My Go-To Techniques For CLEAN Milky Way Photography (Stacking, Hot Pixel Removal & More)

In this tutorial, I share my go-to technique for ultra-clean Milky Way photos using image stacking. You'll learn how to edit RAW images in Lightroom, stack with Starry Landscape Stacker, and use Photoshop for an alternative method and hot pixel removal.

Workshops & Newsletter

Presets

Lightroom Masterclass

Help Support The Channel:

My Gear

Car Camping Gear

Music For My Videos

#landscapephotography #milkywayphotography

[ravenfallsphotography]

FWIW, Alyn Wallace has observed that the best results from stacking programs come with using 8 to 16 base images; any more images can cause problems in stacking.

[gregorsnell]

Quick and easy way to get nice clean results 🙏 Great tutorial man. Cheers!

[lancewilson]

Great video Michael, love the hot pixel hack! Also your studio camera work here is just majestic

[DLMVegas]

Been doing this for years. I use a tracker though. Usually shoot 10+ shots at 1 minute each. With the tracker I can also use a lower ISO (800 or 1600). There are several small trackers that are cheap from Move Shot Move.

[rattlhed]

Great video Michael! I've been using Sequator on my PC, but results can be hit and miss and sometimes it produces a lot of artifacts around the foreground objects. SLS did an excellent job with so many trees in the image. I have a Macbook pro and will have to check this program out to see what kind of results I can get with it.

[jasonkudlophotography]

No better way than a good Milky Way stack! Just came off Rainier for some Milky Way shooting - a good stack is in my near future too!

[baileyobar]

You always make the best videos! Appreciate all the time you put into them!

[ZeitsprungMusik]

Can also compose very good with Photoshop. Dont need a extra staking Programm if you have PS and lr.

[matthewwinwood]

Nice one Michael, very easy to follow, will be trying it out when the nights are better down here in Tasi.

[robtraverssmith]

As always, I enjoy your easy & informative style, Michael. Many thanks!

[lphilpot]

Have you tried Siril? It's really geared more toward "pure" deep-sky astrophotography (e.g., it doesn't know land from sky) but it's *very* powerful for stacking and processing.

[kristjan-wngc]

BEFORE image was much better, beautiful and realistic as this manipulated version AFTER

[mikejeffries]

Good stuff Michael. Have been following this simple and effective technique since learning it from you in Oregon and it worked wonders for me in Joshua Tree. You should check out some of the results. Owe it all to you. Thanks, man!
Mike mikivusphotograhpy

[scarcesense]

It bothers me how often some third party software or plugin (often cheap or even free) gets better results that the adobe package that ends up costing you more than your camera in the long run.

[michaelfranklin]

Check out the option to 'mask with islands of sky' (the default is 'mask without islands of sky') when creating the sky mask in Starry Landscape Stacker- it does a better job of handling parts of the sky peeking through trees.

[mere_mortl]

I usually get good results with 7 to 10 second exposures @f1.8 and ISO 6400 using both my 20 and 14mm lenses. I have been mainly using LR denoise, but I like the idea of having more control with stacking. The only thing I find stacking affected adversely was some detail in the waves on the sandy beach that was gone in the final result, unless it was YouTube compression and not actual detail. Very clear and concise tutorial, thanks

[wismokey]

I have had good luck with Topaz Denoise. Frustrated with stacking but it does work for high ISO. I have now gone to using a tracker so I use lower ISO and long shutter speeds. No more need for stacking just a sky exposure and a landscape exposure on blend them.

[dominiclester]

I nearly clicked of when you clarified it’s just a stacking video, but I’m glad I didn’t because is is so clear and just perfect, thank you! (It’s also helpful to see how quickly you get amazing results 🎉🎉🎉)

[MartinFransson]

Does the stacking program not handle 16 bit TIFF? Since you exported as 8 bit 🙂

[LucasWoodhouse]

Awesome video man! I've been dabbling with more and more astro shots recently and definitely a few things learned that I need to go and try