Really great tutorial! I love the inclusion of the dust and scratches layer in PS.

Fantastic Ian!, just started to get into Stacking with my Astro shots and Starry Landscape Stacker works like a treat!! Cuts the frustration work out of using PS and aligning everything manually!

These timelapses are so beautiful

Great tutorial. Easy to follow and I really appreciate the scratch/dust filter. I had no idea about that! Cheers

Great video as always, very easy to follow, I showed it to two friends who is beginner of Astro and both guys were able to follow it without any issue and now creating great pictures thanks for doing this.

Fantastic tool. Thanks for the detailed review.

These tutorials have really helped me to up my game!!!

Excellent tutorial! Thank you!

Thank you, the best tutorial explication for the stacker

Love your work

This is exactly what I was looking for! Great tutorial. I’ll definitely be getting this program. Actually headed up through the Lone Pine area in a couple months 👍

Note that SLS does NOT work with TIF files generated from Capture One. SLS just returns with a black frame. In order for it to work, one must first laod all of the C1 generated TIFs into Photoshop and then perform the Save As function. These files then work fine in SLS.

Thanks dude I'm looking forward to trying it soon! Keep these kind of vids coming!

Thanks for the tutorial, thought that was great, you did a nice job explaining the process!

excellent! thanks Ian

Great tutorial, Ian. Thanks for share with us! I'll try. Hugs

Thank you for this. I bought the software yesterday, and I was really lost with it. Now I know how to use it. Thanks a lot, looking for the LR tutorials on your playlists.

Perfect timing as I just purchased Starry Landscape Stacker.

Thanks man, you answered so many questions I had regarding noise

Fantastic tutorial, thank you so much!

Great tutorial Ian? Thanks! I enjoy all your videos.

Great tutorial

I like how slick stacking with Affinity Photo works.....fast and easy.

yess it's cool sw! But whit the trees in the skyline how does it work?

Really excellent and helpful video - thanks!

Hey I never comment on videos but your explanation was so good I gave your video a thumbs up. Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing your tips with us !

Nice editing... Thanks

Another well done video Ian. In guided astrophotography, dithering further reduces noise significantly but it needs to be more than the amount the sky moves between frames and in all directions. That would make a great project for a steeper motor and an arduino-the static dithermatic hmmm

We need this for PC! What a good program

so now we need that for video / timelapse! :)

Very nice. Thanks. I just switched over to Capture One. Would love to see how you would post process your Milky Way images using Capture One.

great video!

Thank you!

super helpful

thank u sir .... i'm waited too long for video ... i learn soo many things from you 😄😄😄😄

Great video. Can I ask a question? For foregrounds, is there anything stopping you from taking an exposure at a low ISO with focus on the foreground with the same composition and making a composite image with the sky stack and "good" foreground layer in PS CC?

Nice work! Just getting started and new subscriber!

After a long time!

awesome video. do you think this is more effective than photoshop median stacking or about the same?

How well does the software work with tougher selection such as trees (that aren't moving)?

@LonelySpeck

7 жыл бұрын

Raiatea Arcuri It's damn good at it. As long as you do a decent job of making sure stars are recognized (add red dots) it will usually find the outline of a tree nicely. of course, some small corrections might be needed.

Great Video, thanks so much. I Bought the app. Is there a way to tell it to only use one of the exposures as the master foreground composite? I tried 6 photo's with one light painted foreground but it meshed them altogether so i had to go back into photoshop to mask in the foreground light painted single frame with the SLS final composite.

awesome tutorial! super helpful and i like this method much more then photoshop. Any updates on the sony star eater problem? im looking to buy a sony a7ii or a7rii but don't want to now that i heard about this problem. Thanks!

Will Starry Landscape Stacker work to produce a vertical pano composite with 1-2 of the lower images having foreground features such as trees? I tried it out with 5-6 such shots and could not get a stable sky/land mask, with the first 2 shots with ground features 'mapping' their ground masks into later images that were just stars.

For the land you could also stack multiple images in photoshop to reduce noise to get a super clean image. Just import multiple images as layers, select all and make a smart object. Then go to Layer > Smart Objects> then select Mean or Median.

@jefferycampbell2243

7 жыл бұрын

Starry Landscape Stacker already does what you are suggesting. It stacks the land using a median filter. The "mask" defines which parts of the image need to be aligned before stacking.

Have you used Affinity Photo or Pixelmator Pro for stacking?

Hi mate, thank you so much for this amazing tutorial, i was wondering, which is the difference between Starry landscape stacker and Sky stacker? I don't know which one to buy. Thank you so much!

