While photographing wide-angle nightscapes is a common occurrence for astrophotographers, not many capture the faint nebulae and distant galaxies hidden beyond the Milky Way. Trevor Jones, creator of AstroBackyard, turned his obsession with space into a dedicated passion, teaching himself astrophotography to share the deep-sky he first witnessed through a telescope. Now a successful YouTuber and respected voice in the community, Jones helps demystify the process.
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At a Glance
Unlike many astrophotographers, Trevor Jones was never interested in photographing landscapes or portraits. Rather, he began his journey into astrophotography because of his love for astronomy, tackling the steep learning curve of deep-sky photography with his first DSLR camera, a Canon Rebel XSi, in 2011.
“Instead of becoming an ‘expert’ and starting a tutorial website, I actually started sharing blog posts and videos while I was learning,” he describes.
This learn-as-you-go approach stemmed from having no prior photography experience, yet feeling inspired to share the jaw-dropping views that he would see nightly through his telescope. “This unconventional path made me relatable to others who wanted to learn deep-sky astrophotography but didn’t know where to start.”
By documenting his own journey—challenges, successes, and learning moments—on his blog and YouTube channel, he’s guided thousands of enthusiasts along the same path.
Jones understands the feeling of being overwhelmed by the gear, techniques, and potential costs associated with deep-sky astrophotography.
“I was there,” he remembers. “Looking at photos that felt like they were taken from the Hubble Space Telescope, while trying to convince myself that I could learn how to capture those same photos felt impossible. However, I was surprised at how welcoming it felt when I dove right in. I would never say it was easy, but it wasn’t nearly as intimidating as I thought it would be. But most importantly, I enjoyed learning deep-sky astrophotography.”
That early feeling of awe and excitement spurs Jones’ goal of helping to make the hobby accessible, often showcasing stunning results from suburban backyards plagued by light pollution. He emphasizes that while capturing these cosmic wonders requires dedication—planning around weather and moon phases and embracing both image capture and the essential processing stages, often utilizing tools like Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop — it’s a rewarding pursuit driven by a deep appreciation for the universe.
This deep appreciation resonates strongly during events like International Dark Sky Week, observed each April, which highlights the critical importance of preserving the natural nighttime environment needed to witness and photograph these celestial marvels. This guide leverages his experience, offering a practical roadmap for photographers ready to venture into deep-sky imaging.
Start Deep-Sky Astrophotography With Your Existing DSLR or Mirrorless Camera
For many photographers, images of distant galaxies and nebulae often seem light-years away from what their current camera gear can achieve. It’s a common assumption, Jones notes, that venturing into deep-sky astrophotography necessitates an immediate, expensive leap to specialized equipment. However, Jones believes the journey often begins much closer to home — with the camera already in your bag.
“A lot of people own a DSLR or mirrorless camera, and with the right equipment and knowledge, those cameras can be used to take incredible wide angle nightscapes of the Milky Way or even deep-sky astro photographs,” Jones explains. “There’s also a good chance you already have a lens that could take great astro photos.”
He emphasizes that modern DSLRs and mirrorless cameras are incredibly capable tools for capturing the night sky. “While advanced astrophotographers might gravitate towards astronomy-friendly cameras with higher ISO performance,” he says, “impressive results are still achievable with entry-level gear. This is especially true thanks to modern noise reduction software, like the AI-Powered Denoise in Lightroom.”
Jones feels the key lies less in the initial camera body and more in technique. “For deep-sky astrophotography, it’s the image stacking process and the signal-to-noise ratio that’s really the key to a great shot, and that can be done with any DSLR or mirrorless camera,” he states. “You can overcome a lot of the problems that cameras will create, like noise and artifacts during deep-sky photography, by using that image stacking technique.”
Starting with familiar gear lowers the barrier to entry, making the transition from wide angle to deep-sky less daunting. Using manual settings and taking those first long exposures, even on a stationary tripod, reveals just how much light and detail your current camera can capture from the night sky.
Understanding basic settings and limitations at this stage is also critical. “If you are just taking wide-angle shots of the Milky Way, knowing how to implement the right settings is critical to getting a good shot,” Jones states.
