![]() The selected number of images (say the best 20%) are aligned to the image of reference (usually the one with the best quality).The images in the sequence are scored by quality (relatively to the best one in the sequence).Regardless of your target, image stacking consists of three main steps: The sequence can be a series of long exposures or a short movie clip (preferably with a high frame rate): the first case is the standard for deep sky astrophotography, while movies are served to solar, lunar, and planetary astrophotography.īut the differences between Moon Stacking and image stacking for Deep Sky Objects, DSO, run deeper than just how the image sequence is captured, and lie in how the images and video frames are aligned and combined. Image stacking, whether for the Moon, a planet, a distant deep-sky object, or our majestic Milky Way, always begins in the field by taking a photographic sequence of your target. Otherwise use Lightroom’s built in Luminance Smoothing to avoid artifacts.Īnd if you want to learn all of these techniques along with how to shoot Milky Way photos in the first place, please join me for a Milky Way workshop.7) Conclusion What is Moon Stacking And Should I Do It? If you are looking for the best possible noise reduction for your night sky images and don’t mind doing the extra work, consider stacking. Removes planes, satellites, and other moving objects.Ĭons: requires more care in the field, more processing time and additional programs, and can be trickier to get consistent results. Pros: Produces the cleanest final image by far, with the highest detail and fewest artifacts. Note that you can find easy to follow tutorials for these programs on YouTube. Mac users can find a similar program called Starry Landscape Stacker. In the field I shot 16 exposures back to back and used the PC program Sequator to stack them. Pros: Greatly reduces noise without losing detail.Ĭons: Can create “string” artifacts in the photo. Here I used DxO PureRaw for my AI NR, though I have seen similar results with Topaz DeNoise and Lightroom Denoise as well. Here the method is simply to increase Luminance Smoothing to 50% (I should note that for all of these methods I put Color NR and Color Smoothing at 100).Ĭons: Can smooth out details in your photo and make them look smeary. ![]() Now let’s look at each method in more detail so you can choose what’s best for you. I’ve also found it difficult to match the color and exposure perfectly after I’ve created a stacked TIF. The downside is that it’s the most complicated method, and requires you to be extra methodical in the field in order to shoot multiple frames. It creates the cleanest photos, the best star details, and the fewest artifacts. ![]() I won’t beat around the bush: image stacking is the clear winner. Summary: Image Stacking is the winner BY FAR Single Exposure, no NR Single Exposure, +50 Luminance Smoothing Single Exposure, AI Noise Reduction 16 Exposures, Stacked Single Exposure, No Noise Reduction Single Exposure, +50 Luminance Smoothing Single Exposure, AI Noise Reduction 16 Exposures Stacked Stacking 16 separate Milky Way shots in Sequator.I evaluated each method by how well it reduced noise while maintaining star detail and minimizing artifacts. In this article I compared three different methods of reducing noise in a Milky Way photo. This leaves many photographers wondering how to obtain a high quality, clean image in their night photos. Shooting dark scenes at short shutter speeds and high ISOs is a proven recipe for grainy images (technically it’s not the ISO itself that’s responsible for the noise, but that’s a whole other topic). Probably the most common image quality issue in night photography is noise. ![]()
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