Then, once you've finished editing, a high-quality JPEG image can be watermarked, exported and shared, all while keeping your original RAW file intact. You can also create presets of your edits, edit with masks and heal any unwanted dust spots in your images. When editing in Lightroom, the user has complete creative control over contrast, brightness, texture and clarity, color hue and saturation and the option to smooth out any distortion and lens idiosyncrasies. Lightroom also has an extensive editing toolset. Some are better at this than others, so here are the best photo editing apps for astrophotography that we'd recommend you try. In this guide, we've included off-the-shelf software that can be modified to meet the needs of astrophotographers. Many photo-editing apps are available, each with various tools and features that are useful for different photographic styles, which can be especially useful when it comes to the unique needs of astrophotography.

In our opinion, the photo you take is only half the picture. We think that not editing your astro images is almost doing them an injustice, as editing is done to enhance what's already there, rather than changing the image. As 99% of astrophotographers will be shooting in RAW, the raw data captured often looks dull and lifeless straight out of the camera. Some photographers think that editing images is 'cheating', but we disagree.

Photo editing software can transform your space photographs into breathtaking pieces of art by boosting colors and bringing out hidden details. Even the best telescopes and best binoculars can't reveal all the subtle colors and patterns that post-shoot editing using photo editing apps can. But with the help of the best cameras for astrophotography, we can see the much fainter glows of nebulas and galaxies. When we look up into the night sky with the naked eye, we can make out faint sources of light from distant stars, see the bright light from the moon and possibly, on a clear night, see a nearby planet or two.

Best free photo editor for mac