1. Introduction

Photographing the Milky Way is one of the most magical experiences in night photography — but it comes with challenges. High ISO, long exposures, and dark conditions often result in noisy images and a limited dynamic range. That’s where photo stacking comes in.

By capturing multiple exposures of the same scene and blending them together, you can:

  • Significantly reduce noise
  • Enhance detail and contrast in the Milky Way
  • Preserve a natural look even with deep edits

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to plan and shoot your stack, and then combine and edit it using:

  • Starry Landscape Stacker (macOS) or Sequator (Windows)
  • Lightroom for creative color editing and final polish

2. What You’ll Need

Before you head out under the stars, here’s a list of essentials to make sure you're prepared for both the shooting and stacking process:

📸 Gear

  • DSLR or mirrorless camera with manual mode and RAW shooting
  • Wide-angle lens (14–35 mm) with a fast aperture (f/2.8 or lower preferred)
  • Sturdy tripod to keep your shots aligned during long exposures
  • Remote shutter release or built-in intervalometer (to avoid camera shake)
  • Extra batteries or power bank (stacking requires many long exposures)

💻 Software

  • Starry Landscape Stacker (macOS) or Sequator (Windows) – for stacking
  • Adobe Lightroom – for RAW development and creative editing

🗺 Planning Tools

  • Clear Outside – to check for cloud cover and moon phase
  • Light Pollution Map (lightpollutionmap.info) – to find dark sky locations
  • PhotoPills – for tracking the Milky Way’s position and timing

With the right tools and a bit of planning, you're ready to capture something truly cosmic.

3. Planning the Shot

Milky Way photography starts long before you press the shutter. To get the most out of your night session, you’ll need to plan your location, timing, and composition carefully. A little preparation goes a long way.

📍 Find a Dark Sky

  • Use lightpollutionmap.info to scout areas far from city lights.
  • Look for places rated Bortle 1–4 for best contrast in the Milky Way.

🌌 Know When and Where the Milky Way Rises

  • Use apps like PhotoPills or Stellarium to track the galactic core.
  • In the Northern Hemisphere, the Milky Way is most visible from April to September.
  • The core typically becomes visible after midnight in spring, and shortly after sunset in summer.

🌤 Check Weather and Moon Phase

  • Use Clear Outside to predict cloud cover hour by hour.
  • Plan your shoot near the new moon for darkest skies and best contrast.

  • These colored blocks indicate sky clarity per hour:

    ColorMeaning

    • 🔴 Red - Poor conditions– overcast or mostly cloudy (bad for stargazing)
    • 🟠 Orange - Fair conditions– partly cloudy
    • 🟢 Green - Good conditions– clear or mostly clear skies (great for stargazing)
    • ⚪ Grey - No data / daylight– daytime hours or unavailable forecast

📐 Composition Tips

  • Scout your location during daylight and frame your foreground in advance.
  • Look for leading lines, silhouettes, or dramatic landscapes that complement the sky.
  • Decide whether you want a horizontal panorama or a vertical Milky Way composition.

Proper planning will help you make the most of your time in the field — and avoid frustration when the stars are out but your setup isn’t ready.

4. Camera Settings

Once you're on location and ready to shoot, setting your camera properly is crucial for sharp, well-exposed Milky Way images. You’ll be shooting a series of short exposures that will later be stacked, so consistency and accuracy matter.

📸 Manual Mode

  • Switch your camera to manual (M) mode.
  • This allows you to control shutter speed, aperture, and ISO independently.

⏱ Shutter Speed & The 500 Rule

  • To avoid visible star movement ("trailing"), use the 500 Rule:
  • 500 ÷ focal length (full-frame equivalent) = max exposure time in seconds
  • Example: With a 20 mm lens → 500 ÷ 20 = 25 seconds
  • On high-resolution cameras or APS-C sensors, reduce this number to avoid blur.
  • You’ll typically shoot between 10–20 seconds per frame when stacking.

🔆 Aperture

  • Use your lens’s widest aperture (e.g., f/2.8 or f/1.8) to gather as much light as possible.
  • Lower f-stop = brighter sky, shorter exposure time.

🌒 ISO

  • Start with ISO 1600–3200 depending on your camera’s noise performance.
  • Higher ISO can bring out more stars, but stacking will help reduce resulting noise.

🌡 White Balance

  • Set a manual white balance between 3800–4200 K for a neutral night-sky tone.
  • Avoid auto white balance to ensure consistency across frames.

🎯 Focus

  • Set your lens to manual focus.
  • Use Live View and zoom in to 100% on a bright star to fine-tune focus.
  • Once sharp, disable autofocus and tape the focus ring if needed to avoid accidental shifts.

📷 File Format & Noise Reduction

  • Shoot in RAW for maximum flexibility during editing.
  • Disable in-camera Long Exposure Noise Reduction (LENR) — stacking will handle it better.

With these settings dialed in, you're ready to shoot a clean sequence of images for stacking. Take a few test shots, zoom in to check focus, and then begin your capture session.

5. Capturing and Stacking Your Images

Now it’s time to actually take your photos. Since the goal is to reduce noise through stacking, you’ll need multiple exposures of the exact same scene. Stay consistent, keep your camera still, and shoot enough frames to make the stack effective.