I watched a review on PhotoRec TV about a comparison between samyang(rokinon) 14mm f2.8 and irix 15mm f2.4 which ended up in favor of irix lens. Would you please suggest which one is better in your opinion, if i want one good lens for astro plus a bit of landscapes?

Would you give us more detailed information regarding to Starry Landscape Atacker?

Amazing video. Thank you. Lonely Speck, how much did your exposure change in your 19 images? Like what was the low and what was the high? Did you change your ISO as well?

@SteveMillerhuntingforfood

5 жыл бұрын

I noticed that too. The moon was rising, you could see the foreground was getting brighter. He did not cover that issue, and only made one exposure edit early on, then synced all the frames.

This is a great video, thanks. I am now going to purchase this software for my mac. One question: if I have light painted a foreground shot with a stacked series of night sky shots, how does the software recognise that I want to use the light-painted foreground as the foreground for the final, stacked image?

@CarloCretaro

3 жыл бұрын

I'd like to know about this too?

Really well done tutorial. Thank you! Last time I was out shooting the Milky Way, I only took single exposures. I just wanted to confirm...this technicque wouldn't work for stacking copies of the same exposure, right (bc the pixels don't change)?

@LonelySpeck

7 жыл бұрын

Christopher DeAntonio correct

Hi, very good!! does it works only with tif-files or eg. jpg-files?

Hi, nice video ! Can you use Starry Landscape Stacker also for pictures with no landscape ? (say i want to photograph the Orion Nebula)Or does the program needs those fixed points from the landscape involved ? Thank you !

@gabewrsewell

6 жыл бұрын

Deepskystacker would be better suited for that than this

excellent could you do a shoot with a micro 4/3rds camera thanks for all your hard work

@LonelySpeck

7 жыл бұрын

Yes, a Micro 4/3 camera is just fine. I've used a 1" in the past even!

Great tutorial. I do have one question if you don't mind. In the video, you used 19 images to create the composite image...is there a particular number that you find works best or does it depend on the brightness of the moon and/or light pollution? Thanks for sharing this tip, BTW.

@LonelySpeck

7 жыл бұрын

Typically, I try to shoot at least 16 separate exposures. That's a good balance between noise reduction and shooting time.

Very impressive....ordering right now! The only advantage with Windows software, is, it is free. Such a lot of messing about too and from Lightroom. This is why I prefer using ACR/PS So much easier and does the same job. Anyway, great video, keep 'em coming

I am new to astrophotography and just watched your video on Starry Landscape Stacker. Some cameras are better than others in handling noise. Are there any camera recommendations for doing astrophotography that you would recommend. Also, in what order would you suggest I watch your videos on astrophotography? Thank you. Great video...easy to understand.

Your gift is making our craft more available to more of us. You're a good teacher. Thanks.

Everytime I disable sharpening/noise reduction in lightroom before exporting the pictures for SLS, I run into a problem. For whatever reason SLS won´t align my images the way it should. I think that the high noise distracts the program :(

Do you do Lightroom lens profile corrections before or after stacking?

@catthe131

7 жыл бұрын

I'd like to know the answer to this too!

@Lexxo777

7 жыл бұрын

Yes, do your lens corrections first. Most of the time i prefer the correction ON as it flattens the bubble out of my 14mm Samyang/Rockinon, but there is no rule, it's personal taste to your composition.

Yes it's a great tool, I've been using it for a year now... the custom masks was my idea ;-)

I'm trying out Affinity Photo for Windows, but I've not tried this technique yet. It's certainly seems to align HDRs and it's a fraction the cost of Photoshop for the full version.

Thanks for the upload Ian! Good idea doing the stacking as the first step and then re-importing into LR to do the final noise reduction & processing. I was doing the stacking as the last step but I see how this gives you more flexibility.

@LonelySpeck

7 жыл бұрын

Diego R. yeah, I've gone around before on which order to do it an I think this is best. Basically, in the process of stacking, we're trying to make ourselves a really nice RAW photo.

Any consideration being given to making Starry Landscape Stacker available for Windows?

Any plans on this being released for windows?

@Lexxo777

7 жыл бұрын

You can use VMware to run OSX from within Microsoft Windows.

Why does SLS say in the description that’s its for tracked images only? Seems like it works just fine for stationary landscape images. Any insight on this?

How does Starry Landscape Stacker compare to Topaz DeNoise for reducing noise?

Brilliant video. As SLS saves the sky for you may I ask why not just refocus and shoot the foreground at say ISO 400 over 8-10mins then blend that in? Would that not work? Your final image is amazing and I’m a big fan of SLS.

