Importance of the reference image in Image Integration...?

[drmikevt]

Is it considered best practice to carefully set the  reference image before running image integration?  This is a topic that does not get discussed much. 

Is it the case that the median of the stacked image will depend on the reference image?  I would think that other parameters like FWHM and ECC are a little more absolute based on the data. 

If you do choose the reference image manually, what do you think makes the best reference?

Thanks for any guidance
Mike

[chris.bailey]

I use Herberts most excellent SNRMax script to find the frame with the highest SNR and use that as the reference for Star Alignment and Image Integration

http://www.skypixels.at/pixinsight_scripts.html