📸 Light Frames

  • Take at least 10–20 exposures of the Milky Way with identical settings.
  • The more frames you capture, the better the noise reduction will be.
  • Use an intervalometer or your camera’s built-in timer to shoot in sequence.
  • Make sure nothing in your frame moves between shots (including clouds, people, or gear).
  • Use the NPF rule or the classic 500 rule to determine the maximum shutter speed to avoid star trailing.
  • The PhotoPills app can calculate both rules for you. You can choose between "Default (barely noticeable trails)" and "Accurate (useful for large prints)" based on your desired quality.

  • PhotoPills - Default Accuracy

  • PhotoPills - Accurate

🌑 Dark Frames (Optional)

  • After finishing your light frames, take 5–10 shots with the lens cap on, using the same settings.
  • These will help the stacking software remove hot pixels and thermal noise.

📄 Flat Frames (Optional, Advanced)

  • Flat frames correct for vignetting and sensor dust — useful but not required.
  • To capture them, take photos of a uniformly lit white surface (like a tablet or sky at twilight) at the same aperture.

📂 Organize Your Files

  • Place all light, dark, and flat frames into clearly named folders (e.g., “MilkyWay_Light”, “Dark”, “Flat”).
  • This will make importing and stacking much easier later.

Once all your frames are captured, you’re ready for the stacking process — where the magic happens.

6. Stacking the Images

Now that you’ve captured your light and optional dark/flat frames, it’s time to combine them into a single clean image. Stacking reduces noise and boosts detail by averaging out unwanted pixel variation across multiple exposures.

🖥 macOS: Starry Landscape Stacker

  • Open Starry Landscape Stacker and load your light frames.
  • Add any dark and flat frames if available.
  • The software will automatically detect stars and create a sky mask.
  • You can refine the mask manually if needed to ensure accurate separation of sky and foreground.
  • Once ready, click Align and Composite to stack your images.
  • Save the result as a 16-bit TIFF file for further editing.

1.

By placing dots on the sky, tell the software which region of the night sky it is looking at.

2.

Correct and refine the mask if the software did not accurately detect the location of the night sky.

3.

Export the stacked photo as a TIFF file for further editing in Lightroom (or Photoshop).

🖥 Windows: Sequator

  • Launch Sequator and load your light frames.
  • Set the Output location and format (preferably 16-bit TIFF).
  • Check the box for “Freeze ground” if your composition includes a foreground.
  • Optionally load dark and flat frames for better results.
  • Click Start and Sequator will process your stacked image.

The final TIFF file will be cleaner, more detailed, and much more flexible in editing than a single high-ISO exposure.

7. Editing in Lightroom

Once your stacked TIFF is ready, bring it into Adobe Lightroom for final adjustments. This is where the Milky Way really comes to life — with contrast, color, and structure carefully shaped to reveal the beauty of the night sky.

🔧 Basic Adjustments

  • Start with the Basic panel:
    • Increase contrast and whites to enhance brightness in the core.
    • Lower blacks and shadows slightly to deepen the sky.
    • Tweak exposure only if needed — stacking gives you plenty of data.

🎨 Color Grading

  • Adjust white balance if needed — a cooler tone (~3800K) often works well for a natural night sky.
  • Use the HSL panel to enhance specific colors in the Milky Way:
    • Boost aquas, blues for sky
    • Enhance oranges and yellows in the galactic core

🌌 Detail & Clarity

  • Use Texture and Clarity to bring out the fine structure of the Milky Way.
  • Be subtle — too much clarity can introduce halos or noise.
  • Apply Noise Reduction carefully — your stacked image should already be very clean.

🪄 Local Adjustments

  • Use Radial filters or Brushes to selectively brighten the galactic core.
  • Darken or desaturate areas with light pollution or uneven gradients.

Don’t overdo it — let the natural glow and structure of the Milky Way speak for itself. When in doubt, take a break and revisit your edit with fresh eyes.

8. Advanced Tips & Creative Variations

Once you've mastered the basics of Milky Way photography and stacking, you can begin exploring creative techniques that elevate your nightscapes even further.

🏞 Foreground Focus & Blending

  • If your foreground appears soft or out of focus, consider capturing a separate set of images focused on it during blue hour or twilight.
  • Use a higher f-number like f/8 to ensure depth of field.
  • For ultimate sharpness, you can even try focus stacking the foreground and blending it with your night sky stack later.
  • We’ll dive into foreground blending step-by-step in the next tutorial.

📸 Try Different Lenses

  • Use an ultrawide lens (14–20 mm) to capture dramatic vertical or diagonal Milky Way compositions.
  • Or try a 35 mm or 50 mm lens for detail shots of the galactic core with a compressed look.

🌌 Shoot a Milky Way Panorama

  • Capture a series of overlapping vertical frames (with stacking for each), and stitch them together into a wide panoramic arc of the Milky Way.
  • This allows for incredible resolution and creative control over foreground placement.
  • Panoramas will be covered in a future tutorial!

The more you experiment, the more you'll develop your own style and workflow. Don't be afraid to try new methods, test different gear, or blend techniques across sessions.

Feel free to experiment, push your creativity, and discover your own way of capturing the Milky Way. Whether you’re out under remote mountain skies or just testing your skills near the edge of town, every session teaches you something new.

If you found this tutorial helpful and ended up creating a stacked Milky Way shot, I’d love to see it! Tag your work on Instagram using the hashtag:

#simplyonphotography

Let’s light up the night together ✨

#simplyonphotography