For instance, he mentions that many new astrophotographers don’t know about the Rule of 500, which tells a photographer the maximum exposure time they can shoot before the stars begin to lose their sharpness and look blurry. Of course, as Jones quickly points out, those initial stationary shots using such settings can also highlight the next crucial step to improving your astrophotography: “You’re already seeing those stars start to trail on a 30-second exposure time, and that’s where the tracking comes in.”
Why a Tracking Mount is Essential for Deep-Sky Astrophotography
As those initial long exposures reveal, Earth’s relentless rotation quickly turns sharp stars into unwanted star trails. For Jones, overcoming this fundamental challenge is the single most critical step into the realm of deep-sky astrophotography. He stresses that while the necessary equipment — an equatorial tracking mount — might initially seem daunting, it’s the non-negotiable foundation upon which successful deep-sky astro images are built.
“The tracking mount is one of the things that can scare people away when they see it, because it seems like something from the astronomy world,” Jones admits. “And it is. But what a tracking mount does is it compensates for the rotation of the Earth and matches our rotation to freeze objects in the night sky.” This crucial function is what transforms blurry, trailed stars into sharp points and allows the faint details of distant nebulae and galaxies to emerge clearly over long exposures, sometimes totaling minutes long. According to Jones, “Accurate tracking is everything when photographing faint targets in the deep-sky.”
Luckily for aspiring deep-sky astrophotographers, getting started doesn’t necessarily mean investing immediately in a heavy, complex telescope mount.
“These days there’s something called star trackers which are mini telescope mounts,” Jones notes. “They’re often battery powered, very portable, affordable, and they can hold a camera and lens and even a small telescope, when you are ready to make that purchase.”
These portable trackers, like the popular Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer he often recommends, provide an accessible entry point. They allow photographers to master the basics of polar alignment and tracking with their existing camera, tripod, and lens. While larger mounts offer greater stability and payload capacity for heavier telescopes down the road, starting with a capable star tracker is an ideal, affordable way to prioritize the most important element for capturing the deep sky.
Mastering Polar Alignment for Pinpoint Stars in Deep-Sky Photos
Once you have a tracking mount, the next essential skill to master is accurate polar alignment. Polar alignment is the process of accurately aligning the mount’s rotational axis (the Right Ascension or RA axis) so it is parallel with the Earth’s axis of rotation.
Jones stresses this isn’t just helpful, it’s fundamental. “Polar alignment is absolutely critical. If you don’t get that right, it doesn’t matter how great your camera, telescope, or mount is. If you’re not polar aligned, it’s not going to track the sky accurately.”
Essentially, achieving accurate polar alignment involves pointing the RA axis precisely towards the North Celestial Pole (NCP) for observers in the Northern Hemisphere.
“We’re so lucky we have that guide marker, the North Star, Polaris,” says the photographer. “While Polaris isn’t exactly at the pole, it’s very close, making it the primary reference. The key isn’t just finding Polaris, but placing it in the correct position relative to the pole for that specific time and location, a position that changes slightly throughout the night and year.”
Thankfully, technology offers a significant shortcut. “There’s some handy smartphone apps that will walk you through this entire process,” Jones adds.
Smartphone apps like PolarFinder on Android or Polar Scope Align Pro on iPhone will help achieve accurate polar alignment.
“The apps will show you, by using your GPS location, where you need to place Polaris within this circle in the mount’s polar scope, and then you would just adjust your mount until it matches the diagram that it shows you,” Jones describes.
This involves making small adjustments to the mount’s altitude (up/down) and azimuth (left/right) bolts or knobs. He acknowledges there’s a learning curve: “The first few times you do it, it can be challenging and even frustrating. But the good news is once you get it right, it just becomes second nature and something you can get done in a few minutes.”
Mastering this setup step unlocks the mount’s potential for sharp, long-exposure deep-sky images.
Choosing the Right Lens for Beginner Deep-Sky Astrophotography
With a tracking mount accurately following the stars, your attention now turns to the optics capturing the light. While dedicated telescopes are common in deep-sky astrophotography, Jones advises that the right camera lens is an excellent and often more accessible starting point, especially for beginners. But which lens? The choice significantly impacts your field of view and, crucially, your light-gathering power.
