Enhancing Night and Low-Light Photos with Photoshop
2h 13mIntermediate2019-03-29
Authors
Seán Duggan
Fine-Art Photographer, Educator, and Adobe Certified Photoshop Expert
Course details
Today's cameras do a great job with low-light and night scenes, but there's always room for improvement—from noise reduction and tonal adjustment, to advanced techniques, such as combining difference exposures. In this course, photographer and educator Sean Duggan explores a range of Camera Raw and Photoshop post-processing techniques aimed at expanding your creative options for night and low-light photography. He begins in Camera Raw for general enhancements and then turns to Photoshop to capitalize on its Merge to HDR feature, which can create high-dynamic-range images for capturing a wide contrast range common in some night scenes. Finally, he includes techniques specifically for photography of the night sky, including how to use luminosity masks on photos of the Milky Way.
Learning objectives
Using neutral guides to set white balance
Removing chromatic aberration
Reducing noise
Working with 32-bit HDR images
Stacking layers and combining exposures
Improving star photography
Creating a luminosity mask
Learning objectives
Using neutral guides to set white balance
Removing chromatic aberration
Reducing noise
Working with 32-bit HDR images
Stacking layers and combining exposures
Improving star photography
Creating a luminosity mask
Skills covered
Image EditingPhotoshopPhotographyAdobeOne-Off
Concepts
0. Introduction
- 01 - Enhancing your night photography skills
- 02 - What you should know
1. General Enhancements in Lightroom or Camera Raw
- 03 - Working with Camera Raw from Bridge
- 04 - Set overall tonal balance
- 05 - Use neutral guides to set white balance
- 06 - Color balance for creative effect
- 07 - Use Dehaze on night photos
- 08 - Removing chromatic aberration
- 09 - Fine-tune with local adjustments
- 10 - Synchronize settings to multiple files
2. Noise Reduction
- 11 - How exposure affects noise levels
- 12 - Camera Raw for noise reduction
- 13 - Open a raw file as a Smart Object
- 14 - The Reduce Noise filter
- 15 - Photoshop Dust & Scratches filter
3. Using Photoshop and Camera Raw for HDR Night Shots
- 16 - Merge to HDR in Camera Raw
- 17 - Merge to HDR Pro in Photoshop
- 18 - Toning 32-bit HDR files in Camera Raw
- 19 - Saving 32-bit HDR files in Photoshop
4. Using Layers to Enhance Night Exposures
- 20 - Layer stacking to blend lighter areas
- 21 - Aligning misaligned layers
- 22 - Combine exposures with a layer mask
- 23 - Refine with creative adjustments
5. Star Photography Post-Processing
- 24 - Retouching airplane light trails
- 25 - Exposure stacking to create star trails
- 26 - Create a star comet effect
- 27 - Create a luminosity mask
- 28 - Luminosity masks for the Milky Way
- 29 - Making a constellation more visible
- 30 - Removing blurry stars
- 31 - Adding new stars
Conclusion
- 32 - Next steps
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