Landscape Astrophotography Noise Reduction with Image Stacking in Photoshop CC or CS6 Extended

[@ingerklekacz]

THANK YOU for this clear, organized tutorial! So often I see a promising subject and then it turns out it's just some rando pausing and stumbling and going off on tangents while he figures out how to explain what he does. You've obviously given thought to how to present this information and have spent time on the presentation. Seriously. Thanks.

[@NetGawker]

FINALLY!!! A clear and precise video on a subject that is accurate, helpful, highly useful, and free of editorial filler. Please tell me you have a selection of videos like this one. I will buy instructional videos from you, just point me to the url! Thank You!

[@splintercelloo7]

Ian, fanatsic work! Thanks for sharing. My wife and I have been poking around with landscape Milky Way shots for a about a week now and you've helped a ton with post processing.

[@JesseKoukku]

I find my self coming back to this tutorial video over and over again.. It is invaluable in other types of photography aswell. Kudos and a mountain size thumbs up!

[@JesseKoukku]

***** I can't wait to see what you've managed to cook up for your audience :D

[@AvernaBonani]

This is one of the best tutorials I've ever seen on youtube no matter what genre, and I've seen a lot. Thank you!

[@KimJongUnTheOneAndOnly]

Nice, two questions 1. Is it possible to take photos of the milky way in a city? 2.How do you find the milky way in the sky?

[@TheSkyyvod]

just gotta say you have the best intro on youtube. fits so well with your channel

[@BillMaryon]

I'm amazed your alignment worked perfectly, I consistently get poor alignment and a blurry stack!

[@BillMaryon]

***** Hi Ian, I hate doing things manually, so I created an action to apply my mask to each raw file (to remove the foreground) and save it as a tiff. I then bring these files into deep sky stacker to create the median blend which seems to work much better. :-)

[@BubuSnow93]

There is a faster way to copy the masks, at least on Windows but almost surely you can do it on a Mac. Press Alt while you are dragging a layer mask from a level to another and it will copy it instead of replacing it ;)

[@PaulWilsonImages]

Great!

[@sandroarcodia]

There is also a faster way than this: create a folder, put inside all layers, then create a mask on the folder. Only 1 mask for several images, you edit and delete it in one clic!

[@RoshanMoayed]

Ian you are the man!!! Thank you for all that you do on this channel. All the best!

[@psimera]

Thanks for your videos from Russia. despite the fact that I do not know English, this is the best channel of those that I saw dedicated astrophotography. P.S. I'm sorry if it is written clumsily, is google translete =)

[@gabrieldibjunior5431]

Wonderful ! All the best from Brazil !

[@Jobeleca]

I made my first stab at photographing the Milky Way this week, glad I ran across this video :)

[@RonanHardingDownes]

Your videos are extremely helpful, you stick to the point and make it extremely easy to follow, I look forward to trying some astrophotography timelapses, any tips?

[@stretchini]

Clear. concise video, thanks a bunch! Out shooting those stars tonight!

[@stevey500]

Brilliant. This does do very well. I tried this with 10 photos of the milky way taken at 1250ISO F2.0 @12mm (APSC) and was very impressed with the clean and sharp result.

[@cheekykent]

Thanks for this, I'll be sharing this video around to a few folks I know that are struggling with noisy milky way shots etc. This was easy to understand, basic, step by step which is great. I've heard that the best lenses to use are the f2.8's only? are f4 lenses not ideal or will they still work for these types of photos?

[@tk1-tk2-tk3]

That's awesome, thanks for the instructions... but I'm guessing you don't do this for every frame of your time lapse movies, right? How are those processed?

[@gabrilovfest2979]

Very nice video. Though I don't understand one thing. In the lightroom part you were talking about images of equal exposure. In photoshop you talk about images with different exposures. What is it now?

[@JohnGilbert49]

Great video. I will try stacking on my next outing. You mentioned you zip files to save space. I am running into a problem. My external drives are getting full 6GB. I save all my process files as tiff. 1) Can I convert all my photo files to zip files? 2) Should I just save the processed files as zip? It appears if I go out and try to save an existing file as a zip that it makes a copy of the file and saves it as a zip. 3) How would this save me space? 4) If I went out and saved a processed file as zip would I then delete the original processed file? My definition of a process file is a RAW file with multiple layers that I have then saved as a tiff file for further editing. Hope you will address these questions. Thanks again for this tutorial.