“I always say start with the lens you have,” Jones recommends. “If you have a DSLR or mirrorless camera, it probably came with a kit lens, so why not start with that? While learning the ins and outs of a new tracking mount, why complicate things with a new lens. I recommend getting used to your new setup with whatever lens you have.”
However, he cautions awareness of their typical limitations for demanding astrophotography tasks, which will become more obvious as you improve your astrophotography and get more comfortable with your new gear.
“The limitations are likely going to be that it’s not overly fast, meaning a smaller maximum aperture. The star quality might not be great because lenses, especially kit lenses, are really meant for daytime photography and capturing pinpoint stars is kind of the ultimate test of the optics, something kit lenses do not excel at.”
While wider lenses, like 14mm or 24mm, excel for capturing expansive Milky Way nightscapes, Jones explains, “in terms of Deep sky, which is capturing nebulae and galaxies and star clusters, you’re going to want something a little longer.”
Based on his extensive experience, a specific lens frequently emerges as a top choice for those beginning tracked deep-sky work. “A really popular starter lens for deep sky is the Rokinon or Samyang 135mm f/2.”
This lens hits a sweet spot for several reasons.
“It’s long enough to start capturing objects like the Andromeda Galaxy, and with a maximum aperture of f/2, it’s pretty quick also.”
The fast f/2 aperture is a significant advantage, allowing the lens to gather much more faint light compared to slower kit lenses or zooms. This makes it highly suitable for revealing detail in larger nebulae and galaxies when used on a star tracker. While other quality telephoto lenses, particularly primes with fast apertures like f/2.8, can also work well, the Rokinon 135mm f/2 is consistently praised by Jones as a fantastic entry point into deep-sky imaging with a lens.
Ready for a Telescope? Upgrading to a Small Refractor for Deep-Sky Photos
While a quality prime lens like the Rokinon 135mm f/2 is a superb gateway into tracked deep-sky astrophotography, many enthusiasts eventually find themselves wanting greater reach and optical performance specifically tailored for imaging faint celestial targets. For those ready to take the next step, Jones overwhelmingly recommends graduating to a small refractor telescope.
“The best choice for people getting serious about deep sky astrophotography is a refractor telescope. And if you’re already a photographer, the good news is they’re quite similar to a telephoto lens in the way they operate.”
Specifically, Jones points towards compact Apochromatic (APO) refractors in the 60mm to 80mm aperture range as the ideal choice for beginners moving beyond lenses. These telescopes utilize high-quality ED glass elements designed to bring all colors of light to a sharp focus, significantly minimizing the chromatic aberration (color fringing) that can affect standard camera lenses.
“While APOs might be the most expensive telescope type per inch of aperture compared to reflectors, it’s really the best choice for quality images, if you’re graduating from a lens to a small telescope,” Jones states. He notes his own progress saw a significant spike after acquiring his first triplet APO.
Beyond superior color correction, these refractors offer tangible benefits over camera lenses for deep-sky astrophotography. They often feature more robust, precise focusers designed to handle camera weight and allow for fine adjustments critical for achieving sharp stars. Also, many are designed or paired with field flatteners to ensure pinpoint stars across the entire image frame, eliminating edge distortion.
“While an expensive telephoto lens might boast features like advanced autofocus,” he describes, “that is a waste for astrophotography, as you should almost always be manually focusing.”
A dedicated small APO refractor, like the popular William Optics RedCat 51, which has a 51mm aperture scope with a 250mm focal length, offers optimized optical performance and usability specifically for capturing the night sky.
Essential Manual Camera Settings for Deep-Sky Astrophotography
Venturing into deep-sky astrophotography means leaving the camera’s automatic modes behind and taking full control. As Jones explains, the principles overlap with other types of low-light photography work, but the demands are amplified. Getting these settings right takes practice, and Jones offers several key tips.
“This means embracing Manual or Bulb mode on your DSLR or mirrorless camera. Automatic modes are designed for daytime conditions and simply won’t select the specific settings needed to capture faint deep-sky light. Manual mode gives you complete control over ISO, aperture, and shutter speed, ensuring you capture the best possible data in your RAW files, which is valuable for bringing out detail later using tools like Lightroom.”
