Image stacking for long exposure photography Tutorial in Lightroom and Photoshop by admin September 6, 2018 at 4:01 am Photography Tutorial 36 Comments Tags:adobe, image, lightroom, long exposure, photography, photoshop, smart object, stacking, Tutorial Share This Post: Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest Post navigation ‹ Previous Best DSLR Video Settings – Basics of the Film Look How-To (Pt. 1)Next › URBAN PHOTOGRAPHY Related Content All Fstoppers’ Photography Tutorials are on Sale for Labor Day Bird Photography Tutorial | How To Select YOUR BEST photos Affinity Photo – 10 Mistakes to avoid – Free Photography Tutorial How to photograph a beer bottle | Product photo shoot tutorial more news from the blog Using the Canon EOS 400D / Digital Rebel XTI DSLR – Media Technician Steve Pidd Long Exposure Photography Techniques Pose with Bike and Scooty | Best Boys Pose for Photography Canon 50mm Lenses for Astro Photography Comparison / Review 50 TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS to take EPIC PHOTOS *!* Photography Lenses Explained: ITS THAT SIMPLE…”Glass is Evil”, E=hv & Microcontrast Newborn Photo Techniques & Strategies, Part 1, Julie Klaasmeyer, Photovisionvideo Panning Photography for Beginners Location Scouting, Photography Tips, and Epic Light at Lake Powell BRAND NEW DSLR AT 70% DISCOUNT | DSLR IN CHEAP PRICE | DSLR MARKET | BEST PLACE TO BUY DSLR | Canon: Making a New Standard in High-resolution DSLR Photography Sony DSLR-A100 Japan advertisement Flash photography for beginners • PART 1 Understanding DSLR vs. Mirrorless Cameras My New Camera Is Incredible! 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How to Pose Women | Portrait Photography The FASTEST way to learn camera lenses! photoshop cs6 tutorials. how to edit a photo colour fully Proper Metering Technique: Exploring Photography with Mark Wallace 36 Comments "Mean" gives you the average value for a speciflc pixel as found in all the images – you have 80 something images. They grab the color/luminance values of that pixel in each image, add them up and divide by number of images. Whatever it turns out as, they display those values for that pixel. "Median", you have 80, they make a list of the pixel values from each and grab the center of the list – so 39 or 40 (on an odd number its that exact middle one, otherwise they probably average the 2 nearest it. Median is a good way to reduce noise in any kind of static shot btw. It's pretty impressive if you shoot with higher ISOs out of necessity… Mean is a cheap way to get that flowing water look without an expensive filter like a Lee f-stopper… the filter is a finer result, but I've got some that look almost the same that I shot within a few minutes of each other – just blasted off 30 shots of a waterfall (handheld) – aligned them in PS and pulled the "mean"… Reply What is the benefit of this method compared to using an ND filter to create the same type of image? Reply That's really magic, I didn't thought I wouldn't really need ND filter anymore but you've mad my day . Reply Very nice way. I don't have an ND filter, so I will try this technique. The result looks amazing. Reply Thanks for the video man! Reply Thank you very useful. How much should be shutter speed of each of the image we should keep? Reply Very helpful! Thank you very much. Reply Did you manually take each shot or did you have a timer set or use a remote? What do you recommend I guess I should ask. I'm shooting on the Sony mirrorless systen Reply Is this method equivalent to auto-blending layers, as far as focus-stacking is concerned? Were you focusing on the same spot in all the images ? Reply a very useful tutorial.but I can't click on the menu "Stack Mode". Can you help me? Reply Is it possible to combine this with focus stacking also? Reply If I am in Photoshop and followed all the steps and get to Layer-Smart objects my "smart objects" are greyed out and can't be accessed. Did I done something wrong? Reply Great tip, thanks. Turned an ordinary photo into something quite interesting Reply First thanks for the amazing