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Post by Inspeqtor on Jul 13, 2020 14:23:58 GMT
A question.... to stack photos does the camera body need to be mounted on a tripod?
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Post by Peterj on Jul 13, 2020 17:33:07 GMT
Yes so the images to be stacked are framed identically
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Post by Inspeqtor on Jul 13, 2020 20:02:42 GMT
One reason I asked, just the other day a person on a different photography forum posted a shot of the moon he said was 3 shots taken hand held.
I wondered about this but I have seen other shots taken of images in the sky where it was said 50 or 100 shots were taken and stacked.
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Post by Peterj on Jul 13, 2020 22:03:09 GMT
I'm fairly certain the 50 - 100 shots were probably tripod mounted. OTOH a 3 shot moon sequence might have been handheld - aligning 3 layers is achievable.
You haven't indicated for what purpose you're exploring image stacking. A side benefit of bracketing exposures then merging them in PSE photo merge is noise reduction; the reason is most noise is random and is cancelled when merging.
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Post by Inspeqtor on Jul 13, 2020 22:22:19 GMT
My reason would be to see if I could improve the sharpness of my photos when needed.
Is this to vague of an answer??
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Post by fotofrank on Jul 13, 2020 23:48:19 GMT
This is from stacking three images with a mono-pod. 150mm Macro at minimum focus.  |
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pontiac1940
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Post by pontiac1940 on Jul 13, 2020 23:57:43 GMT
see if I could improve the sharpness of my photos when needed. Stacking is used to increase depth of field (different than sharpness, but I know what you mean). Stacking results are quite impressive. Three photos can be taken of an object with the focus point changed for each image...rear, middle and front. The stacking process then selects the depth of field for each image and merges them. I might have an example somewhere. I was called away while writing the above and missed fotofrank's post. |
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Post by Inspeqtor on Jul 14, 2020 2:22:51 GMT
see if I could improve the sharpness of my photos when needed. Stacking is used to increase depth of field (different than sharpness, but I know what you mean). Stacking results are quite impressive. Three photos can be taken of an object with the focus point changed for each image...rear, middle and front. The stacking process then selects the depth of field for each image and merges them. I might have an example somewhere. I was called away while writing the above and missed fotofrank's post.So taking 3 different images of the moon, rear middle and front would probably be next to impossible I am guessing.....  |
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Post by Inspeqtor on Jul 14, 2020 3:00:15 GMT
This is from stacking three images with a mono-pod. 150mm Macro at minimum focus. Frank, This looks VERY good! Thank you for sharing this with me! |
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pontiac1940
CE Members
Posts: 6,359
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by pontiac1940 on Jul 14, 2020 3:35:11 GMT
So taking 3 different images of the moon, rear middle and front No, that will not work. At that distance, the entire moon is either in the depth of field or none is in the zone of focus. Need a tripod and the longest lens you have. Night focusing can be tricky and don't trust the ∞ (infinity) setting. Good luck! |
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Post by Peterj on Jul 14, 2020 3:49:06 GMT
My reason would be to see if I could improve the sharpness of my photos when needed. You might consider noise stacking to reduce noise which will have the effect of increasing sharpness. Almost all noise reduction programs slightly blur the image.
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Post by Inspeqtor on Jul 14, 2020 6:48:21 GMT
So taking 3 different images of the moon, rear middle and front No, that will not work. At that distance, the entire moon is either in the depth of field or none is in the zone of focus. Need a tripod and the longest lens you have. Night focusing can be tricky and don't trust the ∞ (infinity) setting. Good luck! I have the Canon 90D with Peak Focusing that works really well! I guess with Peak Focus I probably really do not need stacking on the moon.... but someone else on a photography forum did do stacking on the moon with 3 hand held shots....  |
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Chris
Established Forum Member
Posts: 490
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Post by Chris on Sept 19, 2020 20:04:46 GMT
Inspeqtor, that's an excellent shot of the moon.
The moon is a very bright object in the sky, so stacking is generally not needed if you are taking a close up of just the moon. It's so far away, that all of it will be in focus if the lens is focussed correctly. You also don't need stacking to reduce noise because you can shoot the moon with a lot of light falling on the sensor at 100 iso.
However, if you are taking a picture of the moon against a landscape, or with other planets and stars in the background then you will need to use stacking. If you expose for the landscape then the moon will be overexposed. So combing different shots will help you to expose all the elements in your picture without overexposing the moon.
Kind regards
Chris
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Post by Inspeqtor on Sept 20, 2020 4:33:38 GMT
Thank you very much Chris for your thoughts on my moon photo. I do appreciate what you said.
When I take moon shots typically there is nothing else in the frame. My back yard has very tall pine trees pretty close to the back of the house that is also in line where the moon will be showing, so not really anything that would add value to the photo, at least not what I would want to add.
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Post by Peterj on Sept 20, 2020 5:00:13 GMT
Inspeqtor, that's an excellent shot of the moon. The moon is a very bright object in the sky, so stacking is generally not needed if you are taking a close up of just the moon. It's so far away, that all of it will be in focus if the lens is focussed correctly. You also don't need stacking to reduce noise because you can shoot the moon with a lot of light falling on the sensor at 100 iso.
However, if you are taking a picture of the moon against a landscape, or with other planets and stars in the background then you will need to use stacking. If you expose for the landscape then the moon will be overexposed. So combing different shots will help you to expose all the elements in your picture without overexposing the moon. Kind regards Chris My experience is different from yours. Here's a side by side comparison left original raw file right 10 image stack including file on left. No other processing to either.
To my eyes there's significant noise reduction and an increase in sharpness
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