Moulton Barn Milky Way Stack - a photo on Flickriver

This is another shot of my visit to Moulton Barn in the Grand Teton NP.

This image was taken with my Samyang 24mm f/1.4 lens and a astro modified Canon 6D.

I kind of like the narrower FOV and the straighter lines for the barn, compared to my previously posted image: flic.kr/p/KgxpAT

A bigger stretch of Milky Way would however have ben nice. I guess you cannot have both...

You might notice that this image has remarkably low noise for ISO 6400. That is because I stacked 4 images into one. This technique is extremely efficient in reducing thermal noise of high ISO images and is a standard technique for deep sky astro photographers.

When stacking nightscapes, you have to process the foreground and the sky separately.

For the foreground you just average the single exposures. This is very easy.

For the sky it is a bit more complicated: As the stars move, when shooting from a fixed tripod, you get star trails with the above technique. You therefore have to align the stars (called registering in astro photographer lingo). There are specialized programs that can handle this task. I personally use fitswork, which delivers excellent results and is completely free.

After the stacking, you have to merge the two images again into one. As the sky image has a blurred foreground and the foreground has a blurred sky, this merging needs careful masking, which is the toughest part of the whole process.

Many Canon photographers complain about the low dynamic range of Canon sensors. While this is certainly true for low ISO settings, when you try to recover deep shadows, the Canon sensors seem to be more or less on par with other brands at high ISO settings.

So there is no reason for night scape photographers to switch brands or upgrade to the newest, fanciest and most expensive camera models. If they are striving for really clan images, like no camera of any brand will ever be able to deliver with a single image, they have to learn the stacking technique. It involves a bit of work, but the reward is a very clean image and it is completely free...

BTW: I am an amateur photographer and (unfortunately) not sponsored by Canon ;-)

Thanks for your faves and comments.

Taken on: June 26, 2016

Tags:

stacking

Fitswork

Grand Teton National Park

Nightscape

Astrophotography

Astronomy

Astro

Milchstrasse

Canon

Canon EOS 6D

Astro-Modified

Hutech

Samyang

SAMYANG 24mm f1.4

Long Exposure

Landscape

Sky

Night

Wyoming

Skyglow

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