Best photo editing apps for astrophotography 2023

The best photo editing apps for astrophotography can take ordinary images of the stars and turn them into stunning works of art. All types of photography can benefit from good image editing software, but astrophotography is especially reliant on it.

The reason editing apps are crucial for astrophotographers is that the subjects they capture are often extremely faint and difficult to see with the naked eye. Therefore, astrophotographers rely on editing apps to enhance their images and reveal intricate details that would otherwise go unnoticed. Even NASA uses image editing software to enhance its images.

When we look up into the night sky with the naked eye, we can make out light 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. But with the help of the best cameras for astrophotography, we can see the much fainter glows of nebulas and galaxies. 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.

Photo editing software has the power to enhance colors and bring out hidden details, especially when working with astrophotographs captured in RAW format. RAW images can often look dull and lackluster straight out of the camera, but with the help of the best photo editing apps, astrophotographers can refine and elevate their astro images to new heights.

Best photo editing apps for astrophotography 2023

Best photo editing apps for astrophotography 2023 ranked

Serif Software's alternative to Photoshop is divided into five distinct 'personas.' Each persona serves a unique purpose within the software, namely Photo, Liquify, Develop, Tone Mapping, and Export. Think of these personas as separate workstations in a photo studio, each designed to handle specific tasks.

Develop and Photo is where you make initial edits, much like in Lightroom or Photoshop's Camera Raw. Liquify is to warp or distort your images, Tone Mapping is most typically used for 32-bit HDR files, and the Export persona is self-explanatory. During our Affinity Photo 2 review, we spent most of our time in the Develop and Photo Personas.

There is a dedicated 'Astrophotography Stack' function and we wanted to see how it compared to Adobe Photoshop 2023 which we found wanting in this department.

In simple terms, stacking in Affinity Photo allows you to effortlessly import calibration and light frames, which can then be automatically stacked with just a single click. We tested this feature by stacking multiple light frames along with a dark frame, and Affinity Photo 2 pleasantly surprised us with its performance. Affinity prioritizes aligning the stars within the frame, resulting in perfectly lined-up stars throughout the image. However, we did notice a slight misalignment in the foreground, which is the opposite of what we found in Photoshop. This shouldn't pose a problem if you're taking images exclusively of the sky, such as nebulas or constellations, without a foreground element. Besides, many astrophotographers often replace the foreground image altogether. In terms of stacking capabilities, Affinity Photo 2 outperforms Adobe Photoshop 2023.

Another Astro-friendly function is the 'Remove Background' filter. AI helps to restore the dark sky around the stars back to its original dark color and removes color casts that may have crept into your images.

Serif released this version of Affinity Photo at the end of 2022 and it has some great new photo editing and manipulation tools. Some of our favorite new features are the introduction of masks to keep up with some of the Lightroom and Photoshop functionality. Affinity Photo 2 has also brought in a non-destructive RAW development (so your original photos are always safe regardless of how you manipulate them), live mesh warping, and a layers panel. While these updates may not be astro-specific, we believe they greatly enhance the capabilities and usability of Affinity Photo, making it well worth upgrading to this version for photographers of all disciplines.

Affinity Photo 2 is now available as part of their universal license — you pay a one-off fee of $164.99 for Affinity Photo, Affinity Publisher, and Affinity Designer. If you don't need these, you can still purchase Affinity Photo 2 individually for a one-off payment of $69.99.

• Read our full Affinity Photo 2 review

While Lightroom primarily caters to professionals, it has also gained substantial popularity among casual photographers. This versatile software serves as a comprehensive tool for organizing, cataloging, and developing RAW images, meeting the needs of a wide range of users. After a shoot, you can offload your memory cards into Lightroom to quickly get a database of the shots taken that day, complete with geotags and facial recognition.

You can search and rate files using flags, stars and colors to select the best photos and discard the ones you won't use before you return to them later on. The excellence of this organization feature sets Lightroom apart from many other editing apps and is extremely useful for anyone who shoots weddings or events, and often end up with thousands of images to sort through at a time.

Lightroom also has an extensive editing toolset. 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. You can also create presets of your own edits, edit with masks and heal any unwanted dust spots in your images. 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. To read more about Lightroom's extensive list of functions, check out our Adobe Lightroom 2023 review.

Lightroom's workflow is completely non-destructive, ensuring the preservation of your original files without any risk of overwriting them. It's only when you choose to export an edited image that any changes become permanent, and even in that case, your original RAW image remains untouched.

