Fixing a Night Sky with Light Pollution
On the 19th Anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, Tribute Lights appeared over Washington DC from 9 pm to midnight. It not only was a good reminder of such a tragic day in US history but it also emphasized that light always prevails through the darkness.
A lot of photographers went out to capture the Tribute Lights. When I arrived at a parking facility in front of the Jefferson Memorial about a dozen photographers were taking photos. I took a few photos but then decided to look for another Point of View. I finally found an interesting location at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The composition let me capture the museum, the Washington Monument and the Tribute Lights between the two.
After posting the shot, I received a number of questions on my Instagram about how I processed the photo. Below is the pre post-processed image. The problem is there is so much Light Pollution that the night sky looks Yellow/Orange. In other words it does not look awesome So how do I fix it?
The Photo is taken on a Canon EOS R at 24 mm (RF 24-105 F4IS USM lens) for 13 Seconds at f/8.0 at ISO 100.
Prior to Post Processing
Post Processing the Image
Most of the changes were done in Lightroom. Here is what I did to make sky appear more blue.
1) Reduced the Temp to 2800. This will make the night sky look more blue.
2) Increased Exposure to +1.05
3) Decreased Highlights to -45 and open the shadows to +40
4) Whites are at +1 (until light peaks through) and Blacks at -43
5) Sharpened to 70 and used a mask to sharpen only the monuments and not the sky.
6) Removed Chromatic Aberration and Enable Profile Corrections
7) Auto Transform to Correct the level and the leaning of the Monument
8) I then used a Adjustment brush (increasing clarity and a tiny bit of exposure to bring out the reflection)
9) I then applied a Graduated Filter where I decreased the Exposure by -0.75 to darken the sky—but you then need to apply a Luminosity Mask (under Range Mask)—on a Mac you hold down the Option Key and drag to the right until you see the Monuments so that the Mask is only applied to the Sky.
9) Finally, went into Photoshop for Sharpening.
Here is the final result. I hope thats helpful
