How to Process your astrophotography Images. Maximize detail thru Contrast and Basic techniques!

[@davidleejenkins]

Fantastic! You wouldn’t believe how much this tutorial series has helped me. Thank you so much!

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Awesome!! Good to hear!

[@kevinwenrick7657]

Your PS processing videos are among the best (if not THE best) I've seen and/or studied. Workflow that makes sense. Very clear, at an excellent pace, explained as to the why, not simply the how. You are an excellent teacher, and very kind to share your knowledge and experience. Well done, thank you very much for the boost in confidence and the incentive to revisit ALL of my images.

[@stevemeier7876]

As I am very new to deep sky imagery....I found this vlog...highly informative.....people forget 50% of the work is PS afterwards...great video...more of these please.

[@ws5246]

Absolute Gold Dust! Time to reprocess some old data while the weather is rubbish. This has taught me so many new things. Thanks buddy :)

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Awesome! Hope you have much success!

[@mschmalenbach]

I've watched a ton of videos but your series of 3 has been the most helpful to me in dealing with a very poor set of data. This data is of the region around Sadr and is my first serious attempt to image - I have an old Canon EOS 450D modified DSLR I bought for under $200, and a brand new move-shoot-move tracker. The seeing conditions weren't great and I suspect I had too high an ISO setting - but hey, it's all good learning & experience. I followed along with your videos but my data set and got an outcome that I'm satisfied with - my 6th attempt! I learned so much in this process about what I might do differently in capturing the data as well as processing it - so , thanks hugely for that! Big lessons on capturing - getting the best focus possible and getting a good polar alignment, which I knew wasn't great as my laser pointer for my tracker arrived broken and I couldn't wait for a replacement - I used a rolled-up sheet of paper to form a narrower field of view, and some thread across the front opening to create cross hairs, and then I googled where Polaris would be at that time of night relative to the North Celestial Pole and used the full moon's size to guestimate the angular distance from the cross hairs to the NCP. It was better than nothing! I checked! Anyway, thanks again - I like your style, tone & pace in your videos, keep at it now I'm subscribed! And stay safe & well! Clear skies!

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks for watching, Martin! That is awesome that you finely got a result you like this far. This hobby is full of challenges. The cool part is each time you master one, you get to see the improvement in your final result. Each improvement can add so much! Keep it up, and clear skies!

[@mschmalenbach]

@@astroedsastrophotographych4562 I managed to have another crack at it in a brief and unexpected gap in the cloud - it's monsoon season for us here in Arizona - I managed to get 67 minutes of integration time and a good set of flats, darks & biases with my EOS 450D and 50mm f/1.8 at f/2. I followed along again with your vids and got my best final image yet - VERY happy with it - thanks again for your tutorials!

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

@@mschmalenbach Awesome, that is great news! Clear skies!

[@larrydrum1842]

WOW, this has changed my life. Well at least my AP life. I was getting frustrated with BS workflows, overly complicated tutorials and generally crappy results. You rock! In one evening I took my skills to a whole new level. I followed along with all tree videos with a small data set and the results were stunning. I haven't got a lot of image data yet, thank goodness, because I'll be going back through all of it and re-editing. Thanks and please keep helping our community.

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

So awesome to hear! Thanks for this comment, much appreciated!

[@wessidestory]

This series was the best lesson I’ve seen. Thank you!

[@71janas]

Brilliant tutorial👌. Thank you

[@JoMoJack]

What a phenomenal amount of help. I've been struggling with getting decent results after editing. Seeing what others do with my data and what I was ending with was almost discouraging. By chance, I've stumbled across this little series and it's transformed what I've been able to do. I think I've re-edited the same data set 4 or 5 times now with your assistance, and I've been able to improve each time to get a better and better result. I really appreciate you explaining each step, and even going so far as to explain keyboard shortcuts and what you're achieving with them. Underrated channel. This was one is bookmarked.

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks, Jack! This means a lot! Clear skies!

[@ChucksAstrophotography]

I will be saving this if the day ever comes of me switching to PhotoShop - thanks for putting this together.

