AkastroidImage Enhance
About Image Enhance
First, the part that matters most: Akastroid does not use AI to process your pictures. Calibration, frame grading, alignment, stacking, gradient removal, colour, noise reduction and sharpening all run on your computer, from your own data, the same way every time. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Image Enhance is something else, and it runs only when you press it.
Image Enhance uses credits. One credit enhances one picture. The free copy starts with 2 free credits to try it; after that, credits are paid. To see how many you have left, open Help in the app and choose View remaining credits.
Why I added it
I hear from a lot of people on their first few nights. They get the focus right, the tracking right, stack a few hundred frames, and the picture still comes out soft or grainy because the seeing was poor or the sky was bright. That is normal, but it can take the fun out of it. Image Enhance is for that moment. One press, and they get a cleaner, sharper version of the picture they made, and a reason to go out again.
It sits at the top of the Edit step. If you process your own data and want nothing touched by AI, do not press it. It never runs by itself.
What it should and should not do
It starts from the picture you already finished and leaves your stack and settings alone. It is asked to clean up and sharpen, and to keep the object exactly where and how you shot it. Akastroid then checks what comes back. If the object has moved, grown, shrunk or turned, the result is thrown away and your picture stays as it was. You can compare the two, keep either one, or press Undo. A small lift is the goal, not a different picture and not that plastic AI look.
Before and after
Two real presses of Image Enhance, each picture as it went in and as it came back, cropped the same way.
Why it costs credits
This is the one part of Akastroid that runs online. Each boost goes to trained models, and that is chargeable for every picture, so unlike everything else in the app it costs money every time. Putting it into the licence price would mean everyone pays for something only some people use, so it is paid per picture instead.
One credit boosts one picture and costs $0.35. If the call fails and nothing comes back, you keep the credit. An answer that comes back is charged even when Akastroid's own check refuses to show it, because the model's work was already paid for. You can add credits from $10.15, they never expire, and they are kept on your Pro or Pro Studio licence key so they follow you. The free copy comes with 2 free credits to try it, and any it has not used move onto your licence key when you buy. A licence key gets no free credits of its own. To see how many credits you have left, open Help in the app and choose View remaining credits.
To use it: finish your picture, open Edit and press Image Enhance. It takes about a minute and uses one credit. Your balance is under Help, View remaining credits.
If you have questions or think something could be clearer, write to me at hello@akastroid.com. Akash