Andromeda Galaxy practice files (Original TIFF and Affinity Photo document)

This is a set of practice files for stacked deep sky astrophotography post-processing.


Included is the source TIFF file from DeepSkyStacker in rational (float) 32-bit precision. You can load this into your preferred image editor as a starting point—you will need to perform tone stretching and extreme white balance correction, as a full spectrum camera with no filter was used.


An Affinity Photo document file is also included, which features my complete non-destructive edit of the original TIFF file. The layer stack is well-organised and labelled so you can easily follow each step of the editing process.


It also demonstrates how you can utilise a non-destructive workflow from beginning to end—no conversion to 16-bit is required (other than producing the gradient removal layer which requires Median Blur) so there is no need to flatten and convert at any point during the editing process.


Also included is a preview JPEG image of the final edit—this is just for reference, since it has been resampled and compressed.