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Awesome, Chuck. Thanks!

[@jaq1967]

Excellent. Just what I was looking for. Very impressed with workflow and results. Thank you!

[@wlkdadog]

I am learning so much from this series. Thank You

[@bharathraj5768]

Cannot be done more articulately!! I’ve learnt tons.. thank you from India 🇮🇳

[@Nodalema]

There are so many astro processing vids out there, but yours are absolutely standout in both content and presentation. Thank you! Hoping you'll eventually get to that video about how you process from your triad filter data. Terrific stuff, thanks again!

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

I’ve been thinking about the triad narrowband tutorial. Perhaps in the not so distant future one will come out!

[@davidaylsworth8964]

This series has been incredibly helpful. I am seeing how these processes have changed the image quality of the date I’ve been capturing. Very helpful!

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

So glad it could help, David. I’m in the planning phases for another series of narrowband tutorials. Clear skies!

[@DiscoGrooveDad]

Incredibly helpful, this and your Stretch enhancement. Why have I only just seen this! As others have said good explanation, for me the pace was good and I get consistent results. Followed along on my Rosette Nebula, it's the best I've seen it!

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Great news and very glad you found this and it was helpful! Clear skies, Tony!

[@chrisoriordan6975]

Stunning transformation expertly explained - thank you 😊

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks, Chris!

[@EODHammer]

The best tutorials I've seen to date. I've been using techniques from all the usual suspects and they don't even come close to what I've learned in 3 of your videos. Your techniques and delivery are very easy for me to understand too. I've basically been doing a lot of things that you do but not quite as efficient as your method. Thanks for the videos! Bravo!

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks so much for your kind words, Ted! Much appreciated! Glad they could be of help!

[@Mike_Gibbs971]

Thank you! This series has been of incredible help!

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Glad it has been a help! Thanks for watching!

[@andynowlen]

This is the best. Great help for PS post processing!!

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks, Andy!!

[@phaserstudios]

Incredible! Like others have mentioned, I've used tutorials by many well known astrophotographers, and your methods have by far produced the best results. Not only that, they were the easiest and most consistent to implement. Masking stars can be a nightmare. Thank you so much for this series of videos. I'm very hopeful that you'll reveal some of those secret techniques you mentioned.

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

That’s awesome!! Thanks for the massive compliment. I’m in the process of making a tutorial series on narrowband imaging and my rule on AP superposition which is the fundamental basis behind all my secret techniques.

[@donsinger1]

Hard to add much more than has already been said. Helpful to beginners like myself, being clear and concise and easy to follow. Thanks much Thomas.

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks, Don! Much appreciated, glad it can help or at-least give one more tools in their processing tool bag!

[@wood634]

Just found these videos. Thank you so much. Amazeballs!

[@syedawais]

amazing workflow. thank you for sharing and keep teaching us !

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks, glad it could help 🙂

[@siegfriednoet]

I just watched all three of the episodes, really stunning processing and very well explained, thank you for making this 👍👍

[@cheeky_devil]

Thanks for the series. Really enjoyed it.

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Absolutely! Thanks for watching!

[@barbarachristian358]

Brilliant tutorial AstroEd!

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks, hope it will help you with your processing. 😉

[@celiaxel3448]

Thanks for this really useful video. Amazing!!

[@catchingphotons]

Thanks for that beginner tutorial man! Will help a lot!! Love your work, keep it going :-) Clear skies mate!

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks, I appreciate that! Clear skies!

[@benc7102]

Excellent workflow tutorial Ed You managed to extract some great detail in your image Cheers mate as always Keep up the great work

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks Ben!

[@mfl28]

Thank you so much for your tutorials. All your videos are a GEM for anyone learning how to process their images! Again, thank you so much! Can't wait for more tutorials coming from you! Excellent!!!

[@paulwhitton957]

Absolutely brilliant method of post processing astrophotography images. I’ve been using curves for enhancing contrast, using acr but didn’t really get good results. Your technique is really unique from what I’ve seen so far on KZbin. Thank you for sharing. It makes newcomers like me want to carry on instead of giving up.

