Post processing software

[Andywilliams]

Sorry if this question has already been asked (lots of times !) 

I invested in Pixinsight a while back and I absolutely love it !

I also have PS and Lightroom but I’m thinking of cancelling the subscription as I don’t use PS at all and I use Lightroom for putting the final ‘tweaks’ on an image saved from Pixinsight. This usually consists of some extra sharpening, adjusting blacks and whites and also some noise reduction. 

My question is

Is there some free software that will take the place of Lightroom ? .....or.....am I not using Pixinsight to its full extent ? 

Should I be able to fully post process and publish an image from Pixinsight alone ?

Thanks in advance for your comments and expertise.

Andy 

[wornish]

Pixinsight is capable of producing high quality output by itself. but that said many people always give their images a final polish is an image processing app.

If you want free one then have a look at GIMP it can do anything even PS can do.

Affinity Photo is not free but is available for a one off payment and has many astro features excellent value for money.

[ollypenrice]

I think it's Ps you're under-using. (I don't know GIMP so can't comment on how fully it replaces Ps.)

The great thing about post processing in Ps is its Layers function. You can make a copy layer, modify the bottom globally and then erase the top selectively, ether by using one of the many selection tools or by using eye, hand and eraser.  You don't have to worry about creating a mask which somehow manages to exclude just what you want excluded. I find it far more intuitive to use layers and eraser than to use masks but if you're getting along with PI then maybe you're happy as you are.

I'm new to Lightroom and find it stunningly good for terrestrial photography but I feel that a lot of the manipulations are very normal-photography-specific. They're geared to real-world photographic problems encountered outside the dark art! I may be missing something but I don't see myself using LR much for AP.

Olly

Edited April 9, 2021 by ollypenrice
Typo

[Luke]

+1 for GIMP. I knew Photoshop pretty well having used it for 20 years and GIMP is a very capable replacement. You can also use many Photoshop plugins with it, and you can get a very nice free plugin directly for it, G'MIC-Qt (https://gmic.eu/), which has a mix of tools including for contrast, detail and sharpening.

The main downside I think to GIMP is that so many tutorials are for Photoshop. But the price point is sweeter!