“For deep-sky astrophotography, the ideal conditions are longer exposures, higher ISO and Low F-stops,” Jones explains. With a tracking mount compensating for Earth’s rotation, exposure times stretch far beyond the 30-second limit of most cameras. “It’s not uncommon for me to take three or five minute exposures using my camera and telescope,” he says. These longer exposure times are achievable using remote shutter releases or intervalometers. “ISO needs to be high enough to capture faint signal (light), typically ISO 800-1600 or more, balanced against noise. Aperture should be set wide open on a lens, or you’ll use the fixed aperture of your telescope.”
Crucially, focus must also be manual, as autofocus fails on dim stars.
“You should focus manually where you’re just trying to focus until those stars get as pinpoint and small as possible,” Jones advises. “That’s the best way to focus, because if those stars are sharp and small, that means your deep sky object will be in focus as well.”
Using the camera’s Live View zoomed in on a bright star is key, and simple tools like a Bahtinov mask can provide confirmation by creating a distinct diffraction pattern when perfect focus is achieved. Mastering these manual controls is fundamental to capturing the faint objects of the deep sky.
Combat Light Pollution: Using Filters for Backyard Astrophotography
While escaping to dark skies provides the best deep-sky astrophotography results, that’s not always practical. For photographers shooting from suburban or city backyards, battling light pollution is a constant challenge.
“Light pollution filters are really important for people that shoot in their backyard and they want to eliminate some of the light pollution effects,” Jones advises. “These filters work by selectively blocking specific wavelengths of light associated with common artificial light sources like streetlights, while allowing the crucial wavelengths emitted by nebulae and galaxies to pass through to the camera sensor.”
“There’s some great filters out there that isolate the gases being emitted by these deep sky objects and block out some of the known wavelengths of city light pollution. So they’re a real godsend for people shooting in the city.” By cutting through the artificial skyglow, these filters help increase the contrast between the faint target and the background sky.
Filters come in various formats, including clip-in versions that sit inside the camera body which are ideal for use with camera lenses, and 2-inch round mounted filters that thread into telescope adapters or filter wheels. Choosing the right type depends on the target.
“Broadband filters, like the Optolong L-Quad Enhance, work well for broad spectrum targets like galaxies and reflection nebulae, aiming to preserve more natural colors,” Jones explains. “For emission nebulae, multi-narrowband filters like the Optolong L-eXtreme are highly effective, aggressively isolating key nebula emission lines.” Jones adds that, ideally, you would shoot unfiltered under a dark sky, however filters can help if that isn’t possible. Light pollution filters play a big part of creating dynamic deep sky astrophotography from brighter locations.
Powering Your Astrophotography Gear: Portable Solutions for Dark Sky Sites
A deep-sky astrophotography rig often involves multiple components needing electricity: the mount, camera, maybe a guiding system.
“If you’re in the backyard and you’ve got your household power, no problem, run an extension cord,” Jones says. “But a lot of these excursions to a dark sky spot, you’re just going to be out there in the middle of nowhere.” This necessitates reliable portable power solutions.
For simpler setups, some gear is designed for portability. “I really like the battery powered star trackers,” Jones mentions, noting models like his recommended Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer uses standard AA batteries. “These battery powered star trackers are foolproof because you can bring extra batteries with you,” he continues.
“You don’t have to worry about it being charged up, and if you forgot batteries, you can stop and pick some up at any store. However, as setups grow with cameras, laptops, and autoguiding systems, more substantial power is needed. Lots of portable power tanks are available these days for that,” Jones says, mentioning brands like Jackery. These portable power stations offer various outputs (AC, DC, USB) to run multiple devices throughout the night.
Camera power also needs consideration. “The camera’s internal battery will last for a few hours, but always make sure you have spares,” Jones recommends. Thankfully, unlike star trails or timelapses, deep-sky imaging is forgiving of short breaks. “It doesn’t really matter if you miss a few minutes changing the camera battery, your tracker will still be following the object, so you can just pick up where you left off.” Jones concludes that assessing your specific gear’s needs and choosing an appropriate portable power source ensures your night under the stars isn’t cut short.
