Dense Milky Way core rising over the snow-covered Three Sisters in Oregon

Milky Way finishingmacOS

SkyForge

Forge the night. One click. Zero mush.

The finishing pass that comes after your base edit: star-safe noise reduction, multi-scale star reduction, dust-lane contrast, and physically-grounded diffraction spikes.

See what it does Get support

SkyForge finishing a Milky Way nightscape on macOS — Inside SkyForgeSkyForge reporting exactly what AutoForge measured and applied.

Original photography · Steven Smith

7Finishing modules

~1.1sForge NR at 24 MP

OfflineImages stay on your Mac

The last step between a good nightscape and a finished one

Star-safe finishing that reads the frame before it touches it.

SkyForge is not a RAW developer and not a stacking suite. It is the final forge. Drop in a 16-bit TIFF, click AutoForge, and it measures noise at native resolution, counts stars, scores Milky Way structure and foreground, then applies a tailored finish — and tells you in plain English what it did and why. Every slider stays live and non-destructive underneath.

Bring your base edit

Export a 16-bit TIFF from Lightroom or Capture One and drop it on the window. RAW, PNG, JPEG, and HEIC open too.

Click AutoForge

SkyForge measures the frame, applies a tailored finish, and reports the noise level, star count, Milky Way score, and every strength it chose.

Take the controls

Work Forge NR, StarForge, and SkyClarity by hand, add Glow, Mystical, or Star Spikes, then export 16-bit TIFF for archive or JPEG to publish.

Real product. Current interface.

See SkyForge at work.

SkyForge AutoForge report showing measured noise, star count, and Milky Way score beside the SkyClarity module — AutoForge Report

SkyForge welcome screen inviting a 16-bit TIFF — Drop and go

Built around the real workflow

Tools that earn their place.

The finishing pass that comes after your base edit: star-safe noise reduction, multi-scale star reduction, dust-lane contrast, and physically-grounded diffraction spikes.

AutoForge, with its reasoning shown

One click measures noise at native resolution, star density, Milky Way structure, and foreground share, then applies a tailored finish and explains every strength it chose.

Forge NR

Star-safe noise reduction: guided-filter luma NR with soft-threshold residual shrinkage, blotch suppression, shadow bias, and chroma NR, all under star and structure protection masks.

StarForge

Multi-scale star reduction. Small stars shrink so galactic structure reads, bright anchors stay protected, and there are no dark rings or grey stars.

SkyClarity

Star-protected mid-frequency contrast that lifts dust lanes and the core without touching star cores. Overlay or Soft Light character.

Glow and Mystical

Soft Focus, Glow, Orton and Orton Soft radiance, plus a dreamy light-prioritised mode with contrast, saturation, and black-point control.

Physically-grounded Star Spikes

Newtonian cross, hex and spider for JWST character, 8-blade, and an 18-ray 9-blade sunstar — with brightness-scaled length, diffraction banding, and chromatic dispersion, targeted by star size class.

Fast enough to stay in flow

On Apple Silicon at 24 MP: full analysis around a second, Forge NR about 1.1s, StarForge about 0.3s, SkyClarity about 0.4s.

Colour-managed end to end

A planar Float32 RGB pipeline with BT.709 luma and chroma processing on Accelerate, fully offline, App-Sandbox friendly, with ICC profiles preserved throughout.

Apple distribution

Preparing for release

SkyForge is in active development on macOS and is being prepared for release.

Listing pending

Finishing, not filtering

Every strength it chose, shown in plain English.

01PrivacyHow SkyForge handles your work and data 02SupportHelp getting the most from the forge 03TermsStraightforward terms for your night work

Privacy PolicyEffective July 27, 2026

Overview

SkyForge is a Mac app for finishing astrophotography and nightscape images. It is built around local files, local processing, and user control.

Your photos and projects

SkyForge opens only the files you choose. Analysis, every module, and export all run on your Mac. The app works fully offline and does not upload your images anywhere.

Data collection

SkyForge does not collect personal data, create accounts, track you across apps or websites, or include advertising or analytics SDKs.

Files and settings

The app may store local preferences and security-scoped bookmarks so it can reopen files you selected. Exported images go only where you choose to save them.

Contact

For privacy questions, contact solution7band@gmail.com.

SupportHelp getting the most from the forge

Overview

SkyForge is the finishing pass that comes after your base edit — not a RAW developer and not a stacking suite. This page covers getting the best result from it.

What to feed it

Export a 16-bit TIFF from Lightroom, Capture One, or Photoshop after your base edit.
RAW, PNG, JPEG, and HEIC also open if that is what you have.
Stack or composite first if you are going to; SkyForge finishes, it does not stack.

Working the modules

Press A for AutoForge, then read the report to see what it measured and applied.
Adjust Forge NR, StarForge, and SkyClarity by hand — everything stays live and non-destructive.
Hold \ to compare against the original, press C for split compare, and M to see the mask overlay.
Press 1–6 to jump between module panels, ⌘Z to undo, ⌘E to export.

Export

Export 16-bit TIFF for your archive and JPEG for publishing. ICC colour profiles are preserved end to end.

Contact

Email solution7band@gmail.com with your macOS version, the source file type, and a short description of what you saw.

Email SkyForge support

End User License AgreementStraightforward terms for your night work

SkyForge does not use a separate custom license. It is offered under Apple’s Licensed Application End User License Agreement.

Read Apple’s Standard EULA