Prasad Indulkar
About the Image(s)
Hi Friends,
Greetings from India, This is our Milkyway season, season where we get to see and photograph Milkyway in our skies early in morning, Our window for such photography is short cause we have already started getting monsoon clouds, I was travelling with my family for a very small staycation at Naldehra, Himachal Pradesh in northern India, since the sky quality over there is much better than my city , i decided on trying my luck to shoot milkyway. Luckily I got the opportunity one night , and I shot this one from my hotel room balcony.
I used my Sony A7rIII + Samyang 24mm f/1.8 lens for this. Since there was a lot of city light , also since I wanted my stars to be very sharp , without any trails, I opted for 6seconds exposure, but in 6 seconds , I had to push up my ISO to over 4000, it was giving me grainy image.
So I started shooting multiple images , with my milkyway properly exposed, I did not worry about the noise , as I was going to take care of it in my post processing. So I used the technique of Star stacking.
Stacking star images is a technique used in astrophotography to produce images of the night sky with less noise, increased detail, and enhanced clarity. The process involves combining multiple images of the same scene into a single composite image, thereby reducing the impact of noise and other imperfections.
To begin the process, the photographer takes multiple images of the same section of the sky, usually using a wide-angle lens and a tripod-mounted camera. These images are then loaded into specialized image processing software, such as Deep Sky Stacker, Starry Landscape Stacker or Freeware Sequator - I used Sequator, which automatically aligns the images and stacks them on top of each other.
During the stacking process, the software aligns the images to ensure that the stars are in the same position across all the frames, thereby increasing the overall sharpness and detail of the image. The software also compares the brightness and color of each pixel in each frame and creates a composite image that reflects the average of all the individual frames.
The resulting stacked image is often much cleaner and clearer than any of the individual frames, with a greater depth of color and detail. This is because the process of stacking multiple frames reduces the amount of random noise in the image, while also increasing the signal-to-noise ratio.
In summary, stacking star images is a powerful technique for producing high-quality astrophotography images of the night sky, particularly when trying to capture the Milky Way. By reducing noise and increasing detail, photographers can create stunning and awe-inspiring images that showcase the beauty of the universe.
And once Sequator processed all my images and gave me one single TIFF file, I processed it in Photoshop and this is the result.
There was a lot of highlights in the lower part of the image ( about the rocks ) those highlights were due to the light from the city below , I used Stamp tool in photoshop to copy the starry sky from above and painted it on the highlighted areas below.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to explain the process.
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7 comments posted
All in all, an image I'd be darn proud to have produced.   Posted: 05/02/2023 10:52:57