Improve Deep-Sky Detail: The Power of Capturing Multiple Light Frames
With your camera settings dialed in and your mount tracking accurately, the next crucial concept in deep-sky imaging is understanding the power of quantity. You’ll be capturing what astrophotographers call light frames.
“Light frames are just your exposures: your actual pictures,” Jones states. However, unlike a single well-exposed landscape shot, individual deep-sky light frames often look underwhelming due to the extreme faintness of the targets and inherent camera noise.
The solution lies in capturing many identical light frames of your target. The reason being that it all comes down to improving what’s known as the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). “There is a lot of noise in a single exposure,” Jones explains. “Through a process called image stacking, you’re layering on all the signal, or the light in the image, on top of each other and cancelling out the noise. Think of the faint light from the nebula or galaxy as the signal you want, and camera heat, electronic interference, and light pollution as the noise you don’t. Stacking software aligns the consistent signal from your target across all frames, causing it to build up, while the random noise patterns tend to average out and diminish.”
“It’s almost like magic,” Jones describes. “If you have a single one-minute exposure of the Andromeda Galaxy, you’re going to see all this random pattern and thermal noise, whereas if you take thirty exposures and stack them, it will align and layer the Galaxy and the stars, leading to all that random noise mostly being canceled out. This results in a smoother, cleaner image that you can do even more edits to in Lightroom or Photoshop after the fact.”
Capturing just one exposure is rarely sufficient. Deep-sky projects often require hours of total exposure, known as integration time, accumulated by stacking dozens or even hundreds of individual light frames. When it comes to light frames, Jones’s advice is simple: “The more the better.”
Improve Your Image Stacking: Why You Need Dark, Flat, and Bias Frames
While capturing numerous light frames builds the essential signal from your deep-sky target, achieving a truly clean and polished final image requires dealing with the inherent flaws and noise introduced by your camera and optics. This is where calibration frames come in. Jones acknowledges they might seem like the “less fun side of deep-sky astrophotography,” but stresses their importance for getting the best results. “Stacking software uses these calibration frames to reduce the noise even better and correct things like vignetting, gradients, and dust spots on your lens.”
The three main types of calibration frames are darks, flats, and bias frames. Dark frames are captured with the lens cap on, using the exact same ISO, exposure length, and sensor temperature as your light frames. “What you’re doing is capturing that dark signal that your camera creates,” Jones explains. “It creates a profile for the noise on your camera, allowing the software to identify and subtract thermal and fixed-pattern noise.”
Flat frames, often taken using the “white T-shirt method” against an evenly lit sky or light panel, record dust spots on your sensor or filters and any vignetting (darker corners) caused by your optics. They must be taken with the same focus, ISO, and optical train as your light frames. Exposure time is adjusted (often using Av mode on DSLRs) to get a mid-range histogram without clipping whites or blacks. “The stacking software uses these flat frames to identify those dust moats and remove them while also correcting uneven field illumination,” Jones adds.
Bias frames are the simplest: like dark frames, bias frames require that the lens cap be on and the ISO set to the same as the light frames, but using the fastest possible shutter speed. “They’re capturing the bias signal of your camera sensor, which is another noise creator,” Jones says. This allows the software to subtract the baseline electronic readout noise inherent in the sensor. While Jones admits calibration frames might not be strictly essential to produce an image, he says that you will be happy that you captured them. “They really help your final master image by removing some of those really unfun parts of the editing process.” Taking the time to capture proper calibration frames is a critical step for improving image quality and making post-processing much easier.
How to Stack Your Deep-Sky Images for Better Detail and Less Noise
You’ve captured your light frames and collected your calibration frames. Now comes the step where Jones says that the magic truly happens: image stacking. This is the process of using specialized software to combine all those individual exposures into a single, much cleaner, and more detailed master image. Stacking is fundamental to deep-sky astrophotography precisely because it tackles the core challenge of faint signals buried in noise. By aligning and averaging your light frames, while using the calibration frames to remove systematic noise and artifacts, stacking software dramatically boosts the desired signal while reducing the unwanted noise.
