Made by NASA. Reimagined by Skylum.

Let’s face it… a lot of us here at Skylum and a lot of YOU are sci-fi “nerds.” Whether you got started with Forbidden Planet, Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Twilight Zone or Star Wars, there’s a primal tug towards the starry unknown that draws many of us. 

A few years ago, NASA made available more than 8400 images of the Apollo missions on Flickr. NASA had equipped their missions with a set of Hasselblad cameras (click here to check a cool article from PetaPixel about them). Around 2004, Johnson Space Center began re-scanning the original film magazines which resulted in the high-resolution images now available.

After looking at hundreds of these amazing historical images, we thought that running several of them through modern photo editing apps might be useful to bring out additional details or explore creative expressions of the photos. 

Here are a few of the NASA images processed using the Skylum Creative Kit 2016.

Apollo 11 - Flag

Processing notes: In this image, I wanted to focus on the reverence for the U.S. flag by the astronaut. Truly momentous! I've used Tonality to edit this photo: selective color, photo enhancement and vignette.

Apollo 9a - Lunar Module

Processing notes: The original image needed to be isolated from the window frame and of course have details enhanced. Intensify & Snapheal are great for this purpose. I've cropped and removed window outline with Snapheal; added details with Midtown Structure preset in Intensify and bumped up color with Boost Colors preset. Also in Intensify.

Apollo 11 - Buzz Aldrin

Processing notes: My goal here was to make sure the astronaut’s piercing blue eyes shone bright. I've used Intensify's Boost Colors preset and Pro Contrast to achieve the goal.

Apollo 16 - Module & Buggy

Processing notes: I was glad to see an image of the Lunar Buggy and wanted to make sure all the mechanical details in the photo were clear. Plus, in this image, there was a lot of foreground to work with. Rather than crop that away, I chose to select it using the Gradient tool, enhance details, drop the exposure value a bit and then use a Vignette to further draw attention to the Lunar Module and Buggy. Made with Intensify - heavy use of layers, photo detail enhancement and more.

Apollo 17 - Astronaut & Buggy

Processing notes: Starting with a soft, yet iconic shot, I knew I wanted to boost details and colors while making the blackness of space more richly black. Made with Intensify.

Apollo 7 - Orbiting Earth

Processing notes: This shot prominently featured window frames so I first wanted to eliminate that distraction, then boost the details and bring out the blue while retaining the natural feeling of the photo. I've used Snapheal and Intensify for cropping & removing elements, then boosting details.

We would love to see your photos, made or reimagined with Skylum software. Share them in our photography group on Facebook. Happy editing.