How to Edit the Milky Way and Night Sky Photography Using Lightroom

In this tutorial I showcase a simple way to process the Milky Way and Night Sky Photography in Adobe Lightroom. In the video I cover my favorite ways to enhance the colors of the Milky Way Galaxy, process the landscape and reduce noise in the photograph.
I have a premium Milky Way tutorial on my website which teaches advanced processing techniques for Lightroom and Photoshop, you can find it here:
www.shainblumphoto.com/star-ph...
Check out my website and pages for more.
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[@DenmarkVea]

Hi Michael, love your tutorial. New to processing the MW and like to say thanks for the tutorial. My results are getting better with each photo I processed.

[@JamieDoggett]

Thanks for sharing Michael! Love your work

[@waynedennyphoto]

Really great tutorial. I've never really shot any Milky Way stuff before, but I think I'll definitely start after seeing this. Much appreciated!

[@adriennedragophotography]

Thank you so much for this tutorial, Michael!

[@SirGrinchy_]

Thank you very much for sharing! I really like the final image.

[@xsqydneyx]

Thank you so much Michael! This was very informative!!

[@NevinXavier]

Very helpful tutorial... love how you explained the reason behind every slider change

[@Tucaaue]

Thanks for this video, I have been looking for something like this for a while but a lot of people seem to hide important steps for some reason. I appreciate your work here and will be subscribing to get more useful videos. Once again, THANK YOU.

[@orcaspest]

Very nice tutorial, thank you!!

[@OleHenrikSkjelstad]

This was immensely helpful! A huge huge thanks!!!

[@AllorNone23]

Great tutorial man! Thank you!

[@RoadWearyPilot]

Great tutorial! I've just started doing night sky and Milky Way shots recently and was looking for a good tutorial in Lightroom (finally decided to nurse myself off of PS CC). I'll be fiddling with some of my recent shots following this nice workflow. Thanks for sharing!!

[@benweatherheadphotography1594]

Great tutorial video, really appreciate it. Went out for the first time to shoot the milky way and you video really helped my image come to life. Really appreciate it.

[@EricHelgesen1]

Thanks for this! I used this video to process my own photo and it came out great!

[@nevadaxtube]

Thanks Michael! Very informative video.

[@deepakparmar82]

Great tutorial Michael... Thanks.

[@jtdeverich]

Learned heaps from this, great tutorial. If you are making another I'd love to know how you treat shots when brown hazing overwhelms the sky colour palate.

[@authxism]

Great video! Thanks

[@rarity2006]

Great job final result was outstanding

[@mightymuffinful]

Thanks so much for sharing your techniques

[@Bisbeaux]

Awesome man! Never thought to use negative clarity for those halos before. Thank you :).

[@ponymoore6140]

Brilliant - thank you

[@terry2855]

Great tutorial! Thanks!

[@Adol666]

Thanks for these tips. Ive just gotten into Photography specifically for night sky photos. Just learning how to use Lightroom and was wondering how to make the Milky Way "pop". Thanks Again

[@ericroy1367]

This was really great - Thanks so much

[@rtpman1953]

I use similar techniques for editing my Milky Way and timelapse images. I hadn't played with the dehaze tool yet but looks interesting. I really like the addition to "light" and "dark" for radial filter.

[@JoaquimGonsalves]

precisely what I was looking for. brilliant! 😃

[@khoahoang4336]

Awesome tutorial!

[@louisburley1597]

This tutorial fucking rules. This totally changed how I approached editing it and these look good

[@MarkMetternichPhotographyLLC]

Excellent and straight forward.

[@RafaelQuiles]

Yea this was a great guide thanks dude!

[@susanchisholm7093]

Excellent. Thank you very much.

[@cmichaelhaugh8517]

Wry helpful. Thank you.

