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Stacking vs single long exposure shots, which gives better detail?
I spent 3 nights out near a dark sky spot in Arizona trying to photograph the Orion nebula. First I did a single 5 minute exposure but the noise was bad. Then I tried stacking 30 shorter 30 second exposures with free software. The stacked image had way clearer detail on the dust lanes but the colors looked a bit washed out. Do you think stacking is always better or does a single long exposure capture truer color?
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jamie_smith24d ago
Stacking gives you the option to throw out bad frames" is the whole ballgame right there. That single 5 minute shot is one bad vibration away from being garbage, while 30 subs let you ditch the junk and keep the good stuff. For color, yeah, grab some flats and bias frames, that usually fixes the washed out look without much effort.
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the_riley24d ago
About 2,400 seconds is where the camera sensor really starts to struggle with heat noise, even on a cool night in Arizona. What nobody mentions is that a single long exposure is actually a compromise, the camera is recording light, heat, and tracking error all at once, and you can't separate them later. Stacking gives you the option to throw out bad frames, like one where a plane flew through or the mount wobbled, which you can't do with a single shot. The washed out colors you saw are probably a stretch or calibration issue in the free software, not a problem with stacking itself. I'd suggest using a bias frame and a flat frame in your stack, that usually brings the color back without losing the detail.
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