Post Processing the Milky Way: How to Edit Astrophotography

Once you have a large set of photos, editing can seem like a daunting and insurmountable task.

Since you’re here, you’re likely just starting out in astrophotography and trying to figure out if this is the right thing for you.

Think of this: what better way of contemplating the nature of existence than by scouting for locations with low light pollution, going out in the field, and looking at the stars with your camera for hours on end?

You’re the universe staring back at itself, taking pictures.

As for the editing part, my goal today is to help you understand how to edit astrophotography and then determine your ideal editing workflow.

Factors that Influence How You’ll Be Editing

To master astrophotography, you first need a good setup. An iPhone camera can be a great early starting point, and after that, most 50mm lenses will take great photos of the night sky. So any Z series lens from Nikon, an RF lens from Canon, or if you want to go for something more professional, a Samyang XP – all of these will do the job and turn out breathtaking shots.

For deep sky astrophotography, you require more advanced equipment, such as a telescope and a sturdy equatorial mount that allows you to track the stars during long exposure shots (remember – the Earth moves all the time). However, there’s a downside when editing photos taken with the assistance of a telescope, in that Lightroom, Luminar, GIMP, and other editing tools might not have appropriate lens correction settings. Following are some more factors that influence how you edit your shots, so make sure you know all of these before you begin editing.

Camera details and techniques that will influence astrophotography editing:

Overexposing vs underexposing a shot
ISO invariant sensor
Aperture
Lens type and quality

Environmental factors that will influence astrophotography editing:

The position and phase of the moon
The amount of light pollution
The amount of dust in the air

Editing Your RAW Astrophotography Shots – Post-Processing the Milky Way!

First, remember your goal: to create an editing workflow that works at scale for all of your photo sets. Professional photographers often need to complete multiple projects in record time to turn a profit – therefore having a reliable photo editing playbook will enable you to do that. So start by selecting the top photos in a set – use AI tools if necessary to increase the speed of that process.

Before You Begin: Calibrate Your Screen’s Colors

In order for your work to be taken seriously, you also need to treat it seriously. For photographers and graphics professionals, that means starting with color calibration:

Clean your monitor thoroughly and make sure there’s no remaining haze.
Set your ambient lighting to the way you usually work, making sure there’s no glare on the screen.
Using a color calibration tool, such as the TruHu app, and go through color correction.
Repeat the process at least once a month as monitors age (losing brightness and color accuracy).

Having a calibrated screen means:

You can trust the colors you see
You know your photos will look good on most screens
Your photos will be professional and consistent with color standards

1. Add Lens Correction

Start with lens correction settings (under Optics in Lightroom).

Most photo editing tools come with built-in presets and profiles for lens correction, allowing you to pick the camera and / or lens you were using during your photoshoot. Once you select the lens, your software should automatically apply a lens correction profile.

Lens Correction Screenshot Lightroom — *Adobe Lightroom settings for Lens Correction.*

2. Correct Basic Settings

Once lens correction is applied, we move on to basic photo settings:

Correct your exposure to your preferred level, being conscious of whether the shot was overexposed or underexposed.
Correct your contrast level accordingly after changing the exposure.
The goal of this step should be to keep as many stars and details in your photos as possible while keeping the sky itself dark.

Then move on to more advanced lighting settings:

Correct highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks.
To train your eye to see changes, increase and decrease the settings repeatedly.
Once you’re satisfied with the four settings, go back to exposure and contrast and check if you can make any further improvements (I can often lower the exposure even more to achieve higher contrast with the cosmic background).

Lighting Settings Before and After Lightroom Astrophotography — *For this article, I used some* ***RAW practice files from Astropix***. *These are great for testing out your skills with astrophotography post-processing. Photo editing is also about artistic vision, so give it a go and see how your results look compared to mine.*

3. Correct Image Effects

The next step in your editing process should be editing the Effects and, specifically, the Clarity setting.

Increase your clarity however much you like (I tend to go for between 50 and 60 in Lightroom).

