That one comment about my star stacking really helped

I was posting my Orion nebula shots and someone said my stars looked 'bloated' from too much stretching. I had been cranking the levels to get more detail and messing up the stars. They told me to try masking the stars before stretching the background, and it made a huge difference on my next session. You ever get feedback that totally changed your editing workflow?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowanbennett1mo agoMost Upvoted

Bloated stars from too much stretching" hit close to home. I spent months wondering why my Pleiades shots looked like fuzzy cotton balls until someone pointed out it wasn't just masking, it was the order of operations. I started doing a quick star reduction pass before any background stretch, then masked the stars, then stretched the background, then did a second gentle star reduction after. That extra step between the stretch and the reduction made a huge difference, especially on bright stars in the corners.

hill.jade1mo ago

Yeah @rowanbennett totally nailed it with that order of operations thing. I had the same problem for way too long with my Andromeda shots. The thing that finally clicked for me was doing a very gentle star reduction right after stacking but before any curves or levels adjustment. Then I stretch the background with a star mask on, and follow up with a second very light star reduction at the end. It feels like overkill but it keeps those bright stars from turning into little puffballs. Also something that helped a ton is checking my subs for focus drift before stacking because even slightly off stars will balloon way faster during processing.