Just got feedback on my lunar shot that totally changed my stacking process

Someone on here pointed out that my moon photos were way too sharpened, like I was trying to hide bad focus. They said 'back off the unsharp mask and stack more frames instead.' I was doing maybe 20 frames out of 200. Now I stack 150 frames and it looks way more natural... way less crunchy. Has anyone else had to completely re-learn their post-processing from a single comment?

2 comments

2 Comments

michael5191mo ago

Stack more and sharpen less was the best advice I ever got for lunar shots too.

julia_burns91mo ago

I get what you're saying @michael519, but I actually disagree on "stack more and sharpen less." Sharpening is where the detail comes alive for me. If I stack too many frames it just smooths out the craters and makes everything look like a blob. I'd rather do a quick 30-50 frame stack and then be aggressive with the sharpening in Registax, just not overdo it to the point of halos. Different strokes I guess, lunar shots seem to have so many ways to get a good result.