Although I often write about using free tools like JS9, SAO Image DS9, DeepSkyStacker, Photopea, and GIMP, I use another set of tools for my image processing.

When I started out in image processing, I researched the various tools available at the time and quickly settled on MaxIM DL and Photoshop – these are the tools I still use today.

This post is about how I use MaxIM DL and Photoshop to produce a final image in just a few minutes with minimal effort, making image processing a relatively easy part of my image creation pipeline.

The Result

I processed an observation of NGC 1514 made up of 20 files (5 each of L, R, G, and B) – it took me about 5 minutes to produce the final result you see here:

Processing Steps In MaxIM DL

1. In MaxIM DL, I select from the menu, Process – Stack

2. I select Classify by Filter to ensure that MaxIM DL handles color properly

3. I drag and drop the FITS files from the observation into the Stacking window

The stacking process is very efficient because it doesn’t load all of the files into memory – it just keeps the resulting image and current image in working memory.

4. Under Align, I select Auto Star Matching

There are a number of methods of star matching – this is the fastest method that’s suitable for a very large variety of subjects.

5. Under Combine, I select the Average Combine Method

MaxIM DL supports a broad range of combination methods with Average being the fastest.

6. I click Go to start the combination process – this takes about 15 seconds

I now have an LRGB image I can work with. I perform some adjustments as follows:

1.  From the menu, I select Filter – Digital Development

Digital Development applies a non-linear stretch to the image in a process that was similar to developing real film.

2. I leave the DDP parameters at their defaults

I make selections as necessary to improve the output. However, the input images were of very high quality and needed very little processing so the default settings are more than adequate.

3.  Once complete, I adjust the stretch of the image as shown:

MaxIM DL makes it easy to adjust the histogram of your images using the Screen Stretch window. This feature alone is extremely useful and plays a major role in producing good final images.

4. I then save the resulting file as a 16-bit TIFF

TIFF is the preferred format for transferring into Photoshop or other application.

Processing Steps In Photoshop

In Photoshop, I apply a gentle Curves adjustment on the blue channel to make the background darker while maintaining detail in the nebula:

From there, I cropped the image and saved as a PNG.

How I Developed This Workflow

I developed this workflow over the course of a year or so, as I was learning both MaxIM DL and Photoshop.

Conclusion

In this article, I provided you with an overview of the process of how I create final images using MaxIM DL and Photoshop.