How can I use a refrence background image ?

Question

HI,
I need to register align horizontally and vertically) about 100 images to the first. I don't want to stack or merge them. An ideal way to accomplish this would be to be able to set the first image as a background reference image for all images in the group. There would be left/right buttons so I could advance through the stack, a slider to adjust the visibility of the foreground image, and up/down & right/left arrows so I could move the upper image a pixel at a time in any direction. In this case I don't need to rotate the image, but this would also be something a person might want to control. Then I would move through the group of images, stopping on each one to align the image to the first. One at a time, or after I am done, it would save all the aligned images to a new filename and folder, without changing the transparency of the image or in any way using the background reference image. Without rotating the images, every pixel in the new image would be the same as in the original, except moved. I would start by resizing the canvas of all the images so they have a border area. This way I can move the image around and not lose any of it.
Of course I could put the reference image in the background layer and the image to be adjusted above it on another layer. Then i can use the background as a reference by making the upper image somewhat transparent. Finially I could delete the background layer and save the image with just the adjusted layer. But this would be tedius with 100 images, even worse if there were 1000..
Is there a reference background image capability in Photoshop CC ? Is there a better or different way to do this ? Or can Bridge do it ?

Answer 1

Perhaps I need to explain my specific application. I have 120 images that are part of a time lapse sequence. The camera is photographing a meteor shower. I was able to capture a meteor which left a persistent trail that lasted about 5 minutes. Because the camera is on a tripod, the stars are constantly moving and in fact moved quite a bit during the 5 minutes the trail was visible. These images are of much higher resulution than the 1080 video I am producing. I have used premier to track the spot in the images and show the meteor and trail as a video close up that runs at about 15% speed. because the exposures were 30 seconds ;long, every 33 seconds, the sky has visibly moved from image to image. because I use only a few keyframes Premier tracks the spot smoothly. But since the pictures are each moved, not moving, the stars in the final video move back and forth with each image. they never go anywhere, but this movement is distracting and annoying. Theoretically I could eliminate this movement by having a different key for each frame. But the better way is to prepare the images so they are all aligned. Then there will be no movement at all.
You have seen this effect in documentaries. Here's a hypothetical situation. Someone has handheld video of an important event happening. because of the situation and the handheld camera, the picture moves around like crazy. To be able to view the event clearly as part of an investigation, each frame is aligned to the first so the subject doesn't move at all, while the image frame moves all around. I have seen this many times. Now I need to do it.
I have 120 pictures which all must be aligned so the stars in the picture do not move. i need to see a refrence image through the image to be adjusted, so I can move the image to be adjusted until its stars are perfectly aligned with stars in the refrence image. Of course this is like stacking, which is used to reduce noise and increase detail. but I don't want to stack the images, just adjust them horizontally and vertically, and then save them in their adjusted state.