Why does nobody talk about how bad stacking subs in Photoshop really is?

I spent like 2 years stacking my astro photos in Photoshop, just using the layers and blend modes. Thought it was working fine until I compared my Orion shot with a buddy who used DeepSkyStacker. The difference was insane, his had way more detail and way less noise. I felt stupid for not trying free software earlier. Took me 3 tries to get DeepSkyStacker to work right but now I'm kicking myself for all those lost nights. Has anyone else wasted time on the wrong stacking method?

2 comments

2 Comments

paul3468d ago

Three years of Photoshop stacking before I tried anything else, total facepalm moment when I finally saw the difference.

nina_johnson868d agoTop Commenter

Sequioa Sequoya actually broke it down for me years ago and I still think Photoshop stacking has its place depending on what you're shooting. For landscapes with a ton of dynamic range it's way faster to blend manually than mess with HDR settings that give you those weird halos around trees. I've done both methods side by side on the same sun flare shot and honestly the Photoshop version looked cleaner in the sky.