Now that we have acquired our nightscape images, we turn to the decisions about how to manage them and whether to alter their appearance in any way. In many cases, the images straight off the camera are perfectly acceptable. Most of the time, however, even minor tweaks can result in dramatic improvements and can bring the images more in line with your perception of the scene.

There will always be a debate about the “authenticity” of making changes to images once they’ve been recorded. Some would argue that changes to images straight from the camera somehow violate their accuracy, or legitimacy. In response, I might suggest that the camera sensor is in no way equivalent to the human eye. Changes are often required to bring the photographic image in line with what the human eye perceives. Furthermore, as an artist, you have total control over your images; there is no one looking over your shoulder! So feel free to make or not make any changes that you feel are appropriate, and enjoy the results. The only exception might be in contests with rules restricting the amount of editing that may be done on submitted entries.

This section contains two chapters; the first deals with image management and editing, or adjustments, that you might wish to consider to single images. These can be further subdivided into global adjustments, or adjustments to the entire image and local adjustments, or adjustments to specific areas. The second chapter describes more advanced techniques involving combining multiple images into a single, final composite image. Examples include panoramas, star trail images, and clever methods for achieving a tonal range beyond what the camera sensor can record in a single image but that is much closer to what the human eye perceives.