[@KG2012able]

thanks for the nice and tutorial ,Ian. that's really helpful for me to retouching the astrophotograpy ,cant wait to see ur new tutorials;)~

[@bl1ndeh]

I have tried following this 3-4 times now with around 15-25 exposures each time and as soon as I stack using the median stacking option my end result has had all of the stars blurred out... what am I doing wrong? (I have not had any foreground/static items in any of the shots so I have skipped the layer mask step). Otherwise, you have an amazing end result and great tutorial!

[@TrevRich]

Jonathan Creaney I'm getting the same issue. The Milky Way seems to remain sharp, with less noise, but the stars around seem to blur...

[@hectormunozhuerta]

My image also becomes blurred. I tried stacking 4 and 24 exposures and bot made the image blur. Focus was not perfect in my case but is that critical?

[@jeremythomas4258]

+Jonathan Creaney Just take your layers, align them, convert them into a smart object and then apply the median filter, skip the masks and all that... Well that what worked for me.

[@microsnook3]

This is also not working properly for me. I tried it a couple times and different ways w/ masks w/o....stars are getting damaged

[@nlyon9942]

Me too. But I did find that geometric distortion in the lens can be a huge factor. The tutorial went from Lightroom to PS...perhaps the image was corrected along the way. I'm going straight from camera to PS and the distortion makes the direct images unstackable, even if I enable the PS Auto-Align Lens Correction option for Geometric Distortion. So I used Hugin to determine and remove the lens distortion. Then the PS aligning went better but was still not great. The PS alignment algorithm does not seem very robust on star fields. Some images may work better than others. (My images had more ISO noise and less contrast than the tutorial, but the stars were still evident to me.) So back to Hugin and added enough control points to align all the other images and just used it to stack. The result was much better.

[@jarydbrazier516]

Hi Ian, great video! I am about to venture out and take some night photography as the conditions are ideal, and i was wondering if you were to do say a 10 image stack (for example) what settings would you use? as apposed to a single image photo at f4, 25sec, iso 3200 ??

[@andydyson3023]

Ian - really great stuff you show here, very impressed with your work. Question i have is do you image stack for everything? so if you were doing a panoramic shot like your "medium format" video, would you have taken multiple pictures (say 4) for each overlap shot to image stack prior to running it through the panoramic creation tool? Thanks Andy

[@Oxizee]

Is this way better, then stacking with astrophotography stack tools? @Ian: are you gonna make more photography video's? You explaining this verry well.

[@TheBravo420]

Great tutorial. Subscribed! Next clear night my eos-m is coming for a drive out to the countryside.

[@SoJuDaMaN]

Hey Ian, great video. Question: Have you experimented on what the optimal amount of shots for this stacking method would be? I would assume that diminishing returns are to be expected. Meaning that stacking 16 shots won't give you twice the amount of noise reduction than stacking 8 shots.

[@luigigarcia3273]

Amazing video, looking forward to try this! thank you very much Ian!

[@SeychellesCc1]

awesome - tutorial. Quick and straight to the point! Thanks for sharing!

[@Baodehui]

Ian, thanks so much for the video! I'm eager to try this out. I'm wondering if you've tried this technique on a composition which has, a tall silhouette in it like a cactus. If the foreground blocks part of the sky, it seems like aligning and then median blending would tend to blur out that silhouette. Any ideas?

[@Ashinperth]

Hi Ian, thanks for the video it’s a great training aid, however, I’ve have ran into a problem as I try and learn the process. When I do my final masking of the two layers I get two set of the foreground? On my first try I was getting results like yours (glad I saved it). Going back over you video, I do not have the duel circle on my masking brush (2.55), which I suspect is the problem. How do you setup you brush, and how do you get the duel circles again. Ash

[@Tubularjake]

Good video man.......My brush shows a cross...not a circle like urs. Can i change this?

[@rebeccabozzo2000]

Hi Ian, Thanks for the tutorial! Super helpful. I am new to astro and stacking. Do you do any basic exposure adjustments (expo, wb, contrast etc) in Lightroom to each image before you send them to Photoshop to stack or do you continue to process in Lightroom after you stack? I am trying to establish a workflow before I go out and do my next shoot. Thanks for your time. Cheers.

[@MikeSpecian1]

I wish I had seen this video years ago. Thanks for sharing.

