Rant: I was wrong about image stacking software

For years I thought stacking was just cheating to make a bad photo look good. I figured if you couldn't get the shot in one frame you just weren't trying hard enough. Then I spent a night at a dark site in Texas and shot 200 frames of the Orion Nebula. Tried stacking them in a free program called DeepSkyStacker just to prove myself right. Instead the detail in the gas clouds blew me away, I could see structure I never knew was there.

3 comments

3 Comments

dylan6042mo ago

Same here man. I was dead set on being the "real photographer" who only does single exposures. Now I'm out here stacking 200 frames of the moon like some kind of lunatic.

reesemiller2mo ago

Wait, you're stacking 200 frames of the moon? @dylan604, that's some next level dedication, thought I was bad with my 50 frames.

thomas.tyler1mo ago

Stack the frames in groups of 50 first, then stack those groups together. Saves your computer from choking halfway through and you still get that clean detail.