Stacking problem

[Kenza]

Ok, last night was my first good imaging session without autoguiding ( the mount is tracking though). I've taken 7 Lights and 3 Darks and tried to stack them with Deep Sky Stacker. All I got was a cropped black image with about 10 or 11 stars on it. I know the pictures are not exactly the same. What am I doing wrong?

[Kenza]

Even when i load only one RAW image it crops it. Why?

[JamesF]

Is this images taken using a relatively recent model Canon camera, by any chance?

James

[Kenza]

I use a Canon 550D. I figured it out. The problem was that I needed to download the latest version of DSS (3.3.3). Now it's ok.

Just one question: When I finish stacking my images and then open the final image in Photoshop, the image is darker then the pre-stacked ones. Is that normal?

[JamesF]

Just one question: When I finish stacking my images and then open the final image in Photoshop, the image is darker then the pre-stacked ones. Is that normal?

It may be. Try opening the levels dialogue and stretching the histogram.

James

[Bizibilder]

Yes the image out of DSS os often very "dark". Don't worry as all your data is there it just needs teasing out - which you do by "stretching" using the levels and curves tools in PS. There are quite a few tutorials and videos of how to do this on the web.