New in Version 1.10
New in Version 1.10
Version 1.10 will be released in 2025. It will be a free upgrade via the Mac App Store for all existing users.
Replaced the median composition algorithms with variations on truncated mean that should result in slightly better results.
Added support for 32-bit floating point output. This should improve image quality when there are a large number of input images and the noise in the input images is small. 32-bit output is off by default. It can be turned on in settings. See details below before turning it on.
Added support for lens distortion correction when processing RAW images. Lens distortion correction is off by default. See the details below before turning it on.
Renamed the “ProPhoto RGB” color profile to “ROMM RGB”. This is only a name change—the profile remains the same.
Fixed a crash that could occur when reading some images on some computers.
Some performance improvements.
Fixed some obscure problems.
SLS now requires macOS 11 or later.
Replaced the median composition algorithms with truncated mean (also known as trimmed mean). For Starry Landscape Stacker the truncated mean is offset to prefer darker values. Truncated mean has many of the advantages of median, such as strong outlier rejection and requiring fewer samples than mean to produce a good result. Truncated mean also has a key advantage of mean—because it produces values that are between values in the input it can produce results with more details in the dark areas than median.
Changed the naming of composition algorithms. The phrase “min star dupe” (which meant minimum star duplication) has been replaced with “max horizon accuracy” because this approach minimizes both the removal and duplication of stars near the horizon. The alternative is “min horizon noise” which reduces noise at the horizon, at the risk of duplicating or removing stars near the horizon. You have to look long and hard at many images to find instances of star duplication or star removal, so I almost always use the min horizon noise options.
Added support for 32-bit float TIF files for all variations of mean and truncated mean. This can be turned on in Settings. It must be turned on before aligning and compositing the images. With newer and better cameras, or when processing a large number of images, this should improve detail in the dark areas. Note that 32-bit tiffs are not well supported by other apps. In particular, Adobe Lightroom Classic does not crash when reading 32-bit tiffs, but the image color and contrast are badly distorted. Other apps, for example, Affinity Photo, work well. If you use Lightroom, do not use 32-bit output. You should test whatever other apps you use before committing to using 32-bit float TIF files. (I am sticking with 16-bit unsigned integers with SLS for now. For LES and SSS, 32-bit float output might be useful with current cameras if you can find suitable tools for post processing. Affinity Photo and Adobe Photoshop appear to work.)
Added the ability to apply lens distortion correction to images during RAW conversion. This only works if the necessary information is embedded in the RAW file. The information is often included for newer mirrorless cameras and lenses (and many old point-n-shoot cameras). Lens distortion correction is off by default as I have not yet proven that it is not adding artifacts like the lens distortion correction in Adobe Lightroom. I think it is worth turning it on to see if it reduces distortion in your images without adding artifacts. It is best controlled from the Settings.
Made the composition process faster.
Made reading RAW files faster. Reading of TIFF files may have gotten slower. Use RAW files whenever possible. You will get better results in less time.
Reduced peak memory used while reading images.
Fixed an error that slightly reduced the quality of the foreground. With a small number of images the loss of quality was greater. For most people the loss of quality is probably barely noticable. (Only one person reported a problem and he was doing something unusual.)
Fixed a crash that could occur when reading some images on some computers. It appears to be a bug in one of Apple's image processing libraries that was introduced sometime in 2024. I have worked around the problem. As of Mac OS 15.5 Apple has not fixed the problem.
Renamed the “ProPhoto RGB” color profile to “ROMM RGB”. The new name was widely adopted several years ago. I am slow in changing the name. There is no change to the profile—your images will look the same. You will only see the name in the Settings and in the metadata of the saved files.
Fixed an error that may have resulted in a loss of alignment accuracy for some images that are difficult to align.
Fixed an error that would cause a crash if the user hit the left or right arrow keys (prev/next image) while images were being read.
Fixed an error that would cause a crash when processing images with more than 200 megapixels per image.
Fixed an error that caused incorrect behavior when the user selected a set of files in the Finder and then selected Open With Starry Landscape Stacker. This error only created a problem on recent versions of MacOS.
Improved accuracy of progress reporting for the composition phase.
Minor improvement to dark frame processing. Image quality should be slightly improved. The improvement is likely too small to notice most of the time.
Internal changes to simplify future planned changes. This should result in some speed up for some users.
When painting/erasing a mask or erasing red dots on an image that has more than 150M pixels, the brush size does not correctly indicate what will be painted or erased. It is possible to use as is. I will fix this in the next update.