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A heads up about stacking photos for deep sky objects
I keep seeing people post single long exposure shots and call them 'stacked' when they're not. This really matters because stacking is what pulls faint details out of the noise. I processed a shot of the Orion Nebula last week, and stacking 50 lights versus using one 5-minute exposure was a total game changer. The difference in the dust clouds was huge. You can't fake that with just one frame, no matter how long the shutter is open. What's your go-to stacking software for keeping things simple?
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kelly.emma1d ago
Actually, sometimes a single long exposure can work better for certain targets. Last month I got a cleaner shot of the Andromeda Galaxy core with one ten-minute sub than I did stacking thirty shorter ones, because the wind died down completely. Stacking software can introduce weird artifacts if your frames aren't perfectly aligned, which happens a lot with basic trackers. What targets are you usually shooting where stacking always wins?
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sandra9161d ago
Yeah the alignment artifacts thing @kelly.emma mentioned is real. I read a forum post where a guy had the same issue with his tracker on Orion, stacking made it look worse.
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