[@azerbouf]

Really good tutorial. What I liked is that you are using basic tools to get professional result. Btw, after you apply Gradient filter, you could use Brush tool and deselect the area on the trees (Gradient filter -> Brush -> Shift key to decrease) and you get only contrast on skies. Its a new cool feature in CC. Many thanks for sharing, learned a lot. Hopefully will see new videos from you =)

[@moccy15]

Brilliant thx for sharing

[@Aphex083]

Great tutorial, thank you ! :)

[@lvemma555]

Thank you very much for the video!

[@strylee]

Amazing!

[@Internestingful]

The vignetting part blew my mind. I love you in totally manly way :)

[@achoke]

I just imported my first shots of the milky way... This couldn't possibly be better timing. THANKS!!!

[@MrSpike2450]

Perfect thankyou.

[@night__walker]

I like your Workflow 👍

[@MMchannels]

awesome tips

[@ShainaDeCiryanPhotographer]

Thanks for this video- you've got a great way of explaining LR very clearly. I've been using it for years now, but I've never used the history tab as part of my process, so that's pretty cool. I have a tricky question I always wonder about - sometimes I'll brush several different masks on. Is there any way to delete or alter brush adjustments after the fact? Once I click to something else, I can never figure out how to get to the different brush layers.

[@Hawaifishingfun]

good stuff!

[@marvineastman460]

sweet info dude!

[@Robin-ih7so]

Amazing! :)

[@jaydabliu]

Oh my.. This is amazing. Then I saw your instagram and I was completely blown away. Great discovery here...

[@MichaelShainblum]

+Joe Were :) thanks!

[@JonathanMitchellPhotography]

Thank you for sharing. Great Tutorial!

[@DwiBahtiar]

😅😅

[@thilinaalagiyawanna3680]

Thank you

[@NaNoaa100]

Great video, could you make a bracketing with star tracker tutorial pls?

[@milindakaushalya]

Thanks heaps

[@Lexesbenz]

Your tutorials are a godsend for noob like me!

[@carlomure]

stars are super in focus, the tree close to you also. Is it made from different exposure this shot? like at least 2 shot? Anyway a great tutorial, thanks for help!

[@loredanger1885]

A nice chilled tutorial! Thank you, Michael!

[@kevinquincy4638]

i know im randomly asking but does anyone know a method to get back into an Instagram account? I was dumb lost my login password. I would love any tricks you can give me.

[@wallacenehemiah7283]

@Kevin Quincy Instablaster :)

[@kevinquincy4638]

@Wallace Nehemiah thanks so much for your reply. I found the site through google and Im in the hacking process atm. Seems to take quite some time so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.

[@kevinquincy4638]

@Wallace Nehemiah It worked and I finally got access to my account again. I'm so happy! Thanks so much you saved my account :D

[@wallacenehemiah7283]

@Kevin Quincy You are welcome :D

[@JohnBurgess37]

"Nebulosity"... lol. Great tut Mike, I really appreciate you offering this one to the public for free. Seeing a pano tutorial would be even more awesome. Stay cool, man.

[@ajandrade1]

Thanks for your tutorial. Only one question perhaps stupid but it goes: You used a manual lens. More or less witch aperture have you used. Thanks

[@geotrubadurul456]

i think i know why it is better to shoot a little bit over exposed, like you do. In these case you get to have the cosmic light from the cosmic cloud, that little light from the Milky Way right in the centre of your photo and after that closing the exposure and still having it. I will sure test this as soon as i can ;)

[@arphoto3370]

This is single image? What lens U use? Never try bump up iso that much and low exposure in LR. Thanks for that info. Awesome work 👍💫

[@Flamamacue]

Love your work! I shoot a lot of landscapes at night and you are one of my favourites! Liked and subbed! Regarding your comment about shooting higher ISO and overexposing a bit (AKA ETTR, exposing-to-the-right) producing cleaner results, to condense down the explanation; it's basically due to the fact that luminance noise is caused by random photons/light particles hitting the sensor, so if you give the sensor more concrete data to work with, it's typically less noisy than "proper" exposure/histogram and boosting where needed :)

