I was recently contacted by Ken Mitchell the creator/owner of PhotoKemi Star Tools.  Ken graciously offered me the chance to obtain a copy of his PhotoKemi Star Tools as well as the PhotoKemi Star Tools Extras package in exchange for a blog post with my assessment.  I gladly jumped at the chance. What follows are my results, before and after images, and thoughts on using PhotoKemi Star Tools on several of my astro images.

So what is PhotoKemi Star Tools anyway?  It’s a collection or set of actions designed for use in Abode Photoshop specifically for editing/enhancing astrophotography images. Tasks that are typically generated manually using several simple steps to multiple steps with different tools and/or complicated iterations in Photoshop are condensed into Actions and run at the click of a button. That’s the power of PhotoKemi Star Tools.

In Photoshop they are referred to as “actions” but to me I think a more accurate name for them should be “auto tasks.” Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying that manually working your image in Photoshop is a “thing of the past.” Not at all, but having these auto tasks or actions at your finger tips will lighten the load and speed things up to be sure.

Beginners and experienced astrophotographers will find the PhotoKemi Star Tools action set easy to run, time saving and versatile to use when processing their images. I know I sure did. But there is another and perhaps most important aspect PhotoKemi Star Tools affords the beginner – reducing  the post processing learning curve! Let’s face it from start to finish producing a great astro image is a huge undertaking for the newbie and any benefit or edge obtained in that long and diverse sequence of tasks is welcome and appreciated. Especially when it works and works well.

When I first was turned loose with the actions I was like a kid in a candy store. I found myself using levels stretch, color correction, color boosting, reducing background noise, sharpening stars, star reduction, star removal, bringing out nebulosity/space dust,  enhancing dark detail and more. Yah, I kinda went crazy but quickly realized the power in the actions. The trick I think is to know your image and apply the appropriate manual manipulation along with the PhotoKemi Star Tool actions using the right workflow to bring out the best in the image. Decidedly, I’m new to this and still learning but that is my workflow.

A great aspect of the action set is you can run one,  see the difference appear before your eyes, select the new layer and then use the opacity slider to change or reduce the results. Don’t like how it changed the image?  Hide the layer and go at it using a different approach.

I tested PhotoKemi Star Tools version 3.1.1 and PhotoKemi Star Tools Extras version 3.1. The core set PhotoKemi Star Tools includes 22 actions by my count, and several of those include two or three variations i.e. Reduce Star Bloating 1, 2 and 3, etc.

The set of Extras include an additional 10+ actions including reduce background stars, star reduction, reduce blue, reduce magenta, reduce green, add star spikes and more.

Installation was extremely easy. I’m particularly fond of the color correction, background star reduction, nebula filter and space dust actions. They are must haves as far as I’m concerned. In my experience these tasks (especially color correction and background star reduction and space dust) have been tedious at best and frustrating to manually attempt. PhotoKemi Star Tools performs these actions beautifully and simply.

Visit the web site for additional information such as detailed information on each action, FAQ, hints, tips and tricks, videos and pricing.  At present I see that both the Star Tools and Extras are on sale 20% off, and can be purchased for around $20 US. A bargain to be sure. I highly recommend PhotoKemi Star Tools to anyone just learning to post process in Photoshop. In fact, I’d go as far and say it’s a must have. These actions will be a huge benefit. The more seasoned astrophotographer who already has their feet wet but wants to up their game undoubtedly will enjoy the action set as well.

Clear Skies,

Scott