

However, you can also perform this technique using Adobe Photoshop manually, or with the built-in stacking script. It includes over 100 pages of detailed instructions and tips, as well as exclusive video tutorials.

If you need help with your image stacking and processing skills, have a look at my astrophotography image processing guide. There are several software tools that will automatically align and stack your images together, including my personal favorite, DeepSkyStacker. It can really make your life easier when processing an astrophotography image because it allows you to perform an aggressive curve and level adjustments without destroying or clipping the data. A stacked image will have a much “smoother” background and improved image quality overall. When you reduce the amount of noise in your images, you benefit from an improved signal-to-noise ratio. The (not-so-secret) trick is to take several shots of the same area of the night sky and blend them together using a technique called stacking. Thankfully, there are proven ways to reduce noise in your low-light, long exposure shots. An image that looked great on the display screen of your camera may appear quite different when you look at it up close on your computer screen. If you have ever taken a long exposure astrophotography image of the night sky using a DSLR camera with a high ISO setting, you’ll know all about the negative effects of noise. Image alignment and focus stacking algorithms in Photoshop will do the rest for you.Astrophotography Tutorial: Image Stacking in Photoshop Make sure your light is constant between the shots and that you don’t shift your perspective too much. Whether it will confuse the algorithm or it will show up when stacked, the fact is that you’ll have issues and the result won’t be perfect. If the light changes it might pose some issues with the stacking. The only issue here is to have the same light during these shots. This process usually requires a tripod and some fiddling to get it right, however image alignment in Photoshop is so advanced nowadays that you can do it handheld with some practice. The only way to go usually is to shoot more images at different focus and then stack them together in order to create a composite image which will have bigger field of focus than a single shot would have. Having enough depth of field to squeeze the whole subject into focus when focusing up close is really hard. We can call it “macro photographer’s way of life”.
