How to Photograph the Night Sky With Light Pollution

There are filters that cut down on light pollution in big cities and in the wild. But believe it or not, you don’t necessarily need them. They can surely help when trying to photograph the night sky, but you might end up working in post-production to darken certain areas of the sky anyway. What if we (the staff collectively who’ve tested this stuff) told you that you don’t need to do a ton of extra post-production to get the photos you want? Well, we’re going to show how to do it.

The Gear You Need

To do this, here’s a bunch of gear that we recommend. Choose any of it you’d like:

We’re choosing this gear for a few reasons. First off, cameras from OM SYSTEM have this pretty awesome functionality called Live Composite. For astrophotography, you’d usually photograph a bunch of moments from the scene and then stitch them together in post-production with layering and more. But you don’t have to do that here. Instead, the camera will do it for you and you’ll see the photo come to life right before your eyes.

OM SYSTEM calls it Live Composite but it should affectionately be called “Love Composite” because it’s going to make you adore composite shoots. For those who live in cities or in suburbs with a lot of light pollution, this is the great equalizer that makes photographing the night sky such a blast.

How to Photograph the Night Sky and Get Rid of Light Pollution’s Effects

Using these cameras, there are different menu systems that provide various options for configuring how it will work. But let’s focus on the exposure settings first. Here are some tips:

Start with a lens wide open or stopped down by only a stop. We strongly recommend not stopping down past f4.
You can surely use a higher ISO setting like ISO 6400, but we recommend using something more modest like ISO 400 or ISO 200. Those give you the least grain and also let you do longer exposures. If you’re looking for star trails, this is your key!
Lock the white balance. The cameras will pretty much do this for you already, but we think you should use an actual white balance setting. With the Simulated OVF mode turned off, cycle through white balances until you get a look you like. We tend to go for 3200K Tungsten.
Use a tripod. This is mandatory to photograph the night sky and ensures you get the most consistency.
Set the camera to bulb mode. From there you can select the Live Composite setting. Press the menu button in Live Composite and you can set up the base exposure. I typically start with a half-second exposure, but to each their own.
Before selecting the exposures and bulb mode, go into the camera’s LIVE/COMPOSITE/BULB settings to configure exactly how you want it to function.

After composing the scene, dial in the settings you want. Set the autofocus mode to Starry Sky AF in order to photograph the night sky. This mode will make sure the stars and sky are in focus. Of course, if you’re using one of the lenses we recommend, make sure the focusing ring is in the right spot for autofocusing. Otherwise, it’s not going to work. If you’re using a manual focus lens, this also won’t work.

OM SYSTEM amazingly makes sure the stars are always tack sharp, unlike any camera other system we’ve seen and used. Part of this is how Micro Four Thirds sensors work with having double the depth of field of full-frame sensors, but the same light-gathering abilities at similar apertures.

In Post-Production

OM SYSTEM has its own software that includes things like AI Noise Reduction. It does a fantastic job. We understand most people use Lightroom or Capture One. But, our staff uses Capture One because they work with companies more to support RAW files better.

Now, here’s where the work we did with white balancing comes into play. If you just have a fixed white balance, you can make easier edits to your scene. If the sky is set to be blue due to the white balance, all you’ll sometimes need to do is darken the luminance of the blue channel. Mix in some black levels and contrast according to taste, and you’re suddenly cooking with fire!

If you’re looking for skies with stars in them, then wait for a clear night sky. Otherwise, it can sometimes be jaw-dropping to add drama to a scene with clouds. If you set the camera up to just do a long exposure of the clouds, they look completely smooth. But with Live Composite in OM SYSTEM cameras, they’re given a unique texture that isn’t possible without a lot of time spent layering in Photoshop. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time or patience to sit there and work on a single image over and over. If I have to work on a photo for longer than a day, it will never get done.

Most importantly, sometimes it isn’t fun to sit in front of your computer longer than you’ve been sitting behind a camera. We’re photographers, and the computational photography in OM SYSTEM cameras makes it easy to do all the cool things you want with much more ease. If you’re brave enough, try doing this in the rain with cool rain clouds above. The system has an IP-rating for durability that will ensure it’s going to survive. Happy shooting!

This piece is presented in partnership with OM SYSTEM. We’ve independently and ethically reviewed all the products in this post already without sponsorship. And we worked with them to recommend a few key gems to you.