@LonelySpeck

6 жыл бұрын

Thomas Winstone yes of course. Ultimately, I wanted this to be a quick review of a basic workflow. That said, exposure blending is a great technique.

@toms206

6 жыл бұрын

Lonely Speck thanks for the reply :) keep the videos coming. Love your work.

could you make a similar method for windows users?

Any suggestions for pc users?

I really need a tracker... my shots have such horrible SNR :/

Thanks for all the great content! Can i ask you about your exposure choice in this situation and why you decided to push the ISO up instead of a longer exposure that the focal length you were using would allow? In particular considering your recommendations in previous videos to ETTR. Again, thanks for your excellent content, you have gotten me out shooting the nights sky so much more often now!!

@LonelySpeck

7 жыл бұрын

Joseph Bryant I was using about the limit for exposure time that the focal length would allow before there would be star trails so there was no margin for extending shutter time. I used ISO 12800 because that tends to be the cleanest when using PP7 mode on my a7S, which is helpful for astro because it has a very bright live view. Lower ISOs in this mode appear just a little less clean versus 12800. Every camera is different in this regard.

@LonelySpeck

7 жыл бұрын

Also, ETTR is particularly helpful when we have lots of light (like heavy light pollution or during daytime but doesn't really apply in the same way when we're already light limited, like in this case. Hope that helps.

@josephbryant8790

7 жыл бұрын

It does help! and thanks for the prompt reply! And to be fair to you the ETTR video I watched did talk about heavy light pollution, so it's good to have a firm understanding of that now, thanks for the reminder!! For the exposure time I was thinking your camera was full frame and 18mm so would allow much longer than a 15 second exposure using the "500 rule". Does stacking usually require a shorter exposure time for better results?

@josephbryant8790

7 жыл бұрын

Sorry I'm sure the is a frustrating and regularly questioned methodology. But thanks for you time and patience anyway.

@LonelySpeck

7 жыл бұрын

Joseph Bryant Ultimately, in anything photography related, rules are made to be broken. The 500 rule is a great guideline to start with. But other factors (like the resolution of your camera, or where in the sky you are pointing) will affect the amount of star trailing so it's not ever a firm rule. I always start with the 500 rule if I'm not sure, and then adjust accordingly. I wanted to try to minimize the star trails quite a bit for this photo and stacking g essentially gave me more margin on the shutter time. Because I was planning to reduce noise with stacking, I could afford to gather a little less light per exposure so my stars would be closer to pinpoints. On further inspection, I may even wish I shot shorter, maybe 8-10 seconds for even more sharpness in the stars.

Hey Ian. Was star eater problem solved with sony cameras? I was busy with college so no much videos for me.

@LonelySpeck

7 жыл бұрын

It is still a problem on the a7RII, a7SII from 4 seconds and longer exposures as of the latest firmware (3.0 on a7SII and 4.0 on a7RII). It also still affects bulb exposures on all the Sony Alpha cameras.

All your videos are beautiful, really Can I ask you a question? The a7r II is a good astrophotography camera? I know that the iso performances are not good as the a7s and I'm pretty worried (i'm probably going to buy it)

@Rafaelinux

7 жыл бұрын

Star Eater :(

@ThomasPyttel

7 жыл бұрын

Rafaelinux They both habe the star eater problem!

@davide_notaro

7 жыл бұрын

ok I've searched it on Google and I've found the lonelyspeck's article, but it is just a software problem that can be easily fixed with an update

@Rafaelinux

7 жыл бұрын

Thomas Pyttel the 1st Gen A7s does not have any star eating issues.

@Rafaelinux

7 жыл бұрын

Davide unless you are a Sony engineer I doubt we will ever see such an update come to life.

Is it possible to provide the final image to use as a wallpaper? Thank you

@LonelySpeck

7 жыл бұрын

A full-resolution image is available for download in my Zeiss 18mm f/2.8 Batis Review here: www.lonelyspeck.com/zeiss-batis-18mm-f2-8-astrophotography-review/

What on earth was that lapse around 1:00 taken with?! Looked like it traveled a hundred feet!

@LonelySpeck

7 жыл бұрын

I traveled about 500 feet for the whole sequence actually. It was taken with a regular ol' tripod, a lot of patience and a sore back.

Great Tutorial Ian!....If only it was available on PC. Have you heard if there are any plans for development on PC?

@LonelySpeck

7 жыл бұрын

Not that I know of... I'll ask the developer and see what he says!

