This is just like school: you have homework.
I’ve recently written an article discussing whether or not stacking (integrating, combining, reducing) multiple exposures is worth the trouble.
The short answer is: yes.
The long answer is in the article.
However, you may need to try it out to make up your mind. So, I’m going to help you! During a trip to the Kalahari Basin, on the border of South Africa and Namibia, I decided it would be a good idea to shoot some (11) static tripod, shorter-exposure, high-ISO Milky Way images specifically with the intention to share with you the raw data. It was HOT…43C during the day. So, these may be particularly noisy.
The data
Above is a single image, straight off the camera, completely unedited. Scary stuff.
All exposures were shot with a Canon 5D Mark III on a static tripod.
- Lens: Canon f2.8 L2 24-70mm, at 24mm and f2.8
- ISO: 6400
- Exposure length: 15 seconds
- Long-exposure noise reduction: off
- High ISO noise reduction: on, at highest setting (three bars)
- White balance: 4250 Kelvin
- It was HOT — so there is significant thermal noise
So, download my data (all 11 images, 300+MB), and get to stacking (playing) with it!
If you just want a single raw image, you can get one here: download a single raw image
The rules
Share your results with me! Let me know in the comments and/or on social networking.
It’s the rules.
Enjoy!
Hi, good tutorial here. We’ve stacked four of the images using Deep Sky Stacker through a Mac however, the result is a picture with a dark red sky. Is it down to Photoshop to correct this or are our settings in Deep Sky Stacker (or the Mac) wrong please?
Hello Jamie,
It’s hard to say without seeing it, but it’s likely the color balance in DSS is not set up properly for you. You could change that in PhotoShop as well.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Cory
Great articles and thanks for the great data to practice on! Makes me want to travel to the southern hemisphere. Here is my attempt at processing: https://flic.kr/p/FwWkq9
Wow Stephanie,
That is a great result! Wonderful! Keep it up!
Cheers,
Cory
Awesome. I am just getting started in Astrophotography and I have a Canon T2-i, mounted on a Celestron AVX. I will work with your pictures to see what I can do about processing, which I know nothing about. One question: Beside the pictures that you have provided for practice, don’t I need darks, bias and flats to go along with the pics?
Hi Russ,
Hope you have fun trying it out!
That’s a great question about the calibration files. While they go a LONG way to make your images better, they are not *required*, and for people starting out, it can daunting to have to deal with light frames, dark frames, flats, and bias, making sure they are all calibrated and shot properly, then applied to the light frames. It’s a bonfire to throw someone into. The bare minimum is light frames, so that’s what I’ve offered up here.
We will offer up some solid practice data in the future that will include other calibration files as well!
Cheers,
Cory
Cory, I have been working the images through DSS and processing them in Photoshop. I think I have a decent attempt at an image, but how do I load up to you? I Don’t have a website.
Hi Russ,
That’s great! You can email to info@photographingspace.com if you like!
Cheers,
Cory
Here you go.
Thanks for the data!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/andyinsea/25716782840/in/dateposted-public/
Andy
Hi Andy,
Excellent work! Thanks for sharing!
Cheers,
Cory
It just went on Explore 🙂 Thank you for the data!
Hi Andy,
Wow, amazing!
Cheers,
Cory
I am here way too late still love your version of the picture
Great comparisons, Cory.
Here’s my attempt:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/52m7v609nymbiq6/Try2.jpg?dl=0
Think it’s time I step up to plate and learn PI.
Hi Nate,
That looks great! Thanks so much for sharing!
PI has a learning curve but it’s well worth it…
Cheers,
Cory
What software did you use? Your version looks great.
Thank you, Stephanie.
I used Lightroom for raw conversion, and then Photoshop for gradient extraction and stretching.
Cory! Thank you very much! i am downloading as we speak, I live on big island Hawaii and this will help me practice before making the long journey up Mauna Kea! I just purchased a 12mm f2.0 for capturing the stars and i will share its results upon the next new moon.
Hi Corey
Thanks for the Data, have emailed my attempt, a little different hope you like it, stacked 11 in DSS, I processed with Lightroom and Canon software, I don’t have photoshop.
Hi Ray,
Thanks, hope you had fun with it!
Cheers,
Cory
Thanky you again for sharing your data!!
You’re welcome, Chris. Glad you enjoyed it!
Cheers,
Cory
Hi Cory, thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience, this is my homework. The image was processed with PixInsight and the help of a YouTube tutorial. This is my first processed image, thanks for sharing photos. I hope soon to share a picture of me completely.
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=BF1A780C3C3A5524!2624&authkey=!AGZRst9FYkJJZq0&ithint=folder%2cjpg
Hello Rafael, good work!
I think you could easily push the black level a little bit more, if you wanted. Remember, space (at least from earth) isn’t really always “black!” It’s an amazing job for a first image! I’m scared to show you my first images… 🙂
Cheers,
Cory
Thanks for your comments, and in an attempt more, these are the results.
Greetings from Queretaro, Mexico.
Rafael
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=BF1A780C3C3A5524!2651&authkey=!AHJXsrRZ8tL77WI&v=3&ithint=photo%2cjpg
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=BF1A780C3C3A5524!2650&authkey=!ABRhrUtiueYNPUU&v=3&ithint=photo%2cjpg
Good job, great work!
