You don’t have to work with raw files either, though astrophotographers may like to because of the increased color depth that’s captured. Your changes are only made permanent when you export a new image, and then only on that new file. Its workflow is completely non-destructive, so you’re always left with your original file as a kind of digital negative. However, it’s perfectly possible to use Lightroom differently. From here, they can export a JPEG image they can send to the picture desk of whichever publication commissioned them for the work. Then, they can take their chosen raw files into the Develop module, and adjust things like contrast, brightness and color saturation, as well as applying lens profiles that smooth out lenses’ idiosyncrasies such as vignetting and distortions. Adobe Lightroom: Best photo editing app overall Here are the best photo editing apps for astrophotography that we've found. We've included off-the-shelf software that can be bent to the needs of astrophotographers and some do this better than others. There are a host of different photo editing apps on the market, with pros and cons to each, especially when it comes to astrophotography. Even if the photographer weren't to use any apps but used in-camera filters, cropping or stacking, there's still an element of editing so we think the best photo editing apps really can be an astrophotographer's best friend.īecause of this, image editing software has shot up in popularity in the digital photography community. While the best cameras for astrophotography can show us the much fainter glows of nebulae and galaxies, even the best telescopes and best binoculars can't reveal all the subtle colors and patterns brought out by image enhancement on the best photo editing apps.īecause of that, photographers rely on the best photo editing apps and software, especially since photography has gone digital. To us, the night sky is a series of faint light sources with the occasional moon pointing out.

Best photo editing apps for free