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Light pollution is a common issue for astrophotographers, as it can significantly impact the quality of their images. Light pollution refers to the unwanted artificial light that creeps into photographs, often coming from distant towns or street lights. This issue can be mitigated through various image-editing software, such as Adobe Lightroom, which offers tools like 'dehaze' and adjustments to light curves, saturation, and white balance to minimize light pollution's effects. While these techniques can enhance images, it is important to note that they may not always produce perfect results, and it is challenging to restore detail that has been smeared beyond recognition.
How to get rid of light pollution in Lightroom
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Set white balance | Set to daylight, can be fine-tuned later |
| Saturation | Increase |
| Lens corrections | Enable |
| Noise reduction settings | Adjust to balance cleaning up the image without losing faint stars |
| Cropping | Temporarily crop image to show only sky and no foreground images, including clouds |
| Contrast | Set to 100% |
| Exposure | Push until the lower corner of the histogram is touching the right |
| Dehaze | Use to bring out colours, add deeper shadows and make the image pop |
| Radial Filter | Create a heavily feathered Radial Filter to darken sections of the sky in a natural-looking way |
| Light curves | Adjust to subtract light pollution |
| Gaussian Blur | Use to blur out bright stars |
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What You'll Learn
Utilise the 'dehaze' tool in Lightroom
The dehaze tool in Lightroom can be used to reduce light pollution in photographs. It is a useful feature to recover details in hazy or misty scenes, especially in star photography. The tool can be used to improve the visibility and clarity of pictures, making them look more vibrant and interesting.
To utilise the dehaze tool in Lightroom, follow these steps:
- Import your hazy image into Lightroom by going to "File > Import Photos and Videos".
- Switch to the Develop module in the top-right corner.
- Locate the Dehaze tool: In Lightroom Classic, it is found in the Presence section of the Basic panel in the Develop module. In Lightroom CC, it is located in the Effects section of the Basic panel in the Develop module.
- Adjust the Dehaze slider: Moving the slider to the right increases the dehazing effect, improves contrast, and enhances clarity. Move the slider until the haze disappears, but be careful not to overdo it as it can make the image look unnatural.
- Fine-tune with other adjustments: The dehaze tool works well in conjunction with other sliders in Lightroom, such as Contrast, Blacks, Clarity, and Noise Reduction. Adjust these sliders to fine-tune your image and compensate for any unintended consequences of dehazing.
- Save and export: Once you are satisfied with the image, save and export your work.
While the dehaze tool can be very effective in reducing light pollution, it is important to note that it can also have some negative effects. It may affect the colours in your image, making them look unnatural or exaggerated. It can also accentuate optical flaws, such as lens vignetting and chromatic aberration. Therefore, it is crucial to use the dehaze tool in moderation and make small adjustments to other settings to fine-tune your image.
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Adjust the hue/saturation sliders
When removing light pollution from astrophotography images in Lightroom, you can use the Hue/Saturation sliders to make adjustments to the colours in your photos.
First, open your image in Lightroom and select 'Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation' to access the Hue/Saturation tool. In the floating palette that appears, use the drop-down menu to select the colour range you want to work with. For example, if your sky glow is yellowish, you would select yellow.
Next, experiment with dragging the saturation and lightness sliders to the left. This technique can effectively remove light pollution as long as there are no multiple colours to deal with. However, this method may also remove any colour you have captured in the stars. To avoid this issue, you can work with layers. Duplicate your background layer and make sure the new layer is in front of the original.
Additionally, Lightroom's HSL (hue, saturation, and lightness) sliders offer a high level of control for colour adjustments. However, be cautious not to push the sliders too far apart, as this can increase the photo's colour noise.
When adjusting the hue and saturation, it is important to strike a balance. While increasing saturation can enhance your image, pushing it too high may introduce unwanted colour noise. Similarly, adjusting the hue can correct colour casts, but excessive adjustments can lead to unnatural-looking colours. It is recommended to make subtle changes and compare them to the original image to ensure the adjustments are not overdone.
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Use Gaussian blur
To reduce light pollution in Lightroom, one method is to use Gaussian blur. This technique involves selecting the light-polluted area and adjusting the feathering to a few hundred pixels. You can then copy and blur this selection using Gaussian blur with a pixel radius of 70-150 pixels. This effectively washes out bright light sources. After blurring, you can paste the selection onto a new layer filled with black and set this layer to 'difference' with an opacity of around 50%. Finally, merge these layers and stretch the image slightly.
