Serious question: why do so many people edit out the stars in their night sky photos?

I was flipping through astrophotography posts last night and kept seeing perfectly black skies behind galaxies. Dude, stars are the whole point of being out there at 2am waiting for the milky way. Am I missing something or is this a new trend I didn't get the memo about?

3 comments

3 Comments

bettyroberts31m agoMost Upvoted

Wait, isn't that more of a star removal thing than just editing them out though? I feel like @blair_webb kinda nailed it when he talked about stars washing out the faint details. In deep sky stuff, those little dots can actually mess with your galaxy's outer arms and make everything look flat. I've seen folks use star masks in Photoshop to literally erase the stars layer by layer just so the nebula pops out clear.

blair_webb11h agoTop Commenter

Honestly I used to be the same way, I wanted all those stars visible behind the main subject too. But then I tried stacking and processing a galaxy shot and realized the stars were actually washing out the faint details I spent hours capturing. Now I get it, sometimes the sky needs to be dark so the galaxy pops, even if it feels like you’re cheating.

ivanross5h ago

Wait, aren't you losing the whole reason you spent hours on that shot? I get that stars can wash out galaxy detail if you're not careful, but editing them out feels like taking the soul out of the image. The little pinpricks of light are what give the photo depth and make you feel small. If you just want a clean dark background, you might as well shoot from a light polluted city.