Although you don't necessarily have to work with RAW files in Lightroom, we do recommend shooting your images (in particular, your astro images) in RAW because of the increased detail and color depth. Lightroom also excels at batch processing photos so you can import all 300 of your star trail images at once, batch edit (essentially copying and pasting the same editing settings onto each image), then export them to another app for stacking. Lightroom is a powerful app with many features and tips that can speed up your workflow and make post-processing quicker and easier, so it's no surprise that it's said to be the most widely used and best-rated image-processing software.

• Read our full Adobe Lightroom 2023 review

Like Lightroom, Photoshop is an image-editing app that has inspired the design of many other image-editing tools. Although Photoshop can be a bit challenging to learn, it's an amazing tool for astrophotographers and is considered the go-to photo editing app used by professionals worldwide — even NASA use Photoshop to enhance the detail in their images.

We looked at all the pros and cons of the most recent version of this powerful software in our Adobe Photoshop 2023 review. It can be pretty daunting to figure out how to use Photoshop if you're a complete newbie, but there are plenty of online tutorials on how to do pretty much anything and everything in Photoshop.

Photoshop uses selections and layers in its editing process — something that Lightroom has also introduced in the last year. By creating layers, you can edit specific selections of a photo (e.g. just a fire hydrant, or just the color of someone's jumper) without affecting the rest of the image. This is great if you are doing complex edits because if you make a mistake, you can just adjust or delete that specific layer rather than have to redo the entire image. 

This feature is also incredibly useful for astrophotographers. It allows you to edit the sky and foreground separately in your astro images. So, you could brighten up the rocks or buildings in the foreground while keeping that stunning dark sky intact. And Adobe Sensei, a cloud AI technology, can automatically identify selections for you with just a simple menu option. But if you prefer to get hands-on, you can always create your own selections manually.

Layers let you create complex effects by stacking different elements on top of each other. You can easily move, merge, paint, hide, or even cut holes in these layers. They're incredibly useful when you want to combine many photos to make a stunning star trail image or bring out the soft glow of a nebula by layering multiple frames.

We mentioned in our previous Adobe Photoshop 2021 review that we'd have loved to see the ability to automatically stack and line up regular astro images rather than having to line them all up manually. This updated version does allow this in the form of Auto-Align and Auto-Blend, but during our testing when trying to stack a set of astro images, there were issues lining them up reliably and consistently regardless of the method we used — this needs work and hopefully, Adobe will address this.

Plans from Adobe are decently priced considering the variety of tools you have access to. For $19.99 a month, you can purchase a subscription to Photoshop and Lightroom together, which is an excellent deal if you regularly use both apps — especially considering Photoshop is $20.99 on its own, it's a no-brainer. If you don't want the full-fat version of Photoshop, you may find Photoshop Elements a bit easier to navigate — it's a little further down in this buying guide and might be more suited to your needs.

• Read our full Adobe Photoshop 2023 review

Another app that follows the Lightroom model rather than Photoshop is Capture One Pro. This software excels in tethering and studio photography, making it a top choice for professionals in those fields. Capture One Pro is well-known for its exceptional RAW image decoding capabilities, ensuring high-quality results. Additionally, it supports a broad range of image formats, including the HEIC files generated by newer iPhones, further expanding its compatibility and usefulness for photographers.

There are very few things that Capture One Pro doesn't do well, and its primary focus is around perfecting color, with many editing and color grading tools at your disposal. We think this could be a fantastic tool for manipulating colors in those deep sky images of nebulae and cosmic dust clouds to really bring out those pinks and blues. When we reviewed Capture One Pro 21 back in 2021 we loved its ability to accurately color grade images and how well it manipulated colors in the image, and it seems that Capture One Pro 23 still maintains this performance — keep your eyes peeled for our review of the newest version coming very soon.

Although primarily designed for professionals, this software is incredibly powerful and brings together the best features of Lightroom and Photoshop. It even has a handy "learn" feature that provides in-camera tutorials to help beginners get acquainted with the software. However, if you're new to photo editing, we wouldn't necessarily recommend starting with Capture One Pro unless you're ready to dive right in. Once you're comfortable with the basics, though, it offers a unique and robust set of tools that will take your editing skills to the next level.

Although Capture One Pro is a fantastic tool for improving workflow, many of its most recent changes appear to be more focused on photo organization than editing, making it better for photographers who photograph people or events and need to sort through a high number of images quickly — taking a leaf out of Lightroom's book.

The downside? Capture One Pro is expensive whichever way you slice it. Monthly subscriptions are $24/m, annual is $179/y and a one-off payment for the license is $299. You could get two or more of the other apps for the same price so it's probably not worth it unless you are a studio pro.