Cheers,
Cory
any tips on how to do basic stacking in DSS for milky way photos? I can’t find a resource to help me stack my milky way images.
Thanks!
Hi Micheal,
Stacking Milky Way images such as those in this article would be done the same as any other in DSS. However, you may have some problems when you include Milky Way images with foreground included, because alignment will be much more difficult, since they don’t match with the sky from image to image.
Are you trying to stack sky-only Milky Way, or ones with foreground?
Cheers,
Cory
Thanks for sharing your work. This will increase our skills in post processing.
Hi Elizaul,
It’s a pleasure. Best of luck!
Cheers,
Cory
Cory, see my file from your RAW CSM30799 …. https://www.flickr.com/photos/elizaul/28929557142/in/dateposted-public/
Hi Elizaul,
Thank you for sharing!
Cheers,
Cory
Hi
Thanks for the Tutorial, I have processed them in Camera raw, then for the first time used Photoshop to stack the images, then further processed them in PS. will continue practising to improve my skills.
You can see my result here https://www.flickr.com/photos/petetenerife/29072020360/in/dateposted-public/
Great, thanks Peter!
Cheers,
Cory
Here is my vision of your photography…
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3glX0MNB7s1eXh0bER0TnNRdUE
Hi there,
Very good work! Thank you for sharing!
Cheers,
Cory
Thanks!
It’s a pleasure! Make sure you show me what you get out of it!
Cheers,
Cory
Just letting you know, people are still using these photos you were so graciously provided. I’m new to the Milky Way photographs and until I can manage to get to acceptable skies, I need to practice editing techniques. I hope I did your image(s) justice with this edit.
http://bit.ly/2LgLiVR
Thank You for your graciousness.
Hi Brandon,
I saw the result, and I’m happy to hear that you enjoyed the practice! I’ve got some more data from Namibia that I’m excited to share with everyone as well.
Cheers!
Cory
Thank you for providing the data to practice my editing skills. Here is my attempt: https://flic.kr/p/SCxTdw
Hi Cory,
Here’s my 1st ever attempt on the milky way. Just figuring my way through Luminar 3. Your feedback would be appreciate! Thanks!
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1feFRpS-T4aa4D-rzcdNNG9xfaqMKIV8T
I really appreciate the opportunity that you have given me to experiment with image stacking. I personally would not have the opportunity to capture the images such as you have done.
My objective was to literally do everything from the command line. Using Ubuntu 18.04
From the command line I used these commands
dcraw -T *.CR2
align_image_stack -a aligned_ -v -m -g 10 -C *.tiff
enfuse -o result.tiff –exposure-weight=0 –saturation-weight=0 –contrast-weight=1 –hard-mask aligned_*
I then open the result.tiff in GIMP GNU IMAGE MANIPULATION PROGRAM. Where all that was require was an adjustment of the color curves to make everything just pop out. It’s a shame I can’t post my results. Do I have your permission to post it on facebook?
Had way to much fun editing these great images. Stacked in Sequator then edited in lightroom, dodged and burnt in photoshop, Noise reduction in Nik dfine 2 and finally glow added in luminar.
Just found your raw data and gave it a whirl in Sequator. This is the best image I could pull out with my meager skills.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJVYkTnXIAQfggZ?format=jpg&name=small
Hey…Thanks for shaing these wonderfull images to us to do as homework……I really love them.Actually…At first, i stacked all the 11 images in Sequator.Then Imported the file in Lightroom and edited…the same lightroom edtied file was impoted in snapseed to enhance milkyway….again and again the same snapseed edited file was imported in Pixlr X for a finishing touch…I really want to show you though….where should i sent you?
Regards
Nandakumar Rajesh
Hi,
I’ve done a take on your images – stacked all of them in DeepSky and then did some tweaks in GIMP. It looks pretty amazing! I’ve been really struggling to get much out of my own shots – using my Canon DSLR and a few different lenses. I often get a stacked image that looks like all the ones I see in tutorials but I can never seem to get anywhere near as much detail, no matter how many shots I stack together!
Here is my take on yours: https://twitter.com/cradlefish/status/1547573628375425031
And here is one of mine: https://twitter.com/cradlefish/status/1519596718605705216
Was looking for some data to play with today and found this. I know this is old, but I can’t resist a good bit of data to process. Enjoyed working on it. Thanks for making it available.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QIYRHiCWrNIGX17VBerJnEvAz6FGpL-_/view?usp=share_link
Tried processing this collection of photos since I don’t have a camera yet. I think it didn’t turn out to bad.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H6xz5x5fTsyTFqokoEc6d_Cw4BsjByF7/view?usp=sharing
I stacked all of the images in Helicon Focus…. I then edited it in lightroom. This is gorgeous!!!
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10231184113369449&set=a.1575225463829
2025 anyone?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1awnZ7vslRDZTESp4g6s9IvQh1Y2pIQ0f/view?usp=sharing
[…] requires special attention to alignment, particularly when working with images containing both foreground elements and the night […]
Thank you very much for sharing the image set! I am writing an app for focus stacking. The initial results look good. Will use your images to test. In fact, the initial idea was to use it for night time photography, just he normal night time phots, not astro, to reduce noise. It could also be used for macro photography(where it is real focus stacking, where only parts of the image are in focus). Will share the result and get your comments! Do you have more image sets that can be stacked?!