@grahamestilwell7485

7 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the offer Ian - No need I tracked Ralph down....the answer is no :(

@SteveMillerhuntingforfood

5 жыл бұрын

@@grahamestilwell7485 I saw that on his website too.

Looks great! Nice job!!

Curious thought as I'm sitting at my office desk, can you median stack multiple instances of the same RAW file? Example...create 8 virtual copies in LR of the same RAW file and then export to PS as layers. Will it actually reduce noise, or does every file need a little variation to actually reduce noise?

@LonelySpeck

7 жыл бұрын

Ryan Luna No. Stacking only works because the noise profile changes between photos so you need to take many photos for the statistics filter to be able to remove the noise. Copying a single raw is like flipping a coin once on camera, it landing on heads and you saying it has a 100% chance of landing on heads because you can replay the video multiple time showing it landing on heads.

@LonelySpeck

7 жыл бұрын

Similarly, the median value of a set of identical numbers is the same number. You'd get the same image.

@RyanLunaPhotography

7 жыл бұрын

lol...thanks for quick response. I was looking to cheat a little and skip all the manual alignment. :D

@LonelySpeck

7 жыл бұрын

Ryan Luna Yeah, unfortunately, statistics prefers the hard way around.

@RyanLunaPhotography

7 жыл бұрын

btw...you ever use the median stack technique for a panorama? I'm guessing you'd need about 100 pics. Probably easier to just use a star tracker and grab 8+ images.

Can you process star trails with this software?

Any comments on PixInsight, compared to tools like Starry Landscape Stacker, Sequator and DeepSkyStacker? Of course, it's far more expensive (230 Euros!) and the reviews I've read tell me it's very complex, with a steep learning curve - but then, they also say that it's by far the best astrophotography software generally available. And you can try it free for 45 days...

aww I don't has Mac :( are there any alternatives for PC?

@DCmale44

4 жыл бұрын

Sequator, I hear is excellent.

Late to the party here. How on earth did you shoot that 5 second time lapse on the intro to this video?! Dying to know. Thank you.

Wizard!

After I align and save, the ground and trees are white. Any idea why?

#gamechanger Thanks for uploading this. Was really excited to see a new video come out today.

@LonelySpeck

7 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

Great Work. But Mac only, whyyyy :(((??

How many frames did you use to do this?

@LonelySpeck

7 жыл бұрын

I used 19 frames but anywhere between 4 and 32 frames is adequate. The more, the better.

I'd rather increase the resolution of my astro shots by stitching than decrease noise from single shots like that. You don't see noise at higher resolutions and you get more detail than these soft results. Win-win.

@kevint6757

7 жыл бұрын

You have no clue what your'e talking about.

tip: you can actually install MacOS in a different partition of your non-Apple computer so you can use Starry Landscape Stacker or some other software

It says "Align and Composite" on my app instead Align and Save. Does that matter??

damn good ass tutorial!!

Which one is better: Sony a6000 or the Sony a68 ?

@LonelySpeck

6 жыл бұрын

hari krishna the a6000 imho

@harikrishna7690

6 жыл бұрын

what about the picture quality? Not about video

I ended up buying the Starry Sky and Starry Landscape bundle as the Google Drive Free Trial versions were corrupted.

What about shooting a base ISO foreground and blend them? That's what I'd do. Your noise reduction techniques work great (and thanks A LOT for sharing them), but the landscape is still too soft. (For my taste at least.)

@danneukirch4486

6 жыл бұрын

I was wondering this too. I get so many hot pixels to clean up with longer exposures though. I wonder if a stack of several 2 or so min exposures might be a good balance between both techniques? Would be interesting to see the results of the stack method in the video vs one very long base iso exposure vs something in between. I might try it next time I'm out and have the time for it.

thanks for that, great intro to stacking

The actual SLS part starts at 8:43. You're welcome.

I was excited to see the video until I realized it was for Mac only :(

@Nate88it

7 жыл бұрын

nevadaxtube check out Sequator, it's not as good imo, but is available on pc.

@nevadaxtube

7 жыл бұрын

Thanks. I'll take a look.

@Martijnhermans1

7 жыл бұрын

Exactly the same here, and it was pretty early on in the video since I googled the program right away..

@jakobschultz1663

7 жыл бұрын

Nate88it yeah sequator works pretty well and it's free. But I only tested it with one stack of images so I can't really tell if it always works...

@qvisionstudios

7 жыл бұрын

nevadaxtube Still not convinced to buy a Mac. Fingers crossed for a Win version.

So no sharpening at all?

Ian are you aware of a software for startrails on a Mac

@JPStaats

3 жыл бұрын

StarStaX