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thank you, Paul. I appreciate the compliment. I definitely do things different than others. Don’t give up!!

[@lachezarkrastev7123]

Super nice ... but I would love to see how you bring out the blue from the triad filter.

[@tomm8843]

Thank you for this detailed explanation. It helped me a lot :) i saved all your videos to my libary and wrote a small spreadshead for myself!

[@olly7248]

Superb tutorial, thank you for doing this 👍🏻

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks, Olly!

[@spookysandwich1355]

another super helpful video .. subbed 😜

[@wallbke]

Thank you, so very interesting for me as a beginner!

[@Gordonlanguam]

Just started in deep sky astro and I can’t wait to try this out !

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Awesome! Thanks for watching!

[@T-Bear]

Wow, amazing tutorial. It's so nice to see some other teqnuiques used than the same old stuff thats repeated throughout other channels. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. Hopefully you will find the motivation to make more tutorials like this in the future

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks so much! I truly appreciate that, I’ve done a lot of my own research with photoshop and empirical studies with various methods, so your comment is truly appreciated! Thanks!

[@OlliesSpace]

This was really useful thanks.

[@johnnyredfireastroimaging5266]

I enjoyed this video very much. You got some real PS talent. I did luminosity layers but have been unimpressed with it. I shall try this and see what comes out!

[@garymasson9262]

Absolutely fantastic video. The difference this has made to my images is incredible! Thank you 👍

[@paulholdsworth2502]

Fantastic tutorial. I really hope you decide to a narrowband tutorial which I'm sure would be equally well received and would no question increase your subscribers

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks, Paul. I haven’t ruled it out, but nothing planned in the near future. However, maybe 🤔 I will sooner than later. Thanks for watching.

[@MrSpike2450]

Stunning work dude thank you.

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks for watching!

[@tamrich7762]

Thank You for the excellent tutorial Thomas! I will have to start using Photoshop, you made it look so easy. All the best for 2021 and CS Tam.

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks Tam! I wish you and your family a happy new year!

[@theinterstellarfeller]

Awesome tutorial!

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks, Don! Much appreciated!

[@PascalMourier]

Thanks for sharing !

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Absolutely 👍

[@giorgiofumagalli2077]

These three videos are absolutely the best and clearest I've found for PS! Thanks a lot Ed you are great! Only one more question ... this workflow works also with shots taken with light pollution filters?

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks! Yes, this workflow should work with shots taken with LP filters. Clear skies!

[@normfox1559]

Thank you very much Thomas! This series has been incredibly educational for me. My images are so much better and I hope to incorporate this new info. Happy New Year to you and your family my friend.

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Excellent Norm, glad to hear it! Happy New Year!

[@AppaFPV]

Fantastic! Thank you!!!

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Absolutely! Thanks for watching!

[@rajuwahid64]

Absolute legend 🙂

[@othonbenavente1876]

Fantastic. Very impressive. What is the background music?

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks! Mostly Mozart sonatas .

[@stevemeier7876]

please do narrowband imagin processing that would be great

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

That is in the works! Stay tuned, a release on narrowband imaging is coming soon.

[@majortom4338]

Brilliant !

[@rickcudmore8156]

At 23:19 how did you combine the star image with the starless image? Did you click on the Layer 1 item?

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

This is technically part 3. If you watch the starnet++ video I have under my tutorial playlists, it is the 2nd video, it shows how to accomplish this.

[@ElGronto]

Thanks for the amazing video Ed! Does this method of stretching the image has your preference above an earlier video where you used the 'gray multiply' and 'gray devide' layers? It appears to me both can have the same result but somehow I like the Starnet++ option allot better. Great tutorial, allot better then most stretching vids on YT. You got yourself a sub!

