The Enthusiast's Guide to Multi-Shot Techniques

38. IMAGE STACKING FOR ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY

IMAGE STACKING IS commonly used in the field of astrophotography, which involves taking photos of the night sky, including stars that are very dim and are not always visible to the naked eye. The main issue when photographing the night sky is that very little light reaches the camera. When you point your camera at the sky and take a single image, you’re only able to capture the brightest stars, even if you use a long shutter speed and high ISO (Figure 38.1). The goal of stacking multiple images is to increase the signal-to-noise ratio, which gives you more of the information you want with less noise. This ...