Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 and astrophotography

[Hypnotist (Bartholomew)]

Hi,
Since I'm really just getting into astrophotography, I'd like to know what I have to do on Adobe Pse 8 in order to edit a photo and process it (tutorial). Do I also need Deep Sky Stacker?

[p1taylor]

Hi yes you do need deep sky stacker or something, I am reasonably new to this, if it is any help what I use is maxim for imaging and staking, photoshop cs and pixelinsit to proses hop this is of some help.

peter

[Alchemy (Clive)]

What sort of camera are you using ?

[Hypnotist (Bartholomew)]

I'm using a Nikon D40x. (I know most everyone will say that a Canon is better, but I've got what I've got. I'm only 15.)

[Alchemy (Clive)]

Originally Posted by Hypnotist

I'm using a Nikon D40x. (I know most everyone will say that a Canon is better, but I've got what I've got. I'm only 15.)

What I used to do when I had a dslr was this

Convert the raw files via the software that came with the camera and turn it into a 16 bit tif.
I would do this for the lights, flats, darks, dark flats and bias.
The more of each the better, particularly lights.

Then I stack in deep sky stacker, take the stacked and calibrated image to Photoshop, from here you can saturate colors, apply a highlights shadow stretch, do some sharpening, some star size reduction, remove some noise, do a bit of selective blurring if you want. The options are many.

Some would no doubt stack just the raw files..... Each to his own but thats how i did it.