Processing solar eclipse images is hard, very very hard. I spent three years developing image processing software to try and do it better! What I learned in the process of developing this code was that it is too complicated for anyone to use, and that it requires the data to be captured in such a specific way, that nobody would go through with it. 

However, developing the code led me to take away some key knowledge that might make it possible to mimic the effects of the code but in Photoshop, without the use of calibration frames. So I have put together a workflow guide that walks you through how to tackle some of the key problems in solar eclipse processing:

1. Registration of images on coronal features

2. Stacking

3. HDR composition

4. Handling the moon edge artifact

5. High pass filtering 


Using only Photoshop I came close to reproducing a result that would require the use of the code I worked on, but in this form, it is much more digestible. Here I have two results, one from the 2017 eclipse, and one from the 2023 eclipse captured by Alessandro De Benedictus from Australia. The workflow video covers the editing of each image. The 2017 image requires stacking of each bracketed exposure, but the 2023 image uses only one exposure bracket (no stacking).

This should provide you with a framework for producing a result with a sharp corona, and an artifact-free HDR blend. This workflow also overcomes the issues present in other workflows. For example, the Espenak filter functions well for details, but it cannot properly enhance radial details in the corona. The Larson Sekanina filter in Pixinsight can handle multidirectional detail, but it cannot handle the moon-edge artifact or even the image-edge artifact, and it also treats the image in a way that is not noise-friendly. 

This guide is available as a standalone guide, as well as bundled with my advanced processing guide which contains many hours of other tutorials on deep sky astro topics.