2026-10-09 APP 2.0.0-beta48 has been released !
This is mainly a bug fix release for the reported bugs in beta47. In addition it has a significant User Interface performance improvement noticable when you need to process 1000s of images in APP.
2026-10-03 APP 2.0.0-beta47 has been released !
This is a very big release... many code optimizations/rewrites, many parts of APP are much faster and more precise, especially star analysis and registration are much faster ! Big mosaics will go much faster 🙂
And we introduce a new preview filter, which includes the new Adaptive Deep Sky Stretch and a General Levels Stretch, this has been long over due. The old preview filter (the panel on the right side to stretch and preview your data) has not been updated for a couple of years and it is a critical part of any APP session.
Adaptive Deep Sky Stretch or ADSS is a much more intuitive stretch algorithm. It is also color preserving (which is a great new addition in itself ! ) which means that the highlights are no longer bleached, color is maintained from the linear data while stretching. You can simply stretch your data using the sky background level and signal width sliders which work much easier and more intuitive. You no longer need to fiddle with the old complicated sliders with zoom buttons. All the zoom buttons for the sliders are made redundant. And you can enter slider values in the slider value fields yourself. I will make a youtube video in the coming days to explain and fully introduce ADSS. Once the video is ready, it will be highlighted on the forum.
RGB Combine upgrade !. The RGB Combine Tool has been rewritten mostly. The tool is faster and easier to use and most importantly, the Luminance slider to inject a luminance channel or channels into the RGB composite is now working correctly. It no longer bleaches the RGB colors. Combined with the new ADSS preview, you will get much better and easier great composites with great color! I will also explain this in a new youtube video.
Hi,
I've almost run out of time on the trial and am almost ready to purchase but I'm struggling to save to tiff what I see on the preview screen. No matter whether I select "Stretch" or "DPP" or select neither the actual saved image comes out looking washed out and needs further work in PS. This seems unnecessary as the image in the preview pane has all I want already done. I should say I'm new to astrophotography so I'm probably missing something blindingly obvious!
TIA
Ken
Its the "Stretch" button that determines what is saved. Unchecked, you will get the unstretched stack. Checked, you will get the image according to the DPP settings - i.e. what you see. So you should have both stretched and DPP and perhaps AUTO all selected for starters. Opening the output in a tiff view should look like what you see in APP. If not, then maybe its your tiff viewer.
EDIT: I always have to tweak the export from APP in Lightroom though to get a really nice looking image. But APP has adjustments that can give you a nice output but its harder to work with.
Thanks Astrogee,
I think I've figured it out. If I output a 32-bit TIFF from APP then load it in Photoshop, I have to select sRGB or Monitor RGB from the View->Proof Setup menu and it shows as expected. If I then convert (in Photoshop) to a 16-bit TIFF the image becomes washed out no matter how I do the conversion. If I save as a 16-bit TIFF from APP then it loads an looks as expected in PS. Don't have the knowledge/experience to know why this is.
Cheers,
Ken
Yeah, because you stretch in APP you don't need to output in 32 bit. 16-bit is fine because you won't be doing any more stretching -cheers!
Hi Ken @kendavies & @astrogee,
It is like astrogee comments:
Its the "Stretch" button that determines what is saved. Unchecked, you will get the unstretched stack. Checked, you will get the image according to the DPP settings - i.e. what you see. So you should have both stretched and DPP and perhaps AUTO all selected for starters. Opening the output in a tiff view should look like what you see in APP. If not, then maybe its your tiff viewer.
If you have saved a stretched image in APP, let's say image.jpg, and load that image.jpg in APP into the image viewer, you will need to set the DDP preset to "no stretch (data as is)" to see what has actually been saved without applying any operation on it from the preview filter. That is the data that was saved and any other image viewer/processing application should show the same image.
Please be aware that for color images, Color ICC profiles are automatically saved in your TIFF and JPG files. It is up to the application that loads the images to propely apply these ICC profiles. Some versions and configurations of Photoshop don't do this automatically and instead would apply a wrong ICC profile instead of the one supplied with the image.. don't ask me why. This is for Adobe to answer 😉
And yes, if you save a 32bits TIFF some versions of Photoshop will not properly show the data. This is a well-known issue and affects other applications as well. Perhaps in that case, also the ICC profiles are messed up as well. So it could be a combination of both problems in Photoshop.
So my advice would be to first study in detail how your version of Photoshop deals with ICC profiles embedded in the JPGs or TIFFs and then verify the 32bits limitations of your Photoshop version.
Please let me know if this is clear and if you have any other questions 😉
Kind regards,
Mabula
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