[@zenchiii]

Awesome tutorial, dude. I appreciate it a lot. Keep up with the good videos!

[@sawanathagoolsawat9655]

Thanks to Ian for fantastic work!!! Subscribed.

[@StormChaserAaronRigsby]

For whatever reason when I go to the smart objects tab to click the stack mode it won't let me click on it. I have selected the smart layer and everything.

[@chicagoterence]

You need the extended version of photoshop for that tool.

[@tomhanna2966]

it really is a great tutorial. I have run into a problem following it. When I group the layers together in CS6 and go to convert them to a smart object. All of the layers disappear, and I only have the smart object, so I can't go any further. Any suggestions?

[@kylemperez]

Hi Ian! :) What settings did you used? shutter speed, ISO, white balance and aperture. Thanks in advance! :)

[@tyrettke2450]

Hi! Thanks for the tutorial, great help! I was wondering though if you had a suggestion for me. Im using Photoshop CC, and when I get to the part where you go to Stack Mode, my option for stack mode is greyed out. Any idea why I can't use it? :S

[@skymakai1486]

Thanks so much! Quesion, you said, "...there's pretty much no better way..." Is this mode preferable to using Starry Sky Stacker? And, time lapse videos tend to just be single frames, correct?

[@omessaoudi3608]

great job, what's your gear setup, camera and lens used for the timelaps

[@Brightwoodphotos]

One of his videos shows him using a mirrorless camera. Sony I think. But that doesn't matter so much. This process lets you take great milky way photos and such with cameras that don't have the best high iso preformance

[@frednorman1]

Good tutorial....

[@driss1227]

Do you have Long Exposure NR turned on? If so does the added time for taking the dark frame make it harder to stack the sky if you are taking 6-10 photos. Don't know if too much rotation will transpire between photos

[@mantx]

cool :) love this video:) what do u think? this noise reduction trick will help me? if i take shots with d5200?

[@arohila]

This was great and very details. Thanks for doing this, very helpful and just what I was looking for.

[@saif.aldhaheri]

awesome tutorial! In some of the pictures I keep getting random hazy streaks under the milkyway checked the original pictures there wasn't any. I use the averaging technique 100, 50, 33, 25 ...... then the streak occurs could be the lens distortion affecting the alignment of the image?

[@jimabels9075]

Do you recommend shooting dark frames as well?

[@PatrickGuerrisi]

at 5:29 when you paint out the sky mines being painted out as checkered like when I was painting out the ground? Sorry new to photoshop

[@skylergreene7404]

when is the next LA workshop?

[@Zhorellski]

Do you have to set a uniform (iso,shutter & aperture) settings? Will a mix setting work as well?

[@zacharylocks]

Is this still the best way to accomplish this or have you developed a newer/different method?

[@jeromefang]

Hi Ian, fantastic video. I started playing with Astrophotography recently and I truly learn a lot from your tutorials. Hope you don't mind I post a noob question regarding this video. I've recently did a time-lapse shot of the milky way and I have approximately 90 images, each taken at 30sec intervals. Hence, what would be the ideal number of images to use for a stack? Should it be still the 16 or more or less? Many Thanks in advance... :)

[@jeromefang]

***** Hi Ian, Thanks for the reply and advice. I'll start playing with 16 shots for my stack. Thanks again... :)

[@joseceja8605]

So should I edit the images first, then stack them? Or should I stack them and then edit the final image?

[@riccaruf]

Great video Ian thanks so much!. Just a question if anyone got it : overlap layers to limit the startrail ? CS6 always give me the 40% layers do not overlap. Any suggestions ?

[@jiminycrocketatthealamo9836]

Should have watched this BEFORE taking photos, lol. Still very helpful and I'm going to try this on my next night sky shoot.

[@kamasutra73]

Great tut! Question: I go through the process until i get to 5:30 and then it haults. When applying the brushtool for the foreground nothing happens. I brush the stars but they remain blurry. Any ideas what it could be? I've tried this tut bit by bit a million times and it's always the same. (I use PS6 Extended)

[@kamasutra73]

***** Thank you for the reply. I'm afraid the problem still remains. Some parts of the sky gets unblurred, but that's barely visible. Strange!

[@picartman123]

Emotional Content I have the same blur issue.

