How can I photograph a lit city scene with a starry sky and reduce flare, haze, and noise?
Asked 6/22/2022
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I’m trying to photograph city squares or monuments at night with a visible starry sky. The buildings are strongly lit, so I usually blend exposures or use HDR: a shorter exposure for the illuminated foreground and a longer one for the sky.
My main problems are:
- the sky exposure shows uneven bright blue glow / flare or haze
- I want to capture as many stars as possible
- raising ISO adds noise, but lowering ISO requires longer exposures and seems to make the sky glow worse
What can I change in shooting or processing to get a cleaner result?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
4y ago
2 Answers
14
Your basic problem is that most stars are much dimmer than the parts of your scene lit up by artificial lighting. Combined with the diffusing properties of air and all of the particulates and moisture floating around in it, there is a haze from the brighter light reflecting off the stuff in the air and it is drowning out the very dim light from all except the brightest stars or planets.
Since you can't increase the amount of light provided by the stars, your only option to balance the two is to reduce the brightness of the artificial illumination in the scene. Is there a time later at night when the flood lights are turned off and you can shoot the scene while only illuminating the monuments and buildings using techniques such as light painting or controlled flashes. The advantage to either one is that the stars can be exposed for longer while the light you provide for the foreground subjects can be much shorter in duration.
The only other option if you want a darker sky with stars showing in it is to shoot a separate frame for the sky away from the light pollution of the artificial lighting and combine the two shots after the fact. HDR won't really give optimal results in this case because it will pull up the very dim diffused light that is reflected off the moisture, dust, and other particulates in the air along with the stars and that diffused light will continue to limit how many stars are bright enough to shine through the haze.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
4y ago
0
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The main limitation is not HDR technique, but scene contrast and light pollution. City lighting is far brighter than starlight, and moisture/dust in the air scatter that artificial light, creating the uneven glow/haze you’re seeing and washing out all but the brightest stars.
To improve results:
- Shoot when ambient artificial lighting is lower, if possible, or when floodlights are off.
- Reduce local scene brightness and light the foreground yourself with light painting or controlled flash if practical.
- Use separate exposures for sky and foreground, then blend carefully in post.
- Start from RAW files for the best chance of recovering highlight and shadow detail.
- HDR/tonemapping software can help tame the brightness range, but it can’t recover stars that were overwhelmed by sky glow.
For stars specifically, darker conditions matter more than simply using a lower ISO or longer exposure. If the sky is glowing from city light, longer exposures often just record more glow. So the best improvement is to reduce the artificial light affecting the scene, then process from RAW and blend exposures conservatively.
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