Night time lapse and unwanted light on the horizon

rocknride814

Senior Member
Hello,

I have been trying to do a time lapse of the night sky over Anza Borrego Desert State Park in Southern California. I am using a Nikon D7000. My Nikkor lens aperture are from 3.5-5.6G.

The intervalometer is working fine, I can get the stars exposed quite well when pointing the lens straight up at the zenith part of the sky, but when pointing toward the horizon in the frame, I can not figure out on decreasing the amount of light given off of the large town in the distance (El Centro) without fading out the stars above.

What settings would work best with the stars still being well visible with the horizon, but expose less light given off by the civilization. Any thoughts? ISO settings? White Balance?

Cheers,

Philip
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Unless ime reading this wrong you are talking about light pollution,a graduated neutral density may help if the problem is across the bottom of your frame.

mike

Edit to correct suggestion.
 
Last edited:
I don't think yoi are going to be able to do both that easy. I see a few choices.
1. Ask the town to turn off their lights while you shoot.
2. Use a graduated neutral-density filter. You will have to figure what value you need.
3. Shoot so the horizon is not in the shot.
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
I don't think yoi are going to be able to do both that easy. I see a few choices.
1. Ask the town to turn off their lights while you shoot.
2. Use a graduated neutral-density filter. You will have to figure what value you need.
3. Shoot so the horizon is not in the shot.

Graduated ND is off course the correct answer,not had my breakfast yet ;)
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
DaveW shoots out there and has some Milky Way shots, with that light pollution in them. Not sure that it's a solvable problem, particularly if you want the horizon and any details below it.

Sometimes, when you want to capture the infinite smallness of man, it's impossible to remove all evidence of him. Figure out how to use it, or turn up your Photoshop skills.
 

Dave_W

The Dude
Light pollution is a huge problem that affects both photographers and astronomers alike. Many sites offer light pollution maps so you can find areas with the least amount of light. Having said that, there are a couple of ways you can minimize the light that gets into your images. One of my favorite tricks is to use the eye-dropper in Lightroom and desaturate that specific color. I don't completely desaturate it but if you take it down by 70% or so it makes a big difference in the overall look of your images.
But the only way to completely eliminate light pollution is to go way out there in the middle of nowhere and do your night photography. Baja California has some of the darkest places in the So. West but unfortunately comes with some significant issues. Out in northwestern Nevada and central Eastern CA is fairly dark but even then you'll catch a small amount of light on the horizons. Google "light pollution maps" and see if there's a place nearby that has relatively little light pollution, or take a drive up to see the bristlecone pines in the White Mountains. I shot there about 10 yrs ago and as I recall there was very little, if any, light pollution on the horizons.
 
Top