Editing night sky photos: color, contrast and noise
Raw night sky images look flat and noisy. A step-by-step editing workflow for Milky Way and star photos in Lightroom.
Night sky RAW files look gray, noisy and dull straight out of the camera. Editing reveals the detail hidden in them.
1. Lens corrections
Enable profile corrections to fix vignetting and distortion from wide lenses.
2. White balance
Set between 3800K and 4300K to neutralize light pollution while keeping a natural blue-purple sky.
3. Noise reduction
Apply AI Denoise first; it works best on untouched RAW files.
4. Exposure and contrast
Raise exposure slightly, increase contrast, lower highlights and lift shadows carefully.
5. Clarity and dehaze
Clarity and dehaze bring out the Milky Way’s structure. Apply them locally with a brush or mask on the sky.
6. Color
Enhance the warm tones of the core and cool tones of the surrounding sky with HSL adjustments.
7. Foreground
Edit the foreground separately using a sky mask. Keep it natural; it should look like moonlight or starlight.
Avoid overediting
Overly saturated purple skies and halos around the horizon look fake.
