#SEQUATOR PHOTO STACKING SOFTWARE FREE HOW TO#
#SEQUATOR PHOTO STACKING SOFTWARE FREE FULL#

The advantage of creating these layers for all the key steps is that you have the flexibility to go back to any point and quickly review all of your steps to see where something might have gone wrong, or to mark what you did right. Credit: Charlotte Daniels Adjust your editsīy creating a new layer before making a new adjustment, you are separating your process into stages. Fine tuning adjustments can be made, including ‘Opacity’. This will combine your adjustment with the layer. Once satisfied with the adjustment you’ve made, use the mouse to right click on the layer and select Merge Down. You can now select any item from the Adjustments menu - for example Adjusting levels, or Brightness/Contrast (which we have highlighted) - and make an alteration specifically to that layer. You will now see a new, identical layer form (see image below).

To do this, hold down the Shift, Ctrl, Alt, N and E keys simultaneously. The most effective way to use Layers for editing is to create a duplicate of the preceding layer, so that we can use a new layer to make a separate adjustment each time. We can now use the Layers function in a slightly different way to edit this stacked image. You'll see the image change as the noise level is gradually reduced. Once Photoshop has processed this command, click Layer > Smart Objects > Stack Mode > Median. Next, click Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object. To do this, select every layer by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking each layer, so that they are all highlighted (see image above). Highlight all the layers using the ‘Ctrl’ key to reduce the levels of noise (unwanted artefacts) Credit: Charlotte Daniels Now we need to merge these layers into a single stacked file, reducing the number of layers to one. Next, repeat the copy and paste steps for all the image files you wish to stack, so that these become layers on top of the base image. You can now delete the window that you copied this file from by clicking the X symbol in the corner of the tab and proceed onto the next image file. This will place your first layer on top of your base image as ‘Layer 1’. Next, click back on the base image window, and press Ctrl and V. To combine these files into a single image ready for stacking, first start with the file window to the right of the base image – this will become Layer 1.Ĭlick on the tab for this image and then press the Ctrl and A keys at the same time.You will now see the image highlighted with dashed lines.Īlternatively, you can click Select > All in the image window.By pressing Ctrl and C, this image is copied (or click Edit > Copy). In Adobe Photoshop we can load our image files in separate windows, ready to become stacked layers. We will copy and paste all the other image files onto this one. The file on the far left of Screenshot 1 – labelled Start image in our example – will form our base image. Photoshop then uploads each of the selected files in separate windows.Įach of these files will be used to form layers within our stacked image. To open multiple image files in Photoshop, we hold the Ctrl key and select all the required files from the file location, before clicking Open. We start by opening the image files that we want to stack in Photoshop.Ĭlick File > Open and navigate to the image file location. Credit: Charlotte Daniels Open your image files

#SEQUATOR PHOTO STACKING SOFTWARE FREE FULL#

Our initial image of the Milky Way is full of unwanted detail, which we will remove in ‘Layers’.

#SEQUATOR PHOTO STACKING SOFTWARE FREE HOW TO#

Here we'll show you how to use Layers in Photoshop to stack and process an image of the Milky Way to bring out its wonderful, starry detail.įor more advice, read our guide to astrophotography and our tutorial on astrophotography image processing. You can find out more about this process in our guide to astrophotography stacking.Īs the Layers function provides the ability to delete small processing errors at any stage of our edit, it means we don’t have to start again if we make a mistake. It also allows us to make gradual enhancements to our image files along the way. Layers can be used to stack multiple image files, a technique that reduces noise (unwanted artefacts) in the final image.

An essential part of an astrophotographer’s processing toolbox, the Layersfunction exists in most processing software, including Adobe Photoshop and GIMP.

Sequator photo stacking software free