Milky Way

[Hoot_Fluegelhorn]

I bought Affinity because it probably is one of the few applications for OSX that can handle photo stacks.

 

I am particularly interested in stacks, since this seems to be THE way to get those amazing pictures from our galaxy.

 

I've tinkered around with a stack taken on M31 (Orion nebula) only to find the learning curve of Affinity is steep, and my results are dismal.

 

Now I don't mind investing my time in a complicated application (or rather, an app about a complicated subject matter), but I need something to get me going.

 

Is there  a walk-through available on how to stack a bunch of astro pics and extracting something sensible out of it?

 

Many thanks for your replies,

 

Hoot

[PixelPest]

Here are 5 from the tutorial page about stacking:

Stacking: Noise Reduction (1.4)

Stacking: Object Removal (1.4)

Stacking: Exposure Merging (1.4)

Stacking: Long Exposure Simulation (1.4)

Maximum Stacking (1.4)

 

Cheers

P.

[Hoot_Fluegelhorn]

Try as I might, I'm not making any progress that tells me I'm on the right track.

Turning knobs and levers such and such yield different results every time. I thought women were complicated..

 

Isn't there a stargazer in this community that uses Affinity as the goto app?

[barninga]

you just select fil->new stack in AP and choose the images you want to process; in a short time you'll get an image where all the stacked images are layers, grouped into a single stack group, where the stacking algorithm is indicated on the right. if you click on the algorithm symbol, you can select a different one and it will be applied "live". this way you can check what stacking options you have.

once you select the stacking algorithm that suits your needs, you can uncheck all the images in the stack, except one, and apply adjustments and filter and live filters to the stack itself; when you're satisfied, just check all of the images again. working on one image only improves performances; when you're done, my advice is that you rightclick on the stack layer and rasterize it. this will create a static copy of it, where you will be able to apply subsequent filters and effects, or image insertions, etc. without worrying about performances. 

i assume that the mean algorithm (the default) should be good for star trails and smashing down digital noise..

[Hoot_Fluegelhorn]

Thank you Pixelpest and Stefano for  your replies. Still not making much progress I'm afraid.

 

Stacking isn't the issue, it's the processing to get from something like this:

http://www.nckas.org/images/digital/m31-11-9-2005.jpg

to this:

http://billsnyderastrophotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy_color-from-Martin-Resize.jpg

 

I've seen youtube tutorials using photoshop, so I kind of get a feel what the process should be.

 

Up to now I still feel like a chimpanzee staring at the insides of a Swiss watch, wandering how to make it smell like banana's.

 

Kind regards,

Hoot

[barninga]

well maybe i don't get the point, but:

1) the topic title is about the milky way, but the images you reference to are deep space shots. usually milky way images reproduce a big portion of the visible sky

2) the "starting" image is b/w, while the goal image is in color

 

the b/w image seems a zoom in and the stars are a bit blurry; it looks like the exposure time was so long that earth's rotation has gotten in, or the pointing system did not work properly.

anyway, there is no way, imho, to obtain something like the target image starting from the b/w one.

 

i assume they're just two examples. in this case, i'd suggest to browse http://photographingspace.com/, if you don't know already. it contains lots of suggestions and examples, and offers a free cheat sheet that explains how to reasonably set a camera to take good space shots.

[Hoot_Fluegelhorn]

Hi Stefano,

 

Naming the topic "Milky Way" is a bit of forum marketing. A catchy name catches the attention.

 

Taking the photo's is not the issue. My problem is with post production, using Affinity's myriad of possibilities.

The URL's in my previous post were an example to get from a seemingly B/W picture to a picture that brings out a cosmic object to all its glory.

 

Perhaps I should've bought photoshop.. there's loads of walkthroughs on youtube on astrography, but none of Affinity on the same topic. I'm getting somewhat depressed.

 

 

Should you want to have a go at it, the stack and some attempts can be found here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9TKstEZMIZDLS1BaGlVdS05OUU

The directory with the original stack starts with "M31.."

[barninga]

i downloaded your aphoto file and could get some texture in the nucleus of the galaxy by stacking for minimum instead of median. however, i'm not sure it's real detail rather than noise.

i think that, basically, you have an overexposure problem, maybe you should take more shots with a shorter exposure. in addition, one of your shot appears to be misaligned.

 

most of the photoshop tutorials i've seen around can be valid for affinity photo too, maybe somthing has to be changed and adapted, but the login behind the sequence of operations is often quite the same.

[afshalders]

Hi there !

 

Some days ago I shot something like 150 frames of the milky way with my camera mounted on a tripod, each picture with 1s exposure, every 1 second.

When I try to stack using the auto allign, I'm getting star trails instead of all images stacked and registered to make a long exposure.

I tried in perspective and scale, rotate, translate withou success. All I get are star trails.

 

Any clues ?

[Hoot_Fluegelhorn]

Scroll upwards, Pixelpost posted a helpful set of links, among which about stacking.

 

Hope it helps,

Hoot

[EddyQ]

Perhaps this is a different issue, but my 8 photos of the milkyway fail to align properly.  They are 20 second exposures taken in succession on a good tripod. The only movement are the stars as the earth rotates slightly.  Most of the photo is the sky, but I do have the ground at the very bottom (which does not move).  Is there a way to mask out the ground objects before align and stack?  I am assuming these objects moving differently than the stars are causing the algorithm issues.

 

After importing the photos and stacking, I have tried to add masks to each individual photo layer.  That did not change anything.

 

Any thoughts?

[anon1]

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[EddyQ]

That would be a good feature request

 

Ability to mask out certain areas before stacking a bunch of pictures

 

Although besides Astro photography I can't image many usecases for that.

Perhaps.  But I believe photo manipulation before stacking is useful with other applications other than astro photography.

For instance, once you have layers the way you want them, then stack.  There is a group function, but it doesn't seem to do the nice stacking features such as mean, object removal ect. . .

 

I did manage to align manually my milkyway shots with Affinity photo with very good results.  Basically followed the process in Ian's video:

 

Took a wee bit of time to do a warp mesh alignment on each of the 8 photos.