Other Effects are optional, but they might be good for your photos. I personally like dehazing astrophotography shots since sometimes the pixels between stars can become a bit jagged, creating an overall hazy look. It also helps give the image more true-to-life color.

3_Clarity Settings Lightroom Astrophotography

4. Adjust Colors and Tones

Once that’s done, move on to color correction. The following method comes with a small trick I learned from Mike Smith on YouTube:

First, under your Color settings, pick your preferred color profile. I personally prefer the blue tint of Tungsten or Fluorescent, as it somewhat mimics the effect Earth’s atmosphere has on the color of the stars.
Then, temporarily set your Vibrance and Saturation to max.
Correct the temperature and tint settings to achieve the perfect middle ground between blue and yellow and green and pink, respectively.
Reset Vibrance and Saturation to default.
Then proceed to tweak all the settings for personal preference. During this step, I like to increase saturation and vibrance ever so slightly to give my images a more striking look.

Color Correction Astrophotography Lightroom — **Pro tip:** always recheck previous settings as you move on through your workflow. For example, it might make sense to go back and lower your exposure.

5. Edit Earthly Elements

If you’re doing a composite shot of the Milky Way and the place you’re at, you can use the spot removal and heal tools to remove ugly elements from your photos.

Examples: billboards, fences, street signs, dumpsters, or anything else that might make the image unsightly.

I personally like making sure such elements don’t appear in the initial shots, but sometimes there’s just no way around it. Don’t overdo it, in any case, or it will look unnatural.

6. Sharpen the Image

Next, it’s time to edit the Details of your image.

Sharpen your photo and try to keep it under 60 so as not to make the image look fake.
Add a mask to increase the presence of the dark parts of the sky while keeping the stars bright.

Effects Settings and Sharpening Astrophotography Lightroom

6. Implement Noise Reduction

Last but definitely not least, Noise Reduction will help remove graininess and enhance the overall quality of your final edited shot.

Increase noise reduction by moving the Luminance slider up to a maximum of 20.
As an alternative, you can use the AI noise reduction added in Lightroom and other apps – for now, I’ve achieved decent results with it.

Denoise Astrophotography using AI in Lightroom — *AI Noise Reduction tool in Adobe Lightroom.*

7. Practice and Set an Editing Workflow

Once you get the desired results, export your image and move on to the next one. It’s helpful to practice as much as you can, as it will cut down on editing time significantly.

When I first started editing, it took me about 20 minutes to edit one photo – which was mostly me second-guessing my editing choices. Today, it takes me at most 5 minutes per photo. And a big part of that comes from deciding what kind of overall look I want for my portfolio.

So I recommend a bit of experimentation to get to know your artistic sense and then memorizing how to achieve it through simple repetition.

before and after editing astrophotography shot lightroom — *Before and after look at the practice image I edited following the steps above.*

A Word on TruHu, Our Color Calibration App

Most beginner photographers are in need of a reliable monitor color calibration solution, so I’d like to recommend the TruHu app. Here’s why it’s a gamechanger:

It’s the first monitor color calibration app that uses colorimetric data. While built-in apps such as the Windows and MacOS utilities are functional, they’re limited in their accuracy because they rely on users manually making adjustments. TruHu uses your phone’s camera to generate colorimetric datapoints, matching those with your monitor backlight technology to generate an accurate ICC profile.
It’s much more accessible compared to colorimeter-based monitor calibration products (CBMCPs). TruHu delivers quality results at a reasonable price point, doing our part to democratize color accuracy so graphics professionals around the world can move forward with more reliable results.
It can be used remotely everywhere with just your phone. It’s the age of remote work – people, and especially photographers, work from anywhere these days. So it’s better to be prepared with your TruHu app if you need a quick calibration – such as for an external display at home or on vacation.
It’s easier to use while giving you more freedom. CBMCPs often require you to have knowledge of your monitor’s backlight technology, which most don’t know and would have to research. TruHu automatically gathers that data while allowing you to customize the display temperature and brightness to your preference.

Try TruHu today!