[@alanalain4884]

Hi, it looks like you know a bit, so I'll copy you from my comment on this video because may be you do have a solution, and thanks if you have time to reply... this is it: "How do you cope with the shitty result you get on night photography once you export from Lightroom ? Because on my side, I can tell you that I loose tons of details, sharpness and luminosity with 2 images that are quiet different (You can see image difference here: community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom/lightroom-export-quality/m-p/10957405?page=1#M24892 ) I know it's not the ICC more may be the rescaling or simple algorithm on develop module vs library module that's Bicubic and is said to show the final picture closer from the final export result (that is if you view the picture in fraction mode and not "Fit" or "Fill" that adds an additional interpolation). Anyway, do you have any trick to match on export what you get in LR ? Or did you find another way ? You must have encountered the same problem, no ?"

[@morbly]

I'm finding that the Lr CC noise reduction in the develop module looks way better than my exported jpeg on maximum quality. Have you found similar results?

[@Energizer7777777]

I have the same problem! Have had the problem for months

[@carlthegnarl]

IMHO due to the ISOless sensors in the Sony A7* there should be no big difference in a) shooting with a lower ISO and pushing the exposure in post and b) shooting with a higher ISO and pulling the exposure in post. That's the beauty of ISOless sensors. It doesn't matter anymore if you push the exposure in cam using ISO or in post using the exposure slider. Love that to death on my Fujis.

[@Meqanich]

Michael Shainblum Excellent tutorial and great shoot! If I may ask, what´s your thoughs about Sony A7r II, even though that is hasn´t come out yet.. I´ve pre-ordered it and I just wondered how it´ll work in Low-light situations, or what can I say, Milkey-way photography..? Again, thanks really much for sharing this tutorial!

[@Meqanich]

MeqanichHD Anyone?

[@MichaelShainblum]

MeqanichHD I heard it is pretty good, but not quite as good as the A7S

[@62tbirdroadster]

Hello Michael, just loaded my Lightroom 5.7.1 tonight and can't wait to get started using your video as a guide. First question that popped up. My white balance increments in steps +1, +2, +3, instead of being able to tell it what temperature I want (4,000 for example). Is it because I am using Lightroom 5 instead of 2015 CC? Or is there a setting or a toggle I can activate?

[@SankarSalvady]

+62tbirdroadster That happens if you are working with JPG file. Try it with a RAW image (CR2 for Canon, or NEF for Nikon) , you should see the temperatures as Michael shows here !

[@62tbirdroadster]

+Sankar Salvady Thank you Sankar! Yes, you are correct! The next day I loaded a RAW file and I had my temperature settings as in the video. I have my Canon set to shoot both RAW and JPG so that I can easily reference the JPG version on my computer to decide which photos to process the RAW files for. I must have inadvertently loaded a JPG photo that night. My processing is coming along nicely, I processed my first Intentional Motion photos and they came out very nice, now I need to learn how to tastefully process my Milky Way photos without going overboard. I also need to learn how to use the importing, exporting and organizing features in Lightroom.

[@marshalhedin7538]

did you say "nebulosity"? love that ....

[@MichaelShainblum]

Haha thanks! :)

[@yuqinglin7915]

I think you mentioned you used Nikon 14-24 mm len with Sony A7R2 camera, would you recommend an adapter? I owned both pieces, but I have not put them together yet. Is it a good combination for Milky way? Thanks.

[@MichaelShainblum]

+yuqing lin I use the Novaflex manual adapter for my Nikon Lens and the Metabones for my Canon lenses. It would be a fantastic combo.

