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Pro tip: stopped trying to edit out light pollution and started using it
For years I was processing astro photos trying to remove every bit of orange glow from nearby towns. Spent hours with gradients and masks in Photoshop. Then last winter I was shooting from a spot near Flagstaff and a guy walked over, looked at my screen, and said "why are you fighting the sky? put that glow behind the Milky Way core instead." Tried it that night and the shot was way better with the warm light creating a natural rim around the mountains. Now I plan my compositions around light pollution instead of running from it. Has anyone else shifted their approach like this?
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tara6421mo ago
Wait, you're telling me you actually met someone in the field who gave you that advice? That's wild, I always thought that kind of wisdom only came from youtube tutorials or forums. I've been fighting that same orange glow for like 3 years now, spent so many nights just frustrated with my edits. Never once thought to use it as part of the composition, that's actually genius. I'm gonna try that next time I'm out shooting near a town, could be a total game changer for me.
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karenh561mo ago
Rural Maine taught me that trick @gracec16, but honestly dark sites still beat orange sky for me.
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gracec161mo ago
Hang on, am I the only one who thinks this is kind of giving up? I've had the exact opposite experience, where I shoot from a dark site specifically to avoid that orange mess. The warm glow around the mountains just looks like a dirty smudge to me, not a nice rim light. I spent a year trying to "embrace" the light dome over a nearby city for a foreground shot of some old barns, and every single time I looked at it, I just saw a reminder of how much better the shot would be without all that sky glow. I'd rather drive an extra hour to a truly dark spot than trick myself into thinking light pollution adds something. But hey, we all have our own taste, so if it works for you, that's cool.
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