For beginners looking for a powerful, yet accessible tool, Jones has a clear recommendation based on his own extensive experience. “DeepSkyStacker is a free tool I’ve been using for 15 years,” he shares. “When you start the software, there will be prompts where it tells you to load in your light frames, dark frames, flat frames, and bias frames. It’s super easy to use, powerful, and being free, it’s the obvious choice if you are just starting.”
While other excellent free options like Siril and Sequator exist, along with advanced paid software like PixInsight, Jones advises beginners not to get too caught up in debates over which is “best.” “It really is about which one you are most comfortable using, and since many of them are free, there is no downside to trying them all,” he suggests.
Regardless of the specific software, the moment the stacking process finishes is often a highlight for astrophotographers.
“It’s a really exciting time when you have collected all these light frames and stacked them, and you finally see your master image produced. In that master image you’re going to see the benefits of the signal to noise ratio. You’re going to see so much more detail and a much cleaner image than you saw in that single exposure preview on your camera’s LCD screen. This cleaner, richer master file is the culmination of your efforts in the field and the essential starting point for post-processing,” Jones exclaims.
Unlock Longer Exposures: An Introduction to Autoguiding for Deep-Sky
As you push your exposure times longer to capture fainter details, especially when using telescopes, you might notice limitations in your tracking mount’s performance. Even with precise polar alignment, tiny mechanical imperfections or external factors can lead to slightly elongated stars over multi-minute exposures.
“When you’re taking these longer exposures, especially if you get into the three minutes or more, you’re really going to start to see the limitations,” Jones explains. “Any little stutter or other small mishap, your stars aren’t going to look perfect. This is where autoguiding becomes a valuable tool.”
“What auto guiding does is it sends small signals to your tracking mount to make fine adjustments to keep it locked on target over these long periods of time,” Jones explains. It typically involves adding a small, secondary guide scope and a sensitive guide camera to your setup. This guide system locks onto a star near your target, and specialized software continuously monitors that star’s position.
“If it drifts even a little bit, it will send a small pulse to the telescope mount to make an adjustment,” Jones describes. “This constant correction compensates for the mount’s periodic error and other minor tracking deviations, enabling consistently sharp stars even in exposures lasting five minutes or longer.”
While it sounds complex, Jones assures that it’s actually a straightforward process once set up. “Affordable guide scopes and cameras are readily available, and the standard software, PHD2 Guiding is free,” Jones states.
“PHD actually stands for ‘Push Here Dummy,’ so you know it’s easy to use. You will need a basic laptop running in the field to connect the guide camera and mount and run the software, so I suggest just using an old laptop or buying a very basic used laptop that you don’t mind getting a little wet and dirty.”
While autoguiding is not essential right away, Jones says that your experience will tell you when to take the leap. “When it’s time to start auto guiding, you’ll know,” he says. “If you find yourself discarding many long exposures due to tracking errors, that’s a tell tale sign, although, be sure to double check you are setting accurate polar alignment.”
Jones warns that autoguiding is almost required in some cases. “When you have really long focal length telescopes, like 800mm, you pretty much have to use autoguiding, as it’s much easier for a tracking mount to go off course at super telephoto lengths.” For those looking to maximize exposure time and capture the absolute faintest details, autoguiding is often considered the gateway into more serious astrophotography.
The Fight Against Light Pollution in Astrophotography (and Why It Matters)
While advancements in cameras, lenses, and processing software help reveal the beauty of space, Jones emphasizes one element remains paramount for capturing the truly faint details of deep-sky objects: darkness.
“Dark skies for astronomy and astrophotography are absolutely essential for great photography and to experience the true unspoiled dark night sky,” he states. Unfortunately, pristine night skies are increasingly threatened. “The sad reality is they’re becoming increasingly rare to get to these truly dark sky locations.” This challenge underscores the importance of awareness events like International Dark Sky Week, held annually in April, which aims to highlight the value of natural darkness.
For deep-sky photographers, the detrimental effect of light pollution—excess artificial light scattering in the atmosphere—is obvious, washing out faint nebulae and galaxies. However, as Jones points out, the issue extends far beyond astrophotography.