• Read our Capture One Pro 21 review

Previously, we recommended Luminar AI in this guide, but it was discontinued in 2022. Now, as an astrophotographer seeking traditional image-editing tools, we think you'll want to consider Luminar Neo. In our review of Luminar AI review, we found it to be excellent for applying Instagram-friendly filters and creative edits to images. However, it might not be the ideal option for astrophotography alone, as each astro image often has distinct requirements that differ greatly from other types of photography.

Neo is different, and now takes center stage as Luminar's flagship product, bringing a new editing engine and the ability to create more polished and professional-looking images. Luminar built Neo from the ground up rather than modifying the previous AI software, although Neo still offers powerful one-click AI adjustments to speed up your workflow.

It has introduced the ability to add layers to your edits, much like Photoshop. It also has a developer module, similar to Lightroom. However, it's important to note that Luminar Neo's cataloging functionality is relatively basic. It only lets you flag images, so it may not be the best option if you're looking for a robust image storage and management system.

We've yet to do a full review of Luminar Neo, but keep your eyes peeled as we'll do one soon. Some users have reported the software being a little buggy, but hopefully, these will continue to be ironed out over time.

• Check out the Best cameras for astrophotography

Adobe Photoshop Elements is a fantastic choice for beginners and photography enthusiasts, offering a simplified and user-friendly version of Photoshop. While it may not cater specifically to astrophotographers, Elements does an excellent job of replicating the core features of Photoshop, including layers and selection methods. They've also introduced some impressive Sensei AI features that add a touch of innovation to your editing workflow. 

With Photoshop Elements, you have the power to make tonal and color adjustments, replace backgrounds, and enhance your photos using automatic adjustments. The integrated guide is there to help you learn and improve as you go. It's a fantastic option for quick edits, and you can even create collages and slideshows with ease. However, if you're a professional or aspire to be one, we recommend opting for the full Photoshop software to ensure you have access to all the advanced features and avoid any long-term limitations.

The differences between Photoshop and Elements are stark, not only in the number of features they include but also in the way you pay for them. Adobe's Creative Cloud apps (Photoshop and Lightroom) are subscription software, which means you pay a fixed amount each month (currently $19.99 per month in the Photography plan, which is pretty reasonable for what you get). The benefit of a monthly subscription is that you always have access to the most recent version of the software, which is regularly updated to include bug fixes and new features.

With Photoshop Elements, however, you just pay a one-off fee (it also has a video-editing sibling called Premiere Elements). The downside of this is that you pay for that specific version, and it's only a matter of time before there will be a new version available. So, if you want to make use of any newer features you'll have to shell out for the new version again. As Lightroom and Photoshop are available in the good-value Photographer's Bundle, you'd need a pretty good reason to purchase Elements instead. If you do think Photoshop Elements may be more suited to you, check out our Photoshop Elements review.

• Read our full Photoshop Elements review

We think of DxO PhotoLab as more of a digital darkroom rather than a fully-fledged image editing app, and there's one feature in particular that will be music to an astrophotographer's ears. Its DeepPRIME XD noise reduction, powered by AI, is said to restore previously unseen detail like 'nothing you've seen before,' and the haze-removal ClearView tool claims to significantly boost the contrast and color saturation of your deep-sky photographs. This is amazing news for astro given the high ISO sensitivities we sometimes have to push to, and too much noise will often ruin your images if you can't get rid of it effectively.

We tested both of these features out in our DxO PhotoLab 6 review and we were very impressed with both of them — we even thought the DeepPRIME XD noise reduction tool outperformed Lightroom's new AI noise reduction. We'd love to see them add some kind of image-stacking functionality in the future to really make the software a big player for astrophotographers. 

Although it can process compressed files like JPEG, you will need to shoot in RAW if you want the additional detail and color depth — which you'll always want when editing night-sky images. 

If you like, you can even install Photolab as a Lightroom plugin, so you can spend most of your time on Lightroom, then switch over to Photolab to make use of its impressive AI tools.

• Read our full DxO PhotoLab 6 review

For users on Mac-based operating systems, PhotoDirector 365 is available through a subscription model. However, if you prefer a standalone, one-off software purchase, PhotoDirector 14 Ultra is only compatible with Windows. PhotoDirector 365 and PhotoDirector 14 Ultra are essentially the exact same thing, just packaged differently based on whether you opt for the subscription model or the one-off license (365 being the yearly subscription). PhotoDirector 13, which we reviewed, didn't offer much for specific astrophotography editing and while we discovered the same in our PhotoDirector 365 review we think of it as a jack of all trades, master of none. That means it's suitable for beginner editors.

