Editing Astrophotography (section)

====Post-processing====
[[File:Bob Star - M45 Carranza Field (by).jpg|thumb|left|The Pleiades Star Cluster photographed with a 6 megapixel DSLR connected to an 80mm refracting telescope piggybacked on a larger telescope. Made from seven 180 second images combined and processed in Photoshop with a noise reduction plugin.]]

Both digital camera images and scanned film images are usually adjusted in [[Digital image processing|image processing]] software to improve the image in some way. Images can be brightened and manipulated in a computer to adjust color and increase the contrast. More sophisticated techniques involve capturing multiple images (sometimes thousands) to composite together in an additive process to sharpen images to [[Astronomical seeing#Overcoming atmospheric seeing|overcome atmospheric seeing]], negating tracking issues, bringing out faint objects with a poor [[signal-to-noise ratio]], and filtering out light pollution. 

Digital camera images may also need further processing to reduce the [[image noise]] from long exposures, including [[dark frame subtraction|subtracting a “dark frame”]] and a processing called ''image stacking'' or "''[[Shift-and-add]]''". Commercial, [[freeware]] and [[free software]] packages are available specifically for astronomical photographic image manipulation.<ref>{{cite web|author=Chan, Maria|year=2022|title=Best Astrophotography Stacking Software [Ultimate Guide]|url=https://dopeguides.com/astrophotography-stacking-software/|access-date=2022-08-14}}</ref>

"[[Lucky imaging]]" is a secondary technique that involves taking a video of an object rather than standard long exposure photos. Software can then select the highest quality images which can then be stacked. <ref>{{Cite book|last=Gladysz|first=Szymon|title=Adaptive Optics Systems |chapter=Lucky imaging and speckle discrimination for the detection of faint companions with adaptive optics |editor-first1=Norbert |editor-first2=Claire E |editor-first3=Peter L |editor-last1=Hubin |editor-last2=Max |editor-last3=Wizinowich |date=2008 |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329770189 |volume=7015 |pages=70152H |doi=10.1117/12.788442 |bibcode=2008SPIE.7015E..2HG |s2cid=121543131 |series=Proceedings of SPIE}}</ref>