[@SteveMillerhuntingforfood]

he said he was shooting with the Sony A7S, not the A7R2

[@Thanakornp]

ISO 12800 OMG!! what kind of Len you use with A7S Michael Shainblum :)

[@SteveMillerhuntingforfood]

he stated that he was using a Nikon lens, and in the comment stream he mentioned which adapter he uses

[@KF7MGT]

Michael, what adapter are you using here to work with the 14-24? I have a Metabones basic adapter, but my lens always reverts to f/22 and i cant change aperture, they dont have a smart adapter yet.

[@MichaelShainblum]

+KF7MGT I use a Novaflex manual adapter, I also have a Metabones for Canon lenses on the Sony, but the Novaflex is much more reliable.

[@KF7MGT]

Michael Shainblum Thank you much, Michael!

[@anmoltengalkar5380]

Hey Michael, thanks for the awesome video :] How do you know where Milky Way is? I mean in which direction and is there specific days when the MW appears? I believe there's some mobile apps for that. Do you know any of the apps?

[@IndomieTelor77]

+Anmol you can use stellarium

[@SteveMillerhuntingforfood]

Or PhotoPills or SkyGuide, but Stellarium is good too.

[@gpm1945]

what fstop was this photo shot at

[@MichaelShainblum]

Gagan Maur 2.8

[@krishnadoshi7442]

+Michael Shainblum what camera did you use? and lens? At ISO 12.8K your shots are so clean!!! Was it a D4s?

[@GhadirShaar1]

+Krishna Doshi you probably did not watch the video to ask this question , he mentioned it first thing in t he video.

[@anmoltengalkar5380]

+Krishna Doshi @ 0:30 "Sony A7s camera system"

[@colea1905]

please tell me what version of Lightroom you use?

[@MichaelShainblum]

Moş Nicolae just the newest update

[@colea1905]

please tell me what the version? :) Thanks.

[@TurdDoodlesworth]

Is the image in Raw? Jpeg?

[@brandon10k]

Turd Doodlesworth Always shoot raw if you can. Raw: bigger file size with no compression. Jpeg: Small file size with compression (loss of detail)

[@alanalain4884]

Very nice, thank you for the video, it will help refine my editing. One thing though, how do you cope with the shitty result you get on night photography once you export from Lightroom ? Because on my side, I can tell you that I loose tons of details, sharpness and luminosity with 2 images that are quiet different (You can see image difference here: community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom/lightroom-export-quality/m-p/10957405?page=1#M24892 ) I know it's not the ICC more may be the rescaling or simple algorithm on develop module vs library module that's Bicubic and is said to show the final picture closer from the final export result (that is if you view the picture in fraction mode and not "Fit" or "Fill" that adds an additional interpolation). Anyway, do you have any trick to match on export what you get in LR ? Or did you find another way ? You must have encountered the same problem, no ?

[@mr.sloth.]

And here i am trying to shoot with my 1000d with maximum of 1800 ISO xD

[@S-a-t-u-r-n]

So is this photo really can be taken? I mean can u see milkyway at wild?

[@Gavinprior1]

+Gladiatorr depending on your camera and lens, then yes, there is a lot of variables to capture stars/milky way, but yes. Cannot see it with your bare eyes, but you can by camera.

[@S-a-t-u-r-n]

Gavinprior1 Got it. Thanks for reply.

[@MichaelShainblum]

+Gavinprior1 You can see the Milky Way very clearly with the naked eye, the naked eye just can not pick up the colors.

[@TomHerriman]

I'm a little after the fact with this comment, but putting a Nikon lens on a Sony body is an injustice. The Nikon lenses are horrible for night photography. The coma at the edges is horrible! You don't see it? As soon as you moved to the corner I saw all those little flying saucers! I've used at least 3 lenses that are better. I've found the Sony 16-35 f/2.8 GM to be outstanding edge to edge with so little coma that it is almost impossible to distinguish. In fact, the only lens that I have found to be better for night photography is the Canon 16-35 f/2.8 L III. It has less barrel distortion than the Sony.

[@Modhumitamondal]

awesome tips