This method works best when there are no large nebulae in the frame, as they may be unintentionally removed along with the light pollution. It is also important to note that the more skilled you become at using this method, the better your results will be. With practice, you can achieve a pleasing final image with minimal light pollution and well-preserved contrast.
Another technique that utilizes Gaussian blur is to take a second image of a star-filled field near your target. You can then extract the light pollution gradient from this new image and apply a blur, creating an improved anti-light-pollution mask. This method may require some experimentation to achieve the desired result.
In Lightroom, you can also use the versatile Brush tool to apply Gaussian blur. This tool allows you to paint the blur effect onto specific areas of your image, giving you precise control over the blur's placement and intensity. You can adjust the strength of the blur by using the feather and flow sliders, and you can visualize the areas of the image that will be affected by the blur by pressing the 'O' key. If you accidentally blur an area you wanted to keep sharp, you can use the 『Subtract』 button to remove the blur from that area.
Overall, Gaussian blur is a powerful tool for reducing light pollution in Lightroom, and with practice and experimentation, you can achieve excellent results.
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Set the white balance to daylight
Setting the white balance to daylight is a good starting point for removing light pollution from astrophotography images in Lightroom. This is because daylight white balance aims to render white objects as white, without any additional colour values present.
To set the white balance to daylight, head to the Develop module in Lightroom Classic and find the white balance section in the top-right toolbar pane. Use the white balance (WB) drop-down menu to select Daylight.
However, depending on the lighting conditions and the complexity of the scene, the daylight white balance preset may make the image feel too cool. This is because the white balance is measured in Kelvin, which represents the amount of warmth or coolness in an image. In such cases, you can use the white balance selector tool (known as the eyedropper tool or White Balance Selector in Lightroom Classic) to make custom white balance adjustments.
Additionally, you can use a white balance card to simplify the process. Take a photo of the card and then use the white balance eyedropper tool to click on the card in the photograph. This will automatically set the white balance for your image.
It is important to note that white balance aims to correct colour casts in a photograph. The colour temperature of an image, as captured by the camera, may differ from the actual colour temperature of the scene due to various factors such as lighting conditions, weather, and surrounding environments. Therefore, adjusting the white balance to daylight is just one of the many tools that can be used to improve the overall colour accuracy of your astrophotography images.
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Create a heavily feathered Radial Filter
The Lightroom Radial Filter is a powerful editing feature that can be used to enhance sunsets, mimic reflectors, draw focus to subjects, and reduce light pollution. To create a heavily feathered Radial Filter in Lightroom to reduce light pollution, follow these steps:
Firstly, access the Lightroom Develop module, then click on the Masking icon. Tap the Radial Gradient button, then click and drag your cursor across the image to create a large oval-shaped mask. This will be your Radial Filter, and the red overlay indicates the placement and strength of your editing adjustments. Ensure that your Radial Filter is large enough to cover most of the frame, as you can always resize or rotate it later by dragging the outer circle handles.
Next, click the Invert box and increase Feather to 100 to create a very gradual transition within the mask. The feather tool adjusts the softness of the edges of your radial selection. A large feather value will subtly blend the effect in, helping the edit blend in with the scene. Adjust the Feather until only the area you want to edit is selected.
Now, adjust the values of your image to reduce the light pollution. Change the following values: Tint: +15, Exposure: -1.50, Contrast: +25, Highlights: +20, Shadows: -85, Whites: +15, Blacks: +40, and Dehaze: +65.
Finally, if you want to adjust the area outside of the Radial Filter, check the Invert box in the right-hand corner. You can then adjust the exposure, contrast, texture, image saturation, noise removal, or add a colour overlay.
By following these steps, you can effectively reduce light pollution in your images while ensuring that your edits blend seamlessly and look natural.
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Frequently asked questions
Use the ''dehaze' tool to remove light pollution from star photography.
Yes, you can use the Radial Filter tool to create a heavily feathered mask to darken the sky in a natural-looking way.
The darkest pixels on the left of the histogram are lit by light pollution. This lets you know how much light to subtract.
You can use other image editing programs to adjust the Hue/Saturation sliders and blur the image, subtracting that from the original.
Duplicate the background layer and blur the new layer completely until no stars are visible. Set the radius to about 50 pixels. Blend the layers using the Subtract blend mode.