[@EdMacKerrow]

What were the capture parameters for each of your 16 images ? (ISO, shutter speed, aperture, lens focal length) ? Thanks. Does image stacking allow you to use a lower ISO, or does it reduce noise from higher ISO ? Thanks !

[@rextong2675]

Hi, I have follow your step in detail however, I still can't have the pix aligned. Is it because I used the wide angle lens?

[@ilanifer]

Does this method works also for current versions of Lightroom&Photoshop ? And can i apply this method on a series of consecutive exposures that were taken in purpose to combine them as panorama ?

[@TINOSOLOMON]

Hi Ian, How do you batch process your day to night timelapses to look so good? If the night photos are batchprocessed those same settings won't be applicable to the transition time and day(sunrise or sunset) images.

[@stephenbooth4572]

One tricky thing with the median stack. In my most recent milky way shots a very light cloud moved through the frame. The cloud does not particularly impact any one image but when the median stack is applied the whole area where the cloud moved through is blurred.

[@Sjester101]

So whenever I do this I follow the tutorial to a tee and when i get to the point where I am supposed to click on layers/smart_objects/stack_mode/Medium, the stack mode icon is grayed out as unavailable, am I missing something?

[@davestewart9521]

HI Ian, this is a great tutorial - Thanks! I am trying to do it on one of my own images and I am at the alignment stage. Unfortunately the auto-align simply doesn't work, it makes some minor adjustments to each layer but nowhere near enough to correct the earth's rotation. I have tried several masks to hide the foreground and several alignment modes but none of them work. Subsequently when I use the median blend mode on the sky smart object it just ends up all blurry, and no better than the foreground smart object. Any tips would be much appreciated, this is really frustrating!

[@davestewart9521]

***** Ian, thanks for the very prompt reply! I scrolled down through previous comments and saw someone with a similar problem and a similar response from yourself - so I went ahead and manually transformed 5 layers and the result was pretty good. It was tedious, but after a bit of experimenting it got easier - particularly by using a 'difference' blend mode on the upper layer. This was my result in the end facebook.com/studio2photographer/photos/a.643724405651246.1073741828.642182479138772/880414221982262/?type=1&theater

[@tedraynor9818]

Thank you Ian. I did notice a lot of color fringing around the stars. Something I see in all of mine of course. At what stage and how do you deal with the color fringing? Being new to the idea of image stacking, I always solve the issue in Camera Raw but if I get out and try this stacking technique, do I just open the finished image in Camera Raw and fix it? Also, is shooting 16 images a standard number to shoot?

[@tedraynor9818]

Not worth shooting 1,000 then? ;) Thank you Ian!

[@luigigarcia3273]

Hey Ted, I'd give it a try with the chromatic aberration correction tab within the lens correction panel in Lightroom. I'm not sure if the fringing of the stars is actually chromatic aberration, but it looks exactly the same. I think it will work. Just scroll the colors to match the tones of the fringing on your image and check the box to fix that. Good luck!

[@tedraynor9818]

Luigi García Thanks Luigi!

[@butlermike85]

Do you edit the images in Lightroom first (batch edit) before exporting to PS or do you stack them and then process?

[@LEXPIX]

Just awesome! Will have to learn how to use PS to get such results.

[@sicklads]

Is there an approximate optimal number of images required to reduce noise to a level that additional images make unnoticeable difference?

[@GoldenMicOne]

Well i think it depends. There is no definite number, but at some point it doesn't do much anymore because the most noisy objects are filtered out already.

[@torbjrnvrebekk3178]

It's an exponential thing. Each doubling of the number of images should give you a similar apparent reduction in noise. So going from 8 to 16 you should see about the same improvement as going from 4 to 8.

[@behemith2d5]

Hey Ian, I was wondering if you have to have CS6 extended edition to use the stack mode option. Mine is grayed out when I get to that step. Thank you for the great tutorial.

[@behemith2d5]

+Ian Norman (Lonely Speck) thanks for the reply. is there an alternate method to get past this point?

[@gabrielemorse]

Hi Ian, I've a simple question about your video: I did not get one point: The images you use are just many photos taken from your tripod always in the same position, with same camera setting? Can I ask you what camera, lens and settings you used to shoot? Thanks in advance.

[@jose280714]

As far as I understand yes that's the technique.... as earth rotation goes by the keeping the tripod fixed on the position to maintain the composition will display the starts at different positions, then you have to align then you can use a timer shutter to program the amount of shoots you want ... then later post process in PS are the video explain...