[@rayjohnson7437]

Hi Ed I found this incredibly helpful, I have been using your methods to go back and reprocess all my nebula images and achieving excellent improvements. I tried your methods on other images such as Orion and some star clusters, but could not get this system to work as well, obviously I am doing something wrong. I was wondering whether you could process some of these types of images in another video just so I could see the differences if any that are required? Looking forward to whatever you put up next, thank you for sharing these wonderful techniques.

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks for watching and I’m glad these techniques have helped on some of your images. I will have to take a look at some of my orion and star cluster data and run these techniques. One major difference is that Orion should be processed as an HDR image with short exposures and then longer exposures. The resulting low exposure image is then blended with the high exposure image. Perhaps you already do this? I will have to look into the star cluster processing.... thanks.

[@rayjohnson7437]

@@astroedsastrophotographych4562 Hi Ed many thanks. Yes I use that technique using the short exposure stacked image as a Layer Mask to get the trapezium to show up in the over-exposed centre. Having watched dozens of KZbin videos on processing techniques I can say that I found yours to be the best. I think there is a real avenue for your meticulous and well-explained processing tutorials, I hope you keep putting more up. I thought your Starnet tutorial was excellent and I now use it as a regular feature of my processing. All the best for 2021!

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

@@rayjohnson7437 Thanks, Ray! I’m sure I’ll put more out. I have a lot more techniques I can share. Thanks again, and happy new year!

[@astrobri]

Thank you

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Absolutely!

[@geoffwatt7208]

This is a great series and very helpful. I must be doing something wrong though. I'm working on a one shot color file and when I attempt to copy the red channel data only when it gets pasted back in, it is full colour so the next layer etc don't work. Any suggestions would be very helpful.

[@koppervik1]

Hi AstroEd! As a rookie to AP, AND Photoshop, your tutorials is very helpful! Last night I shot the North America and Pelican nebula with a moded dslr and a 200mm camera lens. I tried to apply the contrast techniques in this video, but ran into what is probably a simple PS problem: When selecting channels on a layer, click the red channel, ctrl a, ctrl c and then click rgb and back to layers, and then try to ctrl v to get a new luminance layer, nothing seems to happen. No new layer with the red channel only is created. I tried to get around by creating a new empty layer and paste the red channel in there. This seems to work, but I don't understand why this lummlayer is not created 'your' way. Probably some setting or locks I have (the layers are not 'locked'). Any ideas...? Thanks! 😊

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Sorry, In Ko, not really sure I gather exactly what you may be doing that is wrong. Hopefully you’ve figured it out.

[@mikebenengtouncry3613]

Im the first !! nice video brudda

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks! Hope you enjoy the tutorial!

[@mikebenengtouncry3613]

@@astroedsastrophotographych4562 no no no ... thank YOU for supporting the community

[@matthilton8959]

Great video. I've just moved from.a DSLR to a OSC. I've used the Lextreme filter with it. Would this workl flow be good for that filter?

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

It would work decent. True narrowband workflow you would benefit from more.

[@matthilton8959]

@@astroedsastrophotographych4562 pretty much a novice at editing data. I'm hoping you do a tutorial on this as the others you have done are mega. Keep up the good work.

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

@@matthilton8959 Thanks Matt! I may do a tutorial on this in the future.

[@matthilton8959]

@@astroedsastrophotographych4562 please do. Would help me and many others im sure.

[@codyd6163]

Awsome Ed, Would love to see how you do your Narrowband processing, I have been dabbing in to it using the L Enhance. Do you have a Twtitter accnt?

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Hi Cody, Don’t think I’ll give out my narrowband processing techniques quite yet...still fine tuning them for consistency. I don’t have a Twitter account but do have an instagram account. @astro.ed_

[@codyd6163]

@@astroedsastrophotographych4562 awsome, thanks for the reply back, You can check me out at Clear skies Astrophotography on face book and i am at @Fang__Banger if you decide to get a twitter account. There are a lot of us that follow you and speak of you in our tweets on twitter, Aaron from AV astonomy, is one. I know i spoke very highly of you regarding your teaching of Starnet++. Thank you Clear Skies!

