A lot of folks are boosting saturation too high in their Milky Way shots

I keep seeing photos where the galactic core looks neon purple, but when I shot the same area from Joshua Tree last fall, the real colors were much more subtle. Overdoing it makes the stars look fake and hides the actual dust clouds. How do you find a good balance between making it pop and keeping it real?

3 comments

3 Comments

caleb_thomas8519d ago

Start by pulling the saturation slider back to zero and work from there. Add color with a light touch, maybe +10 or +15 on vibrance instead. Watch the magenta and purple sliders specifically, they're usually the culprits. A good check is to compare your edit to a known accurate photo from a space telescope site. The core should be a mix of golds and browns, not a purple rainbow.

jordanhill19d ago

Yeah, that "purple rainbow" look is a trap I fall into all the time too.

barbara_campbell18d ago

Used to crank the purple sliders way up because it looked cool. Then I compared my edits to Hubble shots and realized I was making everything look fake. Now I pull saturation down first and barely touch vibrance, maybe +10. The real nebula colors are way more subtle.