Solar Corona HDR Masterclass

My inspiration came from some of the most finest images I´ve seen so far, from pioneering Dr. Miloslav Druckmuller, and the incredible work of Nicolas Lefaudeux, as well as and the notable results achieved by my friend Petr Horalek. Just few months before the 2024 Eclipse I started going deep, researching and studying the processes involved in those kind of HDR Eclipse images. I red some of the papers by Dr. Miloslav, many other articles…and I knew it would be a very hard task. Specially some critical steps, as calibration and precise sub-pixel alignment in the linear stage, must be done using phase correlation, using correlated image structures to align them perfectly, which is done by non-available softwares, mainly developed by each of the authors, programmed and implemented themselves to apply the correct algorithm in a proper way. I don’t have access to a program with such capabilities and I didn’t wrote my own code – at least for now — so I had to find a different alternative for the critical steps. After many weeks testing and learning, I found the proper way to do it manually with pixel precision, using also calibration frames in the linear stage, but aligning and blending a seamless high dynamic range (HDR), free of artifact and banding, in the non-linear stage and without using one single luminance mask. Simple perfect light flow!

There were helpful articles and tutorials along the way…from Fred Espenak, Alan’s Dyer (Books), Sean Walker (S&T article), and Bray Falls, and they were great, but any of it was completely perfect on covering every aspects in case you plan to do both stages. Calibration, Aligning, HDR Blend and Sharpening. Going from Linear to a non-linear stage, manually, in a step-by-step basis with precise guidance using only PixInsight for calibration and Photoshop for everythibng else. This is exactly what I've created for you!

The Masterclass I’m presenting is the result of many hours of study and practice and a refined fusion of some of the techniques I’ve learned over the last years, and presented in a high comprehensive structured step-by-step guide, applicable to your own images, and repeatable to achieve similar results. Visit my Sun's Aura image and article.

This Masterclass was presented for the first time live in Capture the Atlas Eclipse Summit event in Burgos, Spain, in 13th August 2026 for an audience of 100 photographers and eclipse chasers from around the world. It was then converted in this full PDF guide available for purchase.