Live Stacking vs the option to frame stack 3/5/10 frames

[rpsutton]

Newbie question - when I am live stacking, I don't see much change in the image as the stacking progresses. However, if I choose the frame stack option from the FX drop down menu, I see huge changes in the images after apply that. Why is there such a difference in the one vs the other?

thanks

RP

[admin]

Hi,

The 3/5/10 frame option adds the data in the individual frames together to give a brighter total image. Live stacking averages the data instead, so that it doesn't make the image brighter but it does reduce significantly the amount of noise in the image as the number of frames stacked increases.

The disadvantage of the adoration approach used by 3/5/10 frame stacking is that with a larger number of frames it would simply blow out all the highlights or brighter parts of the image to complete overexposure, so the averaging approach in live stacking is better for longer stacks. If you want to brighten the image, simply adjust the three vertical yellow dashed lines in the live stack histogram to apply a stretch to the image when it is displayed. This gives you a great deal of control over how much to brighten the darker areas of the image without blowing out brighter areas.

Cheers, Robin

[rpsutton]

Thanks Robin!!