Stacking photos vs. single long exposure, which tells the truth better?

Last month I shot the Orion Nebula two ways from my backyard in Tucson: one 3-minute exposure and a stack of 40 fifteen-second frames. The stack looks smoother, but the single shot felt more honest, so is astrophotography about showing what's really there or creating the best possible image?

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bens8125d ago

Throws me off when people say the single shot is more honest, because it's really just your camera picking one random moment of noise and calling it the truth. The stack is way closer to what's actually up there, the nebula doesn't flicker in and out, our sensor just sucks. If you want honest, the stack wins every time and the pretty single frame is the lie.

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