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Wow, thanks so much! Perhaps I’ll get an account. Thanks so much again, Cody! Clear skies!

[@clearskiesastrophotography2251]

@@astroedsastrophotographych4562 you got it! Stay safe

[@astrocleric]

Extraordinarily easy and efficient processing! I learned so much! Thank you for posting this. One comment/question however: the star color *appears* to have taken on some of the color of the background nebulosity (or perhaps it is my monitor or eyes deceiving me). I assume this is from the blending mode you used when you rejoined the stars with the starless layer. Is there some way to avoid this? To preserve the star color just as it appears after the arcsinh stretch you used? Thanks so much, yet again. I truly great series!

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Thanks. I agree about the stars. Great observation. Perhaps there is a better way to blend the stars back in, typically this doesn’t occur as prominently when used in narrowband processing... I will look into this some more sometime.

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Also, another point here is the following; my stars are a product of narrowband imaging and therefore mostly white with some blues and reds. I think it is more a trick of the eye than the blending technique as I just looked closer at the data and I think the nebula is quite colorful around white stars. The best technique would be to shoot broadband stars and add them to the narrowband data.

[@astrocleric]

@@astroedsastrophotographych4562 It may be a bit of both (eye trick and processing). I went back to some old images (all broadband) and did some experimentation. Even with broadband stars there is a noticeable change in color after the blending. I guess it'll be a work-in-progress! Thanks again!

[@qwmjml]

I keep referring back to this video cause of how good it is. But for some reason, after installing photoshop on a different computer, my luminosity layer actually changes the star color (when I make the star layer visibile). What's up with that? it never happened before. I have to use color dodge instead now. EDIT: WHOOPS! my star layer is at the bottom instead of top. heh..

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Glad you figured it out!

[@jefferycampbell2243]

Interesting that you use a different layer for each Camera Raw tool. Does this give better image quality than making multiple CR adjustments per layer or is it more personal preference?

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

Hi Jeffery, thanks for your question. It is called a non-destructive workflow, easier to remove an unwanted changes than using the history operation. Also makes future processing better as you can remember exactly how you treated previous images by recalling saved .tif workflows.

[@billdalton7690]

Hi I tried to send you a message on your website contact form. Don't think it went through. Basically I followed your technique using the arcsin10 adjustment but am not getting the same results. I use a DSLR and telephoto lens on a Star tracker and take about 50 to 100 lights and stack them to start my image in photoshop. My question is will your arcsinh10 adjustment process outlined in your Photoshop videos work for my DSLR image or is that for sophisticated telescope cameras that take color images in different channels?

[@rossc383]

Was waiting for this tutorial since starnet++ episode :) just curious, isn't it possible to achieve with contrast or curves adjustments?

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

I guess I don’t understand your question completely. However if your saying you can achieve this with curves I would agree, but not for the false luminance.

[@jensendkmg7209]

I wish I could get even a tenth of that kind of nebulosity from the stretch. It bleaches everything out so fast. I have a cannon eos R8, which is supposed to be a pretty good camera and it's still just so hard to get that red.

[@astroedsastrophotographych4562]

@@jensendkmg7209 yeah, a cannon eos r8, unfortunately isn’t going to give the best results in AP. A dedicated AP camera with cooling and narrowband filter is what will give you the best data or extremely dark skies. Of course all of this combined with proper darks, flats, and vias frames.

[@jensendkmg7209]

@@astroedsastrophotographych4562 Yea, I knew it wasn't the best by any means. But was still hoping for some better results. I appreciate it. Would there be a way to perhaps do these layerings and THEN stretch? Some way I can separate some of the layers before blowing them all out? Perhaps something like make some level adjustments to get the reds out a bit, separate that channel out, then add the archsin curves/more levels to that? MY dark skies get basically to light grey before I start to see much red. Just trying to think of some way I can separate them. I appreciate it.

[@refetastro]

Excellent excellent for the part of the stars I didn’t like them too much the same as the nebula should be blue white and yellow. I don’t see many videos explaining how to fix stars