“The average person doesn’t even know the problems that light pollution creates,” he notes. Organizations like DarkSky International work to educate the public on these broader impacts, which include disrupting wildlife migrations and behaviors, potentially affecting human health by interfering with circadian rhythms, and wasting energy. “It’s an actual problem that everyone should care about, not just astronomers and astrophotographers,” Jones stresses.
This passion for protecting the dark night sky is shared by Trevor’s wife, Ashley Northcotte, a volunteer Advocate and Delegate with DarkSky International.
“Ashley is working on a number of initiatives with DarkSky International,” Jones explains, highlighting her efforts in creating awareness campaigns and speaking engagements. One specific focus is DarkSky Camping, an initiative Ashley leads. “With DarkSky Camping, her mission is to get the word out to campers so they at least understand the importance of dark skies and how those should be protected by using responsible lighting practices while enjoying nature,” Jones says.
Her work, like that of DarkSky International, involves dispelling myths like “more light doesn’t equal more safety,” and advocating for responsible lighting ordinances at municipal levels. While Jones admits it sometimes feels like an uphill battle, the goal is clear: “chipping away at that message can help set the stage for gradual changes and inspire actions to minimize light pollution before it’s too late.”
Organizing Your Deep-Sky Photos: Using Lightroom Before You Stack
After a successful night of capturing deep-sky data, you’ll return home with potentially hundreds of RAW files — light frames capturing your target, alongside essential dark, flat, and bias calibration frames. Jones emphasizes that managing this volume is critical before you can even think about stacking.
“Organizing your exposures is a mammoth task,” he admits. “You need to have a place where you can organize hundreds of images and easily be able to go through them and identify what you need to do with them.” For this crucial pre-stacking step, Jones suggests using Lightroom for its robust organization feature and file preparation options.
Jones recommends a straightforward workflow for deep-sky astrophotography beginners using Lightroom: First, maintain a clear folder structure on your computer, keeping your light frames separate from your darks, flats, and bias frames for each session or target.
“For instance, I might name my high level folder Andromeda Galaxy,” Jones describes. “Within that folder I will have a folder named for the year, then inside of that a folder for the month, and it keeps going down until the day. Inside the day, I will have folders for the different frame types. It might seem like overkill the first couple of times that you go out, but in three years, that structure will be much easier to manage.”
Once you have an organized folder structure, import your RAW light frames into Lightroom.
“There’s no better way to look over the light frames than in a software like Lightroom, where you can see all of your exposures in one place and quickly click through them,” Jones notes.
This is where the essential task of culling happens. Jones recommends that you carefully inspect each light frame using Lightroom’s viewing tools. “Zoom in to check for sharp, round stars,” he says, “and reject any with significant trailing from tracking errors or bumps. Discard frames compromised by passing clouds, airplanes, or other unexpected anomalies. You wouldn’t want to include those in your final image stack, so using Lightroom to weed out those unusable images while getting a bird’s eye view of all of the exposures you’ve taken is critical.” Jones suggests using Lightroom’s flagging or rating system to mark the keepers.
It’s vital to understand what not to do at this stage. “There is a big misconception about deep sky astrophotography,” Jones warns. “A lot of people think you need to make edits to the photos before they go into the Image Stacking software, but that is not what you want to do.” The goal in Lightroom before stacking is purely organization and quality control — identifying and removing bad frames. Resist the urge to apply creative edits or even micro-adjustments. “You need to leave the photos in their raw format, stack them and then you do your editing after you have your stacked image stack.” Once you’ve culled your light frames in Lightroom, you’re ready to load those selected RAW files, along with your calibration files, into your chosen stacking software.
Editing Your Stacked Deep-Sky Image: Initial Adjustments in Lightroom
After stacking your light and calibration frames, you’ll have a “master” image file, often in TIFF format, ready for editing. This is where you begin revealing the hidden color and details of your deep-sky target. While foundational adjustments can certainly be made directly in Lightroom, Jones, often recognized in the community for his deep dives into Adobe Photoshop, frequently turns to Photoshop for his processing workflow. For those crucial first steps on the stacked image, he often relies on the powerful Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) plugin within Photoshop.