[@mousum26]

Hi that`s a great tutorial. Bt in my Photoshop (cc 2014) stack option is non functional. Stack option is there bt after converting my photos into a smart object I cant access stack option. What are the possible reasons, any suggestion?

[@exchangedspider]

pirated software?

[@kalef1234]

Make sure you're going to Layer->Smart Objects->Stack Mode

[@Fgvmoto]

ian that's a great workflow for reduceing the noise in nightphotography,i am also useing a lightpainting method for objects in the foreground(a house for ex.) i also get noise on the object ...do you think i can use the same workflow to reduce noise in the foreground?Thx for this amezing video,it was very helptfull.

[@Fgvmoto]

i will thx for your feedback,keep up the good work

[@RichardHorsfield]

Awesome tutorial, thanks.. I have a Sigma 10-20 that I have used in the past with mixed results. I need to purchase a new lens, what do you recommend, for a Nikon D200 :)

[@RichardHorsfield]

Excellent, thanks for the advice :)

[@artificium_]

tried this with 16 full size tiffs at first, that was a mistake haha. took like an hour to get to the median stack and then it was mostly blurred. idk if this is going to work for me though, at least with this set of photos, i seem to lose some sharpness in some areas. was just a test anyway, nbd. i did do your other ettr light pollution method too, i like that a lot, actually got some meteors in some pics last night even though the meteor shower wasn't that great. didn't see any with my eyes but the camera caught em.

[@gil80]

Hi Ian. I took 16 images like you have and used your tutorial, however after using Image Stack Median filter, the image looks smudged... as if it's almost doing star trail edit. Yes noise was reduced but except for the centre, there's no sharp image left. What could be the reason? what is the interval between shots you take? I did 15 second exposure (plus another 15 seconds for long exposure noise reduction).

[@jayclipper5350]

Ian- does this method give better results than using Starry Landscape Stacker? This seems like a lot of work, but worth it if the results are better. Also, why 16 total images? Why not 15?

[@redtuzk]

You menchioned that you shot the photos using an intervalometer. Did you shoot each photo back-to-back after each exposure?

[@redtuzk]

Thanks for the quicky reply, tutorials like yours helps aspiring astrophotographers like me alot.

[@longboarder9989]

Hi, I'm getting stuck @ 4:30 when you stack median, when I go to stack mode, it doesn't hi-light so I can't click it. I'm wonder if I'm missing a step? I delete masks, stack into smart object then... at this point I can't hit stack mode. Any idea why?

[@BillMaryon]

You may need the extended version of PS to do this!

[@VinitaPhord]

Thank you! Learning about astrophotography.

[@rohankalyanpur5136]

Ian, I am a newbie to Photoshop, average with Lightroom, is there any way you can share the raw files so some of us can practice the stacking methodology? This would be helpful so we dont have to go off an shoot our own 16-32 shots.

[@MistaKimsta]

Can I just take one exposure of the foreground in focus with some light painting and blend that image with multiple exposures of the sky (background) so I can stack the image to reduce noise? I do i have to convert the foreground layer into a smart object since I dont have to stack the foreground parts right? Any help is much appreciated. I would like to prepare as much as possible before I drive 10 hrs to shoot.

[@petemayo]

great video! it looks like there is a white lonely speck on your upper lip though...

[@fredericktaylor1801]

Hello! quick Question. Do you know what your camera settings were when you shot these photos? And what lens were you using? Thank you so much. --Fred

[@fredericktaylor1801]

Thanks! Another question. Why is a higher ISO better with astrophotography?

[@fredericktaylor1801]

What is the best starting point on my settings? I will be using a Rokinon 12mm f2 Ultra Wide and Sony a6000

[@joshrichards6486]

Hey Ian, can this same technique be used in milkyway timelapse photography? I see how it is easily used for a still image, but for a timelapse with a lot of movement, it seems like it would be very difficult to pull off.

[@LonelySpeck]

right, this is intended for creating a single final still only. it is, however a nice thing to be able to do with an already completed time-lapse.

[@joshrichards6486]

Do you have a tutorial on how to something like this off with a completed timelapse? Thanks a bunch for the awesome vids and the great help.

[@LonelySpeck]

picking 8-16 frames of your time-lapse and following this tutorial is a great way to produce a noise free still.