tutorial. Tried doing this yesterday with about 60-70 frames and then stacking them in PS but somehow doesn't get the same results as you do. Would it be better to shoot at lower shutter speeds to get a small amount of movement on each frame or would it be better to look for subject with a lot of movement instead? would appreciate any help on this one. Reply Does this technique create a higher quality image than using a good ND filter? Reply Best Tutorial ever. Thanks heaps Reply Ivan: I have been shooting long exposures w/ ND filters and a 42 MP camera. The advantage being that I end up with a single image. With this time-lapse technique you are shooting 100 images in 5 minutes. I would think that I'd fill my 128 GB card quickly just to create a single image. Then loading this data into my PC hard drive there would be that much more compiled data to address. Ivan. can you explain the advantage of using this time-lapse technique if you already have acquired a proper collection of ND filters? Reply Hi Ivan! just a quick question hehe those images came from a timelapse video isn’t it? correct me if I am wrong. 🙂 Reply <3 Reply Holy macaroni! That's some magic outside of Hogwarts! Thank you for sharing this Reply Hi Ivan, how did you switch that stacked picture form PS back to LR so quickly? Any shortcut or function? thx. Reply Hello! just a question: Ps is not allowing me to use the stack mode. Any idea why this is happening? thank you! Reply Great way to be able to shoot a time-lapse and a long exposure with only one tripod and one camera at the same time. Thanks for sharing. Reply Nice dude! I'm going to have to try this! Reply Terrific help, thanks man. Been wanting to know how this is done for a while. If you haven't done it already, you should do this with your astro work and show us how that resuls. Reply Thanks for your time Ivan, I've subscribed. And, nice to know I no longer have the noisiest pc fan in the world 🙂 I only learnt of this today after playing witn my 5S and an app that does similar in phone (but not as well of course). Reply i wonder if there is like stacking that simulates bulb mode for the purpose of just to properly expose dark scenes. as we know, very long exposure introduce noise and hot pixels. I hate LENR because it takes time. Reply wow. thanks for sharing. Reply Before creating smart object should you first align all images, your way worked but just questioning that. Beautiful Image !! Reply Very simple and clear explanation and the end result is simply amazing thank you so much Reply Sweet. Going to try this with waterfalls Reply I've been playing about with long exposure photography for quite some time but had never heard of this technique before stumbling onto this post earlier today. I immediately went out to try it out and would have to say that this is singularly the most useful Photoshop processing idea I have come across in a very long time. Thanks for posting it. I can see this technique becoming a permanent part of my workflow from now on! Reply So what if the wind is really strong and the trees at the back are shaking? Will the background be blur in that way? Reply Nice job thank you for the tutorial ,I will try this tomorrow Reply Hello Ivan,beautiful picture… really. I do like it a lot. Now, just help me please. I didn't understand two things so there are some questions coming up.1) Why didn't you take a long exposure and just had ONE file in the end?2) As I am new to PS… what is the advantage of having smart objects? In other videos I saw, people didn't generate smart object out of their layers and did stacking for focus.3) Couldn't I use the stacking option with the same result? Reply i liked your tutorial very much … helped me a lot…. i got new sony fdr x3000 & was depressed coz i cant take long exposure shot like gopro does… but after watching your tutorial i have no regrets of buy sony action cam. thanks a lot… will try this soon…. 🙂 cheers Reply Add Comment Cancel reply Comment: Name * Email * Website Currently you have JavaScript disabled. In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser.
