Light Polution advice - Am I wasting my time or not?

[russellhq]

Hi Neil, hope you don't mind but I ran your image through photoshop to try and get rid of the light pollution to give you an idea of what could be achieved:

[Zakalwe]

I am far from being a good imager. I live in a light polluted town in Lancashire and rarely get the chance to image the skies. Plus my processing powers are limited, at best.

But this is what I have been able to do with my light polluted skies.

[NeilFawcett]

Hi Neil, hope you don't mind but I ran your image through photoshop to try and get rid of the light pollution to give you an idea of what could be achieved:

That's fascinating. Shame the image resolution has been reduced so I/we can't do an exact like for like comparison. But it's clearly brought out a lot of extra detail.

So what did you do in Photoshop out of interest?

[NeilFawcett]

I am far from being a good imager. I live in a light polluted town in Lancashire and rarely get the chance to image the skies. Plus my processing powers are limited, at best.

But this is what I have been able to do with my light polluted skies.

Beautiful!

[nytecam]

I am far from being a good imager. I live in a light polluted town in Lancashire and rarely get the chance to image the skies. Plus my processing powers are limited, at best.

But this is what I have been able to do with my light polluted skies.

Excellent Youtube demo and result - thanks for posting and well done

[russellhq]

That's fascinating. Shame the image resolution has been reduced so I/we can't do an exact like for like comparison. But it's clearly brought out a lot of extra detail.

So what did you do in Photoshop out of interest?

Hi Neil, I used levels and curves to balance the individual channels such that the R, G & B channel histograms overlapped each other. I then used curves to darken the backgroud and keep the stars bright.

I've uploaded a full resolution copy here:

https://docs.google....cWdBa3U4VzZNdGc

[NeilFawcett]

Hi Neil, I used levels and curves to balance the individual channels such that the R, G & B channel histograms overlapped each other. I then used curves to darken the backgroud and keep the stars bright.

I've uploaded a full resolution copy here:

https://docs.google....cWdBa3U4VzZNdGc

Thanks! I'd love to do an exact side by side comparison, but the original image is 3555x2397, whereas yours is 1600x1079.

But the amount of additional detail that can be seen is impressive!

[russellhq]

When the page loads, press "Ctrl+S" and you should download the full resolution copy (2.41MB)

[NeilFawcett]

When the page loads, press "Ctrl+S" and you should download the full resolution copy (2.41MB)

That's a bit unfriendly?

But WOW!