Photoshop_User_-_February_2016

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photoshop user

› february 2016

114

Step Seven: To maintain realism, there should

be a balance between what we can see with

the naked eye and what an image sensor can

record; however, at night when the sensor can

retain so much more detail, collecting the light

over a longer exposure, some artistic license can

be taken to enhance certain areas. The goal is

to bring out important detail while maintaining

a strong sense of a nighttime feel through dark

tones, solid contrast, and a proper exposure.

Adding contrast to the night sky brings out the

detail in the disk-shaped glowing band of the

Milky Way. You can either use the Lights slider

in the Tone Curve panel of the Develop mod-

ule, or make adjustments by adding another

Mask Overlay with the Adjustment Brush using

the Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, and Whites

sliders in the Adjustment Brush panel.

Step Eight: In any night scene, you should

maintain a deep black area, what we use

to call D-max in film and print processing.

The Histogram can be a good tool to check

this. Just recognize that you’ll have quite a

bit of clipping, loss of detail in the shadow

areas, and this is okay. We’re working with

a night scene and if you attempt to show all

detail in all areas, this can result in a bizarre

unrealistic-looking starscape. Knowing when

and where to enhance and brighten detail is

a critical step toward this realistic approach.

Step Nine: Once you’ve made all your major

adjustments, use Lightroom CC’s new-and-

improved Noise Reduction sliders in the Detail

panel of the Develop module. Reducing digital

noise created from higher ISOs removes the

gritty look of the final scene, but use these slid-

ers cautiously so you don’t remove many of

the stars in the sky. Zoom in to 1:1 or 2:1 in

the Navigator panel at the top left, adjust the

sliders, then turn the Detail settings on and off

with the toggle switch at the top left of the

panel to compare the before and after.

Step Seven

Step Nine: After removing noise

Step Nine: Before removing noise

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