“ACR is essentially the same engine that powers Lightroom’s Develop module,” Jones clarifies. “So, whether you start in Lightroom or open your file through ACR in Photoshop, you have access to the same fantastic tools to make some pretty important initial adjustments to the image. You can really control everything from your exposure to contrast and clarity to color correction.”
For beginners tackling their first stacked deep-sky image, whether in Lightroom or ACR, Jones suggests focusing on fundamental adjustments. Your stacked image will likely look very dark initially, however Jones says you should not be discouraged. Start by setting the White Balance — choosing a neutral area of background sky can help achieve natural colors. Next, gently adjust Exposure and Contrast sliders, watching the histogram to begin “stretching” the data and revealing faint details without clipping blacks or whites.
Color adjustments are next. “The color mixer is my absolute favorite,” Jones shares. “This is where I increase the saturation of the blues and bring down any of the browns, which is a very common color practice in astrophotography.” Use the HSL/Color panel (available in both Lightroom and ACR) to selectively enhance the specific colors present in your nebula or galaxy.
Noise reduction is crucial. “Noise is always going to be there even if you’ve got five hours of exposure time,” Jones notes, because the stretching process amplifies it along with the faint signal. Jones says that Lightroom’s Noise Reduction tools in the Detail panel (Luminance, Color, and AI Denoise) are very effective, and similar controls are available in ACR. “The color noise reduction tool is my favorite,” he says. “It allows me to move that slider up, reducing a serious amount of noise, however, my primary target isn’t overly smoothed out and soft looking. For me, it’s kind of a balance between detail and noise reduction.”
Finally, tools like Clarity and Texture can subtly enhance details, but Jones advises caution. “Anything that controls the contrast can become very unnatural looking if you take that too far in astrophotography images, so apply these very gently,” he advises.
While more complex edits involving layers and masks typically happen later in the Photoshop process, mastering these initial adjustments in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw is a vital first step in bringing your deep-sky images to life.
Deep-Sky Astrophotography: Embracing the Learning Curve and the Journey
Deep-sky astrophotography is undeniably complex, blending technical skill with artistic vision. The editing stage offers flexibility, says Jones. “You can get a big cup of coffee on a Saturday morning and spend so much time watching tutorials and stacking and then editing your photos in Lightroom,” he says.
However, he notes that the image acquisition phase often presents the steepest learning curve. “When you’re outside and you’ve got three hours of clear night and you’re trying to get your gear to work together successfully, that’s where the pressure and frustrations can come in,” Jones acknowledges.
He stresses that persistence and practice are paramount. “Get out every clear night you can and play with your gear and have really humble expectations of your results, at least in the early stages. The only way to get better at deep sky astrophotography is through repetition.”
This journey of learning and overcoming challenges is, for Jones, central to the appeal of the hobby. He found his own passion not just in the final images, but in the dedication required to capture them. “My love for deep sky astrophotography is centered on the chase and the amount of effort that you have to put into it,” he shares. “The more effort and the more struggles I face, the more rewarding it is when I finally see it come alive on my screen.” He adds that it’s a pursuit that demands patience and pushes photographers to constantly learn and adapt.
Beyond the technical hurdles lies a deeper connection. “Astronomy sparked a new appreciation for the natural world around me, and the experience of simply being under the stars is profound. The feeling of spending a night under the Milky Way is like no other,” he describes. This sense of wonder fuels the dedication required. “The experience of being out there on a perfect spring night, standing under the stars, watching your camera collecting these images, and getting excited about finally seeing the final picture is a feeling that is hard to match,” he says.
“When you combine that feeling with the realization you’re capturing galaxies millions of light-years away, it’s mind blowing.”
For those who truly catch the astrophotography bug, Jones believes, the entire process becomes captivating. “You’re going to love everything about it: the setup, the noises you hear, how the stars overtake the entire sky as your eyes adjust to the darkness. It’s just an incredible feeling, and an incredible passion, that I will never stop loving.”
More from Trevor Jones can be found on his website,YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.
Full disclosure: This article was brought to you by Adobe.
Image credits: All photos by Trevor Jones
