Editing night sky images

Smilingatconfusion

Smilingatconfusion

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37
Name
Sacha
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi all,

I have recently bought a Panasonic Lumix GH4 and yesterday tried a few night sky shots (with Olympus 25mm f/1.8).

I live in London so I wasn't expecting much at all, but I actually managed to get a couple of (half) decent shots. I am just after a little advice on post-production. I shot as JPEGs because for some reason Photoshop and Lightroom do not support the Lumix Raw format (.RW2). I have no idea why this is the case, but it is a serious problem if I'm not going to be able to edit the raw images that my camera produces.

Anyway, this is what I managed to come up with. If anyone fancies having a go at editing the original image to try and do a better job than me, please do go ahead and let me know what you did.

Thanks.

Before:

awx3tc.jpg



After:

1sbih4.jpg
 
Hi Sacha,
If you can't load your raw files, then you might try the Adobe DNG Converter which will convert your raw files without data loss, for use in Lighroom or Photoshop. Hope this helps.
 
As for your photo, It looks pretty good for a start......I know how difficult it can be to get decent astro images in our location. Your focussing looks OK. Nothing worse than spending ages getting your shot and finding the stars are blobs! Keep the exposure under 30 seconds, otherwise the sky will burn out any detail like stars and planets.
Pick a night when there's no Moon, and use a timer setting (2 seconds?) to fire the shutter to help eliminate camera movement. You might also try several images, and stacking them in your processing software. This will help eliminate some of the noise, and boost the stars/planets.
Goog luck, keep going!
 
Thanks a lot for the advice. I will have another go next time the conditions are good. I winged it a bit with the focussing... I wasn't really sure how to focus on a dark sky so I just put it near the end of the focal range without going into the red.... hope that makes sense? I've read online about people focusing "at infinity" but I'm not sure how to do that just yet. Thanks again
 
I'm not sure, but you may have Live View on your camera? If so, you can zoom on to a bright star and focus to a pin point (it will almost 'disappear').
Once you have focus, turn off AF. See if that works. You might find it useful to join a local astronomical group. There are a number in the London area. If so, you will get more than enough advice. Astronomers, they are an enthusiastic bunch!
 
View attachment 43899


Just a white balance in camera raw, then levels and curves, and manual vignette control.

You really need to get away from the light pollution though as the faintest stars are just being lost due to the sky actually being brighter than the stars themselves.
 
Last edited:
Great job! Thanks a lot.

I live just off the A40 so a 20- minute drive takes me to High Wycombe or Burnham Beeches, which both get very dark skies. I'm going to try to head there one night when the conditions are right for it.
 
i recently got back from Shropshire but I didn't buy my camera until after I got back.

We have a home in Ludlow and often take stargazing trips to the Elan Valley (Wales, my favourite dark sky area in the UK). I'm going to be heading to the Elan in mid-september and will be taking my camera with me this time ;)
 
Well done. I'd try to get rid the vignetting a little but that's nicely done.
 
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