Helpful Tips for Dealing With Light Pollution in Night Photography

Shooting the night sky, whether by itself or as part of a landscape, can be a magical thing. The problem is that with such low levels of ambient light, any manmade sources can quickly overwhelm the stars and ruin the frame. So, how do you deal with light pollution? This helpful video tutorial will give you some useful tips on how to avoid or mitigate it and come away with more desirable images.

Coming to you from Jess Santos with B&H Photo and Video, this excellent video tutorial discusses some ways to deal with light pollution in night sky photography. With cities continuing to spread and the planet's population continuing to grow, light pollution is here to stay and will be something photographers will need to learn to contend with for the foreseeable future. If you are just planning on photographing the sky without Earth-bound elements in it, consider finding a dark sky park near you. A dark sky park is a place located in an area of exceptionally low light pollution with careful care taken not to introduce any spurious light, all for the purposes of education and enjoyment. Even if you do not do astrophotography, if you live in a city, it is well worth visiting a dark sky park simply for the jaw-dropping experience of how much of the night sky you can see when manmade light isn't washing it out. You can find a list of dark sky parks across the world here. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Santos. 

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Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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