While there are numerous editing tools that cater to social media users, offering features like stickers and other enhancements for online images, these tools may not necessarily attract serious or professional photographers. There are alternative image editing software options that provide more advanced capabilities at a lower cost.

• Read our full CyberLink PhotoDirector 365 review

Paintshop Pro has been around for a while and is a popular choice for image editing. It takes a layer-based approach, just like Photoshop, which gives you more flexibility in your edits. It even supports RAW images and is starting to introduce AI and content-aware technologies that can greatly improve your astrophotos. While it's designed with beginners and hobbyists in mind, don't underestimate its editing capabilities. 

In our Corel Paintshop Pro review, we found that although it's good for beginners, experienced users and anyone with a lot of photos to edit would likely get frustrated with its performance as even on faster machines, it can be slow and sluggish — not ideal for anyone who shoots events or weddings.

Paintshop Pro is separated into three different workspaces: Photography, which uses a full-screen environment and includes basic editing tools; Essentials, which is a stripped-back version still with good editing capabilities, and Complete; which is a more professional interface. 

Although not tailored specifically for astrophotography, Paintshop Pro does offer a range of tools that can be applied to enhance your astro images. But while the software provides specialized workspaces and custom editing tools for drone and underwater photos, it lacks the same level of focus and attention when it comes to night-sky images, particularly in terms of noise reduction. As many of us know, capturing photos of the night sky often requires pushing the ISO to high levels, resulting in unwanted noise. For astrophotography, it's crucial to have a noise-reduction function that can effectively remove noise while preserving the sharpness of the stars.

Corel has added focus stacking into their most recent update (Paintshop Pro 2023 which we review soon) though, which is great for stacking astro shots with different exposures for the sky and foreground. The performance and useability have allegedly also been improved. We look forward to trying it.

• Read our full Corel PaintShop Pro 2022 review

ACDSee is a great choice if you're looking for a general-purpose image editor as it's a very versatile editing app — see how the 2022 version fared in our ACDSee Photo Studio review. It's organized into a number of modules (much like Affinity Photo's personas) and features a catalog management interface that's largely similar to Lightroom's. There are several tools available to help you enhance your night sky photographs between the develop module, which decodes your RAW images, and the main edit module, which operates more like Photoshop.

There are different versions of ACDSee available: Home, Professional and Ultimate. Home is the base model which is more than suitable for beginners, while Professional is for, well, professionals. Ultimate is the full-fat, beefy version that does everything. To really get the most out of your night-sky images, we'd recommend going for the Ultimate version, as it's designed to be an all-in-one solution for non-destructive editing, organizing, storing and sharing images.

If you shoot RAW files, (which, most of us do), ACDSee has you covered with its RAW image processing feature, eliminating the need for a separate app. In the Ultimate version, you'll find Photoshop-like layers that allow you to stack your night sky images seamlessly. Additionally, ACDSee offers an Advanced Lighting EQ tool that can be applied selectively, enhancing the delicate and subtle glows of the night sky or intensifying darker night skies. The editing process in ACDSee is non-destructive, ensuring the safety of your original images.

In the most recent 2023 version, like with many of the software updates in this guide, there is enhanced AI editing, allowing you to do more (such as replacing the sky in an image while maintaining the foreground image) with a single click.

• Read our ACDSee Photo Studio review

How we test the best photo editing apps for astrophotography

To guarantee you're getting honest, up-to-date recommendations on the best photo editing apps to buy here at Space.com we make sure to put every photo editing app through a rigorous review to fully test each software. Each photo editing app is reviewed based on a multitude of aspects, from its layout and design, to how well it functions as an image editing software and its performance when processing still photos, especially astrophotography.

Each photo editing app is carefully tested by either our expert staff or knowledgeable freelance contributors who know their subject areas in depth. This ensures fair reviewing is backed by personal, hands-on experience with each editing app and is judged based on its price point, class and destined use. For example, comparing the image editing behemoth of Adobe Photoshop to a freeware image editing software wouldn’t be appropriate.

We look at how easy each image editing app is to operate, whether it contains the latest up-to-date imaging technology and file format compatibility. We'll also make suggestions if a particular image editor would benefit from any additional plug-ins to give you the best editing experience possible.

With complete editorial independence, Space.com are here to ensure you get the best buying advice on photo editing apps, whether you should purchase one or not, making our buying guides and reviews reliable and transparent.