Always thought stacked exposures were for pros until I tried it on the Orion Nebula

I have been taking single shot photos of the night sky for years with my DSLR. Everything came out okay but never great. Last month I finally tried stacking 30 short exposures of the Orion Nebula using free software called DeepSkyStacker. The detail in the dust clouds around the nebula popped right out in a way I never saw before. I had been missing out on so much detail by just taking one long exposure. Anyone else here hold off on trying stacking because you thought it was too complicated?

2 comments

2 Comments

casey_torres603d ago

All that stacking just adds extra steps to something that already works fine with a single well exposed shot. A decent mid range DSLR can pull out plenty of detail in the Orion Nebula with just one long exposure if you nail the settings. People act like it's some kind of magic but really it's just digital noise reduction dressed up in fancy software.

the_nina3d ago

That's exactly how I felt. I spent years doing single shots too and wondered why my Orion looked like a fuzzy smudge. Stacking thirty 30 second exposures instead of one 15 minute shot changed everything. The dust lanes around the nebula showed up clear and sharp. Calibration frames like darks and flats also help a ton once you get the hang of it. Have you tried taking flats with a white t-shirt over the lens yet?