Milky Way Stacking for Noise Reduction in Photoshop

[@rameshtahlan]

Loved your video, simple, not complicated, to the point, and no unnecessary talking, Finally i can do stacking without being confused.

[@knightysphotography]

Ramesh Tahlan thanks mate. Appreciate it

[@david_potvin15]

I’ve been shooting the MW for over 5 years and always stayed away from stacking, mainly because I had learned enough and didn’t want to tackle the complexity of it. But your tutorial looks super easy so I’m going to give it a go. Great job man, and thanks!

[@knightysphotography]

I'm glad man! Thanks!

[@scottjohnston2704]

awesome thank you for showing us how its done

[@siendbhcixisj]

Great stuff. You got my sub. Straight to the point and good outcome. Thanks man.

[@knightysphotography]

Thanks a lot!

[@TheAssaschan]

Nice one man, thanks for the tut!

[@knightysphotography]

Thanks man!

[@silverpassion3588]

Tks so much for this video. I hv learned so much. One question-when we align the images, how the program knows that I want to align the milky way and not the foreground.

[@knightysphotography]

You can try with the FG to start off with and if there's movement in the stars then try masking out the FG and it should fix it. Then you can just blend in a FG shot that's not blurry. If you're using other software, they can stack better than PS. Hope this helps.

[@Labolas2Glasya]

i have the following problem with auto align: it align the layers to the fore ground and not hte stars, how do i fix that?

[@Zhorellski]

How does using Topaz denoise differ from stacking?

[@knightysphotography]

Topaz can be really good in some cases, but I have found there is no substitute for extra data (stacking multiple images). On single astro images at least, Topaz introduces artifacts whereas stacking will fully clean up the image like a shot at ISO 100. The results are all situational though. Try both methods and pick the best

[@abodh79]

I followed your method as is. Why do I get trails? Thanks

[@knightysphotography]

PS might be picking up your foreground. Try masking it out. If that doesn't work, you might have to try another program like Starry Landscape Stacker, Sequator or DeepSkyStacker.

[@gm010379]

THANKYOU...

[@knightysphotography]

You're welcome!

[@dalemartin6828]

Thankyou 🙏

[@knightysphotography]

No problem! Hope it helped

[@ChuckleChuckleVision]

Cheers for the video Dylan! Simple but straight forward! Just wondering, do you normally play about with the mean blend mode? And, is there a big difference between shooting 10 frames and 20? Is there a point where it's no longer worth it to keep adding frames? - John

[@knightysphotography]

John Harrison Hey mate, thanks a lot. I always use the Mean and Median then pick the best out of the two. I would aim to shoot 10-20 for a really clean image. My rule tracking is to shoot for 30-60 mins total exposure. The more you stack the better and cleaner it will be. I reference deep space astrophotographers, they will shoot in excess of 16+ hrs. That’s the only way to pick up find details and have a clean image.

[@ChuckleChuckleVision]

half an hour of exposure time seems a good rule of thumb! Would you capture dark frames like the deep space guys do?

[@knightysphotography]

John Harrison usually there’s no need for calibration frames but if you wanted to, you could!

[@v4led]

How can I do so many pictures without tracking with a freaky and expensive tracker just with my tripod and nothing else?

[@knightysphotography]

I would try a faster shutter speed. Maybe 10-13 sec but you’ll have to bump up the ISO to compensate. Lightroom has amazing noise reduction now, so you could try adding some of that to each frame before trying to stack them.

[@petitblackriver]

You are comparing the result with the 12800 ISO shot at the end I think a single 800 ISO tracked shot wouldve been a better comparison lol great vid anyway thanks!

[@TheTchamber]

When I click "open as layers in Photoshop," it opens Photoshop, and it doesn't show layers. It shows it's loading all the photos from LRC, but only shows one photo and one layer when it's done, and labels it Background. Am I missing a step? I made sure my photos were highlighted before I opened them .

[@knightysphotography]

Tyrell C If you can’t see it, all you have to do is go to the Window menu. All the panels that you currently have on display are marked with a tick. To reveal the Layers Panel, click Layers. Hope this helps. Cheers

[@tommy100590]

Why didn't you use aritmetic?

[@knightysphotography]

I have never used that. Do you have more info on it?