Astrophotography Post-Processing: From RAW to Stunning

Here's what nobody tells beginners: every stunning astrophotography image you've seen has been heavily processed. This isn't cheating—it's revealing data that's actually in your image but invisible to the eye.

Camera sensors capture far more than monitors can display. A single RAW file contains 12-14 stops of dynamic range compressed into a narrow tonal range. Processing "stretches" this data to reveal hidden details.

RAW straight-out-of-camera looks terrible. Flat, dark, noisy. That's normal. The processing is where the image comes alive.

You have options at every price point. The most important thing is to learn one tool well before jumping to the next.

Here's my step-by-step process for Milky Way images:

1. Lens corrections — Apply profile, remove chromatic aberration and vignetting.

2. White balance — Set to 3800-4200K for cooler, more cinematic tones.

3. Exposure and tone — Boost exposure, reduce highlights, boost shadows, add contrast.

4. Color and vibrance — Boost vibrance (+30 to +50), slight saturation increase.

5. Noise reduction — Apply AI denoise or luminance NR (30-50).

6. Sharpening — Apply masking to avoid sharpening noise, then export.