Phillip Shapiro will present a tutorial on the very valuable technique of image stacking.
Why stack images? Good question! One of the most common reasons is to take images of very faint objects that are barely discernible in any single exposure. By “stacking” several images together, you can create a “synthesized long exposure” that is brighter than any of the individual source images. For example, if your digital camera is limited to taking images with exposures of 30 seconds or less, it is impossible to take pictures of a moonlit landscape, which typically requires an exposure of a few minutes. However, if you take six exposures (each of 30 seconds) and then stack them together, you can create a synthesized 3-minute exposure.
Image Stacker is a shareware program, which combines—or “stacks”—multiple images into a single image, using one of several different blending methods. Image Stacker can be used for a variety of purposes, but the primary purposes are (1) to create very long exposures (longer than would be possible using any single exposure) (2) to create star-trail images and (3) to reduce the appearance of “digital noise.
I will also demonstrate “focus stacking” in Photoshop using an image of apples. If you do not have Adobe Photoshop, you can download a free software program called Gimp, which is an open-source tool that lets you create and edit images. You can crop, add text, resize, and create nested layers.
If time permits, I will also show how to do star trails using free specialized software called StarStaX. This is powerful photo-editing software that creates stacked images from your photos to generate amazing effects. With features like gap filling, blending, and overlaying dark frames, this tool helps you create works of art from your time-lapse and other photos.