Multiple versions of Photoshop and totally confused

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NestoRides514

NestoRides514

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I am getting back into photography and I’m getting totally confused with the different versions of Adobe Photoshop available both on desktop and mobile devices. Currently, I own an iPad Pro and a Mac mini. I like using Photoshop for several reasons but most recently I have been doing a lot of night-sky photography and want to stack images. Unfortunately, I cannot figure out which version of Photoshop I can use that will allow me to do this efficiently. I downloaded Photoshop on my iPad and I can’t seem to find anywhere on how to import images as layers to stack them. I also downloaded Photoshop express which seemed to have some kind of functionality, but unfortunately it’s not what I thought it was. I’m not sure if it could be done on Photoshop Express , but it seems that it is very tedious at best. What version of Photoshop can I download into my Mac mini that will allow me to stack images? When I use Photoshop last before the whole creative cloud experience, the version of Photoshop I had on my Mac mini was almost fully functional for many tasks, including stacking. Thanks for answering my question I look forward to reading the replies.
 
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I have never heard of Photoshop Express so I just did a quick search. It looks like it's a free version, which means you are not going to get any advanced features (including layers). You have two options (and I think your Mac Mini will be much better than an iPad). You can do what I assume most here do, and get Photoshop CS (the "full version" of Photoshop) which requires a monthly payment for as long as you use it. Or you can do what I do (and it seems a minority here) and get Photoshop Elements, which is a one time purchase (usually $99 though sometimes you can find it on sale for $69). It will do layers natively. If you want to do focus stacking, then you can do what I did and buy a $6 third party add-on called Elements Plus that adds a lot of features of the full version to Elements.
 
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NestoRides514 said:
I am getting back into photography and I’m getting totally confused with the different versions of Adobe Photoshop available both on desktop and mobile devices. Currently, I own an iPad Pro and a Mac mini. I like using Photoshop for several reasons but most recently I have been doing a lot of night-sky photography and want to stack images. Unfortunately, I cannot figure out which version of Photoshop I can use that will allow me to do this efficiently. I downloaded Photoshop on my iPad and I can’t seem to find anywhere on how to import images as layers to stack them. I also downloaded Photoshop express which seemed to have some kind of functionality, but unfortunately it’s not what I thought it was. I’m not sure if it could be done on Photoshop Express , but it seems that it is very tedious at best. What version of Photoshop can I download into my Mac mini that will allow me to stack images? When I use Photoshop last before the whole creative cloud experience, the version of Photoshop I had on my Mac mini was almost fully functional for many tasks, including stacking. Thanks for answering my question I look forward to reading the replies.
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Thank you, very helpful, will look into these options.
 
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TurtleCat said:
Just as a note, there are other tools for doing image stacking on the Mac. Starry Landscape is one option, Star Stax is another. If you’re more technically savvy you can use things like Siril for free or more dedicated options that cost money like Astro Pixel Processor or PixInsight. Or use Sequatur via WINE on the Mac: https://www.skylabs.co.nz/post/how-to-install-sequator-in-linux
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Thank you, the added note helps as well. I tried Siril but as you mentioned, there is a technical savvyness to it that I didn’t enjoy. I will checkout these other options.
 
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NestoRides514 said:
Thank you, the added note helps as well. I tried Siril but as you mentioned, there is a technical savvyness to it that I didn’t enjoy. I will checkout these other options.
Click to expand...
It’s worth mentioning to check out Cloudy Night’s board as well. They have a ton of people doing this covering every platform and tool. Most, of course, are dedicated to deep space astro or planetary but quite a few do milky way starscapes and such.
 
The most common choice is the $9.99 per month photography plan way on the bottom here. Most folks bring their images in through the included lightroom because of the organizer, do edits there and then select the images and right click to open them as layers in photoshop, but you can skip lightroom and open directly in Photoshop too.

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