[@toocoolforu]

Very instructive! Thanks a lot

[@kevin71127]

I'm wondering, would it be beneficial to take a series of photos ranging in exposure from dark to light, kind of like an HDR photograph, an then merge them? I would imagine this would give better value range but would it work?

[@kevin71127]

Thanks for the quick reply. So it's a matter of finding that right balance between shutter speed and ISO so the photos aren't too blurry or too noisy? Also, what is the benefit of taking multiple photos instead of just duplicating the same photo and merging?

[@Grees114]

Hi Ian, thanks for that really cool video ! I've a bit of a problem : when I apply Median as a stack mode on the Smart Objet, all the stars in the sky disappear ! What did I do wrong ? Maybe I don't have enough shots : I made 10 shots. Is that it ? I'm quite lost ! Thanks for your help !

[@Grees114]

***** Thanks Ian, I saw someone else had the same problem, and it was indeed the auto align that failed. I'm trying to do it with the Free Transform tool, but it's not really funny :D. Thanks for your help !

[@Grees114]

***** Another question : could you explain me why auto-align fails ? Did I wait too long between my shots, thus creating a too big difference in the stars position ? Is it something else ? (Sorry if i'm not clear, english isn't my native tongue)

[@DrOrrtho]

Hi Ian, great video, except I'm having an issue. When I apply the median filter to my "Sky" layer, it ends up removing all the stars from the sky and making it just the blue/black of the sky background... it's like the filter is registering the stars as noise and removing them... any solution for this? I've tried it a couple times and this always happens. I've followed all the instructions to a T.

[@DrOrrtho]

***** Ah yes, it seems that was the problem. CS6 did a piss poor job of actually aligning them... I will have to manually free transform each one. What a pain! Actually I'm going to try aligning a couple layers at a time, then stacking the smaller sets of aligned layers and see what that does. Thanks for the help!

[@mickue]

Thank so much! This will become quite handy!

[@windsor3833]

this tutorial is amazing! thank you! its exactly what i need.

[@erictate2095]

everytime that i use the stack mode whether its median or mean, all of the stars seem to dissapear and everything blurs out in the sky. not sure why. i have followed the directions as specified.

[@chelsealilly6783]

Does the Auto-Align tool work properly when there are clouds in the frame?

[@LonelySpeck]

clouds can be a problem so in the case that alignment fails, you can align manually: www.lonelyspeck.com/milky-way-exposure-stacking-with-manual-alignment-in-adobe-photoshop/

[@jmsreya]

Isn't giving me the stack mode option in Layers>Smart Objects. This is after aligning the layers and creating a smart object with them.

[@jackdos14]

***** So does that mean we can't use this technique if we just have the standard cs6?

[@jmsreya]

*Edited* Nevermind. =)

[@itaialter]

Jonathan Ayers You can also use DeepSkyStacker (freeware) to align and stack the images.

[@Kriptonyan]

Awesome 😁 Thanks for sharing your time and knowledge.

[@ноунейм-л4ж9о]

i dont undarstand did you make this 16 shot with the same manual adjustmens or you change them for each shot ?

[@ноунейм-л4ж9о]

thnxx :))

[@FLStudioTutorialz]

Great explanation amazing...thanks for your tip!

[@AhmedThahir2002]

which is better for higher signal-noise ratio: 1. mean/median stacking 2. hdr as in taking same photo multiple times vs exposure bracketing

[@LewisThompson]

I've tried to apply this technique to an arch shot but the resulting FOREGROUND and SKY layers are not aligned so creating the final composite mask yields poor results. While the arch in the SKY is a little blurry it looks as though it would align well but auto-align layers is greyed out for the two smart objects. Do you have any tips on how to deal with this?

[@LewisThompson]

+Lewis Thompson Figured this out. By default "Auto Align Layers" picks the middle selected layer. Due to the rotation of the Earth it therefore makes sense to "Lock" the first layer prior to aligning. As a result it becomes much easier to composite foreground & sky. In my example I was using a separate foreground exposure which I took before the sky stack so I again locked the first exposure of the sky stack to be auto-aligned. Had I taken my foreground image after the sky stack I would have locked the final image.

[@xxswamplordxx2079]

Can you do image stacking in Lightroom 6? You say "open in photoshop", but what if we just bought Lightroom 6?

[@cuvner]

amazing, great help and thanks for the tutorial

[@dawgrules1]

Well done video, thanks Ian