Stacking is crazy!

I tend to agree with Darrell. I tried using Noise Ninja in its default settings on the OP's original image. My result, although not quite as good as his, took only a few seconds to do, and was comparable to the OP's stacked result, especially when reduced to match the size.

I think the manual stacking process is rather fiddly and time consuming although it has the big advantage of being free.

An automated alternative that I've tried, and which seems to be quite effective, is PhotoAcute. It is available as a free trial for both Windows and Mac: http://www.photoacute.com/studio/index.html .

Ian

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Ianperegian
http://www.ianperegian.com/