Getting to Grips with Affinity Photo: Editing the Milky Way images from Wembury Beach (Workflow, Lessons & Mistakes)

 Ever tried editing a Milky Way shot and ended up arguing with your software? Same. Here’s how my Wembury Beach images survived Affinity Photo — just about.

Do you remember my Milky Way session at Wembury Beach last month?

If not, you can relive the sandy, slightly chaotic adventure here:
https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2026/05/photographing-milky-way-on-wembury-beach.html

Well… I finally sat down with a mug of tea, opened Affinity Photo, and attempted to turn those raw files into something presentable. What followed was part science experiment, part detective work, and part “why won’t you just do what I’m telling you?”
In other words: a normal night of astrophotography editing.

This post walks through what worked, what didn’t, and what I’ll do differently next time — because if astrophotography teaches us anything, it’s that progress often looks like two steps forward, one step sideways, and one step into a bramble bush.

 

 Where Things Started Going Wrong (On the Night Itself)

Let’s get the confession out of the way:
I should have shot at ISO 3200, not ISO 1600.
My Milky Way band came out far darker than I expected.

But hey — we learn, we adapt, and we try not to cry into our rucksac.

 

 The Great Stacking Experiment

Before diving into Affinity Photo, I decided to run a little three‑way showdown:

• DeepSkyStacker
• Sequator
• Affinity Photo’s own stacking

Think of it as The Great British Stack Off — except nobody gets a handshake and everything smells faintly of dew and seaweed.

Winner this round: Sequator.
Cleanest output, least noise, and the stars behaved themselves.

 

My Affinity Photo post editing Workflow (Step-by-Step)

Below is the full workflow I used — the good, the bad, and the “why is this happening to me?”

 

 1. Layer Setup: Building the Editing Sandwich

1. Opened the Milky Way image and duplicated the background layer three times.
• Background Sky
• Horizon Glow
• Milky Way Band
2. Turned off the Horizon and Milky Way layers.
3. Highlighted the Background Sky layer.

 

 2. Selecting the Milky Way Band

4. Used the Selection Brush Tool in Add mode (soft brush, snap to edges ON) to select the Milky Way.
   Used Subtract mode to clean up stray sky bits.
5. Refined the selection:
• Radius: 1%
• Feather: 0.8 px
• Matte edges: ON
• Output: Selection
6. Turned on the Milky Way layer → clicked Mask → Milky Way isolated.
7. Inverted the pixel selection → turned on Background Sky → clicked Mask.
   Now the sky shows, but the Milky Way band doesn’t.

A neat little cosmic jigsaw.

 

 3. Fixing the Horizon Glow

1. Switched on the Horizon Glow layer.
2. Added an HSL Adjustment:
• Reds: –100% saturation
• Yellows: –100% saturation
3. Used the Gradient Tool (Linear) to draw a gradient from below the glow to above it.
   Turned this into a mask.
4. With a soft white brush, gently painted over the glow area to tame the orange cast.

Think of it like ‘applying concealer to a horizon that partied too hard’ is what a friend suggested when I was describing my frustration with not understanding how to do the procedure well to her. I suspect she was having flash backs to her college days!

 

 4. Enhancing the Milky Way Band

1. Turned off Background Sky + Horizon layers.
2. Selected the Milky Way layer + mask.
3. Added adjustments:
• Curves (midtones boost)
• Levels (tighten blacks)
• HSL (blue tone tweaks)
• Clarity Live Filter
• Denoise Live Filter

This is the part where the Milky Way started to look like the Milky Way again, rather than a ‘smudge’ from a toddler’s pastel crayon.

 

5. Working on the Background Sky

1. Turned off Milky Way layers.
2. Selected Background Sky + mask.
3. Adjustments:
• Curves (darken midtones)
• Levels (deepen blacks)
• HSL (correct colour cast)
• Denoise Live Filter
• Clarity Live Filter

At this point, both sky components looked decent individually…
Which is exactly when everything fell apart.

 

Where It All Went Wrong (The Editing Meltdown)

You know those moments when your brain just packs its bags and leaves the room?
That was me.

I wanted to blend the sky and foreground more realistically — brightness, colour, transition edges — but Affinity Photo had other ideas. No that isn’t fair actually – Affinity Photo knew exactly what it wanted to do and how to do it – it was its idiot user that lost the plot!

❌ Attempt 1: Matching Brightness

Tried lowering opacity → no joy.
Tried curves → nope.
Tried whispering encouragement → still no.

❌ Attempt 2: Softening the Horizon Transition

Tried a black brush on the Milky Way mask → nothing.
Tried Gaussian blur → absolutely nothing.
Tried glaring at the screen → surprisingly ineffective.

Eventually, I admitted defeat.
Sometimes the best editing tool is the “Close Program” button and a consolation biscuit.

 

Final Thoughts (and the Images)

Despite the hiccups, I’m actually pleased with the progress.
Every session — whether under the stars or in front of the monitor — teaches me something new.

These images reflect where my skills are right now:
improving, imperfect, and heading in the right direction.

Much more to learn, much more to try, and many more nights under the South West skies ahead.

Poorly exposed foreground

Wrong exposure 

Like the composition on this one - as this is something I struggle with constantly

Pleased with this one

Quite like this one

Overcooked the milky way and sky; didnt expose the foreground correctly - on both the one above and the one below

In this image - you can see a grey line between foreground and sky - I have no idea what I did wrong during the refine selection process - but I suspect it was there that this line originated.