance with my Canon500Da camera and found that it has tonnes of noise. I then made a cold finger mod which helped. I am surprised to see that a non dark calibrated stacked file is so so smooth! you must have a really amazing sensor inside the camera :) By the way, I am curious to know the location name because i lived in Salford/Manchester for 3.5 years and worked for Opticstar Ltd Sale for 1.5 years from 2011-2012. :)

[@epic_playz4283]

I'm in bortle 7 😒 I think

[@Exointegra353]

I know I’ll look dumb commenting to ask this but I’m trying to get into this big step in astronomy especially with light pollution,with all this editing and the site as in “tools” I believe,will bring out the colors and details like stars and the color of the nebula in the picture even when it’s all dark from light pollution?🤔if so I’ll gladly pay the price for this and use your method 😂

[@tombeta]

How did u copy the Layer in 3:30? If I hit the new layer button, my new layer is empty and not a product of the former two layers 🤷‍♂️

[@davidletz9123]

I had the same question, but I think he is actually doing a Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E to merge all of his changes to a new layer. Or, he is merely copying/duplicating the last layer with multiple edits on it into a new layer. Calling it a "New Layer" is confusing, I admit.

[@newbee1016]

Great video for us beginners very informative for 10 min', I am also running the latest PhotoShop version, with Noel Carboni's Astro Tools, in which brings me to a question for you, with the star alterations, eg add star spikes, make stars smaller, change color, I cannot get them to work, have you used these changes and have they worked for you? Robert Vict' Aust'

[@AstroExploring]

I've had no problem getting these to work for me. Might be worth getting in touch with Noel via the website and hopefully he can help.

[@Kcb_creations]

My new layer stays transparent... It wont turn into the image like yours

[@g0mbadan141]

At 3:25 what is it that you do with the layer? After adding it you get an empty layer, but the photo fills it in after 0.5 seconds. I just have a new empty layer and I cant adjust the levels or anything. Which key combination did you use?

[@AstroExploring]

Shift, Ctrl, Alt, N, E…the longest keyboard shortcut ever

[@g0mbadan141]

@@AstroExploring Oh holy- Thank you so much for replying! Amazing work! I never thought you'd reply 6 months after the original upload :)) Have a wonderful day bro!

[@jrbfotocom]

@@AstroExploring still getting an empty layer

[@jrbfotocom]

on a mac: shift+option+command+n+e. Hold the e key for a second

[@jrbfotocom]

correction: no need for n key

[@rickarmstrong2476]

Were you using a modified camera or any filters for this one?

[@AstroExploring]

Yes a modified DSLR and I think also the Optolong L-eNhance if I remember rightly

[@rickarmstrong2476]

@@AstroExploring thought so. I shot the same target the last two nights with a stock dslr and no filter from bortle 6. Getting that hydrogen signal to show is difficult. Only about 2 hours of data though.

[@DiggerDaveSea]

For us casual astrophotographers, how about example with a more affordable editing software such as Darktable. Photoshop is just too expensive for my occassional use.

[@Kcb_creations]

Litteraly nothing works for me all the option just dont seem to work

[@klausclausen4670]

When I add another layer, it's empty by default and I can't edit anything in there. How do I fix that?

[@pauliazz94]

The keyboard shortcut for a new layer is shift, ctrl, alt, n, e

[@Kcb_creations]

Could not compete the minimum command because the selected area is empty

[@davidmorse1228]

Did you use Photoshop Elements 2021?

[@AstroExploring]

I use the full version

[@Kcb_creations]

Pleas help i cant continue now

[@mikehardy8247]

Wish you would have used an object with other colors as well. The whole thing was red. Otherwise thank you for encouraging me. Editing is daunting! I won't pay for a subscription. Use PS 2005, and an airgaped Editing PC. will that add on work for me?

[@Kcb_creations]

I cant edit highlights either

[@noelphilip5341]

Iam a beginner

[@R7300]

I guess I don't get the point of editing it so severely. I love space but don't understand the photography part, the end result is something that doesn't look remotely like what you saw so what's the fascination with it? It might as well be completely fake

[@icyxxxxx]

It is what u saw but basically invisible and that’s called astrophotography. If u don’t like it then be a visual astronomer

[@joelsweatman1503]

I wished I wasn't so stupid

[@ronaldg7522]

Too fast....

[@brihit]

Very bad and casual approach to explain