Sky Blend

[brenski]

Hoping this question can be answered. I'm new to AP and wondered if the app (windows 10) has a simple Sky Blend (for astrophotography) function - or something similar to PShop's Sky Replacement option?

thanks

[stokerg]

Hi @brenski,

We don't have anything like PS Sky Replacement function.  To replace a sky in Affinity you'd follow the steps on this tutorial.  If you can give a bit more information about what you want to do, there maybe a method to get the results you are after  

[brenski]

Hi

thanks for the reply, this is primarily for blending two images taken of the same night-sky view -using different camera settings.

One with foreground in focus and one for the sky (Milky Way or similar).

[John Rostron]

It might be worth trying a Focus Merge.

John

[brenski]

really helpful, cheers

[stokerg]

Hi @brenski,

I've ran this past our resident Astrophotography expert @James Ritsonand they have suggested 'Using a selection brush + refine selection on the shot with the foreground in focus, then composite that on top of the image with the sky in focus.'  

As its only two images, it wouldn't really be something you would stack, however by all means give it a go and see what results you get.  But in this case, i think the manual method would give better results.  If you'd like to post the 2 images you have, i'm sure you'd get a few more suggestions as Astrophotography is something where if you don't have the images being used, its hard to give advice on the best workflow to follow  

[brenski]

Hi

I don;t have images at the moment - I'm setup to go out on an astro-imaging session next week (weather permitting). My understanding with multiple Milky Way images is these can be stacked (using DSS or Sequator), then the Foreground image can be added - or vice-versa.

[stokerg]

11 minutes ago, brenski said:

My understanding with multiple Milky Way images is these can be stacked (using DSS or Sequator), then the Foreground image can be added - or vice-versa.

From my limited understand on this subject, you should also be able to stack the same images you take next week in Affinity using the File>New Astrophotography Stack option, so you might not even need DSS or Sequator in your workflow.  I would certainly suggest having a check of this article as it covers a lot of points on this subject   

[brenski]

hi, yeah, I'm familiar with the

File>New Astrophotography Stack

option. I use that for stacking night-sky images where there is no foreground (ie just sky). I'm not sure how it can/will handle stuff with some foreground in it.