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I have learned a lot in the time I have been doing astrophotography. I know now that this is a challenging process that requires knowledge and experience in many areas which are new to me. Having succeeded in solving some of the basic beginner’s mistakes and having solved a bucketful of problems, I know that what I have learned can help you in your journey in astrophotography.
Astrophotography processing software includes stacking and then processing in a programme such as Photoshop. There are many different programmes and software that can be used. The software available differs in the complexity of the features and the difficulty of learning how to use it well. As time has passed free options like Siril have become almost as powerful and versatile as more expensive software.
On this page, I want to focus on which astrophotography image processing software works best based on my experience. This will include the different astrophotography processing software I have used and what I think of them. As my astrophotography image processing skills develop, and technology changes, learn from my mistakes and solutions and then, hopefully, go off to explore new areas and develop your skills choosing the software you prefer to use.
Astrophotography Processing Software I’ve Used
So far, I have found the following programmes helpful and will continue to use them:
- Siril (Free stacking and image processing)
- Sequator (Free stacking only)
- Registax (Free stacking of planets and online image processing)
- Deep Sky Stacker (Free astrophotography processing software that stacks your images)
- Pipp (a free programme that converts video to images for stacking in other programmes)
- Photoshop (I use the CC version, 2023)
Let’s look at each of these and how they can help you with the processing of your astrophotography images. Later in this post, I will also talk about other astrophotography processing software, such as Gimp, Astro Pixel Processor and Star Tools, which I have tried but do not use at present. I’ll explain why.
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One problem I ran into early on was that my laptop was not able to run some of these programmes quickly and often crashed. I have discovered, for example, that Star Tools and Astro Pixel Processor, as well as Photoshop, needed more resources than I had on my laptop. I upgraded my RAM from 4MB to 16MB and replaced my hard disc with an SSD drive and now my laptop is fast and can handle these image processing programmes.
Astrophotography Software for Stacking Images
The best program for stacking widefield astrophotography images where you also have a landscape is, in my opinion, Sequator. It’s quick and easy to use for a beginner, you can add dark frames and It produces quite a nice image at the end of it. I also tried DSS (Deep Sky Stacker), Siril, and others, but prefer to use Sequator as it completes quite quickly compared to the others and can stack the sky portion of your images leaving the background landscape alone. This is my go to software for Milky Way shots. Sequator is totally free!
I experimented with other software to process the stacked image before using Photoshop and for a while, I used Siril to do background extraction and auto stretching before post-processing however now I would say that such a program is not necessary. After stacking in Sequator I process my final image in Photoshop.
Adobe Bridge
One programme I have discovered recently is Adobe Bridge.
I really like this software for several reasons. First, it allows me to sort through my images and review them quickly to see which images I need to reject or accept. There is a handy zoom tool in review mode that shows me the existence of any star trailing and how bad it is. If it is too bad, I label it as rejected, and later can delete them or move them so that I have only good-quality images to stack.
Another feature of Adobe Bridge I use is collections. I can add any of my astrophotography images to my collections no matter where they are and they appear on the menu in the lower-left pane under collections. I don’t need to search for certain pictures anymore; they are all there when I want them.
Which is better Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop?
Both can be used to process photos. Lightroom has fewer features than Photoshop, and I would advise that you can use both. Having tried Lightroom I didn’t see a need for it, I prefer Photoshop. It has many more tools and the only advantage of Lightroom is that you can organize your photos, however, I find I can do that satisfactorily by just putting my images in different folders anyway and storing them on an external hard drive.
Deleting photos that are out of focus, have moved, or contain some erratic light that ruins the picture is essential. So before stacking, make sure that you delete any pictures that you don’t need. Unfortunately, there is no astrophotography software that can do this automatically for you, although as I show here in this video, Siril can do a pretty good job now of filtering out bad frames, but you should still run your eyes over the pictures before you stack them.
Photoshop CC
Photoshop is my choice of software for post-processing but there are a bunch of alternatives such as Pixinsight, but it is much more expensive and I believe it does take some time to learn so I haven’t really looked at that one. I have also looked at Startools, which I found a bit confusing and I really couldn’t get to grips with it. After trying a few other programs such as Astro Pixel Processor, I ended up using Photoshop because there are so many tutorials online and because luckily I’m able to access it free but it does normally carry a monthly charge.
I have been using Photoshop since upgrading my laptop and hoping it will take my editing to another level. Below is a comparison of using Siril (first image) and Photoshop (second image):
The Cocoon Nebula exposures of 60 seconds were stacked using Deep Sky Stacker and then processed in Siril. This resulted in image A. Image B is the result of processing the image in Photoshop.
I am sure you’ll agree that this image is far from perfect, but I can clearly see an improvement when I used Photoshop – the nebula seems clearer to me.
Below is the difference that using Sequator and Sirl vs Siril and Photoshop made to this image of the Andromeda Galaxy from early in my astrophotography journey. For this reason I still often use the combination of Siril for stacking then Photoshop for final editing.
Astrophotography Tools by Nick Carboni.
I also loaded recommend the Photoshop plug-in Astronomy Tools Actions which I have used for years now and still love!
These tools simplify your life enormously and the actions that you can use in the processing are much faster and easier to apply, and your final image will improve so much. So do some research into plug-ins if you do use a program like Photoshop, GIMP or Pixinsight.
I have to say that I was not happy with this image and have struggled with it. I will come back to M31 again and try some experimentation to improve it. Bear in mind also that this was my first year of astrophotography and now I have improved both my acquisition skills and my post-processing skills so look out for updated pictures of this target again very soon.
Anyway, the original photo before processing in photoshop lacked details as you can see around the core and in the small neighboring galaxy.
The main reason why Photoshop helped to bring out more details in my shot of Andromeda is that it allows me to stretch the image, boost contrast and reduce the noise.
recently Siril has been adding many new tools and is growing in status as a powerful and free software for all areas of image processing in astrophotography from pre-processing, stacking and calibration to final editing. It is quick and easy to learn and free compared to other software like Photoshop which requires an expensive subscription.I
What is the best astrophotography processing software?
My software of choice for editing and processing my images is Photoshop. I find it easy to use and love the astrophotography plugins I use with it. It is considerably cheaper than other software such as Pixinsight and others, but I believe it does all that I need and more!
Conclusion
All in all, I have found the best tool for image stacking to be Sequator (with landscapes), Siril (general stacking and pre-processing) and for editing the image, I prefer to use Photoshop, but many prefer to use Pixinsight, which is much more expensive and requires time to learn.
