deep sky stacker dark pics

[Carl]

Hi folks
just processed a heap of shots of the small magenellic coud in Deep sky stacker. Final shot is darker than the rest of my images and although much bigger in file size has heaps less detail. My single shots at 800 and 1600 iso look better, not like the images on the site.
Any suggestions

[jase (Jason)]

When stacking/combining frame, you usually need a reference frame or point. Perhaps some of your frames that you combined did not align very well reducing the clarity/contrast. You may also require to modify the contrast levels and histogram (try not to clip critical data) on the final image. Simply stacking/combining doesn't necessarily mean a brighter image. I would certainly hope one with less noise though.

Sorry, I have no experience with deep sky stacker. I've only worked with Maxim DL and Photoshop CS2.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Have you taken the final image into PS and stretched the histogram using curves and levels yet?

The stacking process won't automatically increase the brightness of an object, though it usually does a little bit, what it does do is improve your signal to noise ration allowing you to "stretch" the tonal range without getting swamped with stretched noise as well.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

btw are you stacking RAW, Tiff, Fits, Bmps or Jpegs?

[Garyh]

Hi Carl,
Only a new user of deep sky stacker myself. I have had similar probs as to getting the final stacked image nice and sharp. For some reason it rotates some frames hence not lining them up correctly.., mind you it took 4 hours to do it. Shot of LMC with 135mm lense with no rotation evident in any frame. Yet on other photos it does a good job when registax falls over..
I suppose some programs do a better job than others on different sets....
Registax stacked this set in about 10min and nicely lined up too.
As for being dark you have to adjust the lightness at the end by going to the luminance tab and pulling the sliders to the left to lighten the image I think there are highlghts, midtones and shadows. There are seperate ones for RGB levels as well on the first tab and you can adjust to get a well balanced background..you have to hit the apply button everytime you change something but....
Sorry can`t help any more as still learning how to use myself.
Cheers Gary...

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

I downloaded DSS sometime back but cant seem to get it to work..any suggestions?

[spearo (Frank)]

I've been noticing the same extremely darkened effect...i'll follow Gary's instructions to the letter when I reprocess some RAWs.
thanks
frank