I used to think those super bright star photos were all fake

For years, I saw these amazing pictures of the Milky Way with crazy colors and detail. I figured they had to be edited to death, maybe even made up. Then last summer, I went camping in Joshua Tree with a friend who brought his camera gear. He set up his tripod, took a single 30 second shot, and showed me the raw file on his screen. The core of the galaxy was right there, clear as day, with a faint purple and gold haze I never saw with my own eyes. He explained it was all about camera settings and stacking images, not just slapping on filters. It totally flipped my view. So what's the line for you guys between a real astronomy photo and one that's too processed? Is stacking ten shots still showing what's really up there?

3 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

3 Comments

ivangrant6mo ago

Read an article saying stacking just fights camera noise.

3

parkerrodriguez6mo ago

Found that to be mostly true, @ivangrant. Stacking a bunch of shots really helped clean up my own noisy images.

8

umab865mo ago

@parkerrodriguez had the right idea. For my own astro shots, I always stack at least 10 frames and it makes a HUGE difference in cleaning up the noise, especially with my older camera. Don't overthink it, just give it a try.

1