"Mean" gives you the average value for a speciflc pixel as found in all the images – you have 80 something images. They grab the color/luminance values of that pixel in each image, add them up and divide by number of images. Whatever it turns out as, they display those values for that pixel. "Median", you have 80, they make a list of the pixel values from each and grab the center of the list – so 39 or 40 (on an odd number its that exact middle one, otherwise they probably average the 2 nearest it. Median is a good way to reduce noise in any kind of static shot btw. It's pretty impressive if you shoot with higher ISOs out of necessity… Mean is a cheap way to get that flowing water look without an expensive filter like a Lee f-stopper… the filter is a finer result, but I've got some that look almost the same that I shot within a few minutes of each other – just blasted off 30 shots of a waterfall (handheld) – aligned them in PS and pulled the "mean"… Reply
What is the benefit of this method compared to using an ND filter to create the same type of image? Reply
That's really magic, I didn't thought I wouldn't really need ND filter anymore but you've mad my day . Reply
Very nice way. I don't have an ND filter, so I will try this technique. The result looks amazing. Reply
Did you manually take each shot or did you have a timer set or use a remote? What do you recommend I guess I should ask. I'm shooting on the Sony mirrorless systen Reply
Is this method equivalent to auto-blending layers, as far as focus-stacking is concerned? Were you focusing on the same spot in all the images ? Reply
If I am in Photoshop and followed all the steps and get to Layer-Smart objects my "smart objects" are greyed out and can't be accessed. Did I done something wrong? Reply
First thanks for the amazing tutorial. Tried doing this yesterday with about 60-70 frames and then stacking them in PS but somehow doesn't get the same results as you do. Would it be better to shoot at lower shutter speeds to get a small amount of movement on each frame or would it be better to look for subject with a lot of movement instead? would appreciate any help on this one. Reply
Ivan: I have been shooting long exposures w/ ND filters and a 42 MP camera. The advantage being that I end up with a single image. With this time-lapse technique you are shooting 100 images in 5 minutes. I would think that I'd fill my 128 GB card quickly just to create a single image. Then loading this data into my PC hard drive there would be that much more compiled data to address. Ivan. can you explain the advantage of using this time-lapse technique if you already have acquired a proper collection of ND filters? Reply
Hi Ivan! just a quick question hehe those images came from a timelapse video isn’t it? correct me if I am wrong. 🙂 Reply
Hi Ivan, how did you switch that stacked picture form PS back to LR so quickly? Any shortcut or function? thx. Reply
Hello! just a question: Ps is not allowing me to use the stack mode. Any idea why this is happening? thank you! Reply
Great way to be able to shoot a time-lapse and a long exposure with only one tripod and one camera at the same time. Thanks for sharing. Reply
Terrific help, thanks man. Been wanting to know how this is done for a while. If you haven't done it already, you should do this with your astro work and show us how that resuls. Reply
Thanks for your time Ivan, I've subscribed. And, nice to know I no longer have the noisiest pc fan in the world 🙂 I only learnt of this today after playing witn my 5S and an app that does similar in phone (but not as well of course). Reply
i wonder if there is like stacking that simulates bulb mode for the purpose of just to properly expose dark scenes. as we know, very long exposure introduce noise and hot pixels. I hate LENR because it takes time. Reply
Before creating smart object should you first align all images, your way worked but just questioning that. Beautiful Image !! Reply
I've been playing about with long exposure photography for quite some time but had never heard of this technique before stumbling onto this post earlier today. I immediately went out to try it out and would have to say that this is singularly the most useful Photoshop processing idea I have come across in a very long time. Thanks for posting it. I can see this technique becoming a permanent part of my workflow from now on! Reply
So what if the wind is really strong and the trees at the back are shaking? Will the background be blur in that way? Reply
Hello Ivan,beautiful picture… really. I do like it a lot. Now, just help me please. I didn't understand two things so there are some questions coming up.1) Why didn't you take a long exposure and just had ONE file in the end?2) As I am new to PS… what is the advantage of having smart objects? In other videos I saw, people didn't generate smart object out of their layers and did stacking for focus.3) Couldn't I use the stacking option with the same result? Reply
i liked your tutorial very much … helped me a lot…. i got new sony fdr x3000 & was depressed coz i cant take long exposure shot like gopro does… but after watching your tutorial i have no regrets of buy sony action cam. thanks a lot… will try this soon…. 🙂 cheers Reply
