As the world expands and urban areas grow, completely dark skies for night photography keep getting smaller. Developing urban areas means increasing light from homes, businesses, and the streets, increasing light pollution. Light pollution can ruin your night photos, removing all of the detail from the sky and reducing the detail in the stars. However, there is a fix for light pollution. It comes in the form of a filter that goes on the front of your lens. In this post, we’ll cover everything you need to know about light pollution filters for photographers.
What is Light Pollution?
For the sake of photography, light pollution is a brightening of the sky that is generally seen around urban areas and caused by man-made lights. If you’ve ever tried to take a nighttime photo while in a city, you have likely noticed that you can’t see many stars. On the flip side, when you’re out in the wilderness, far from any light source, there seem to be countless stars in the sky. This is the difference between an area with light pollution and an area with minimal light pollution. You’ll want the least light pollution possible for the best night photography.
What is a Light Pollution Filter?
A light pollution filter helps reduce the light pollution in your images. These filters are specially engineered to cut down on a particular wavelength. They ultimately block out specific colors. Most light pollution filters are set to block out anywhere between 570nm-620nm, which covers the orange and red parts of the spectrum. Most large cities use the same colored lights, and the engineers of light pollution filters specifically target these colors to be removed when using a light pollution filter.
You’ll most commonly see orange and yellow light pollution filters, but you can also get filters that target many other colors. Many of these filters are designed the same as any other photography filter you’d use. You can usually screw them into the threaded filter spot on your lens. Some filters are designed as drop-in filters or even filters that go in front of the camera sensor. Choosing the right filter comes down to preference and your desired use.
How Do Light Pollution Filters Affect Photos?
A light pollution filter reduces the light pollution seen in your photos. Usually, this appears as a yellow or orange glow near the horizon. Doing so helps to reduce distractions and bring out the details in your night images. Even if you travel far from the nearest city, you may still be surprised by the light pollution in your photos.
Using a light pollution filter does come with some side effects, however. Since the filter blocks out specific colors, it also slightly lowers the light transmission of the lens. Less light transmission means a darker image, so you may need to increase the shutter speed or ISO slightly to retain the same image brightness. At night, this can prove costly and slightly increase the noise in your images.
Additionally, low-quality filters can add a tint or artifacts to your images. Adding another piece of glass in front of your lens can slightly reduce image quality. A higher-quality filter will minimize these adverse effects, but they are certainly things you should consider before using a light pollution filter. In most situations, the benefit of a light pollution filter far outweighs the cons. A high-quality filter can significantly improve the clarity of the night sky.
When to Use a Light Pollution Filter
Astro and night photographers benefit the most from light pollution filters since they help remove the glow of city lights from night scenes. Eliminating light pollution will minimize the yellow haze on the horizon when shooting near a big city, increasing the clarity of the night sky. Removing the yellow tint can give your night image a more realistic look and a more natural, cool tone.
Cityscape photographers can also benefit from light pollution filters. If you’re finding that an orange or yellow glow plagues your nighttime photos in the city, a light pollution filter may be the solution to help cut down some of the city lights. A light pollution filter can help you get a cleaner image and fix things that aren’t quickly resolved in Photoshop.
Consider using a light pollution filter to shoot night sky photos in or near a large city. Since most filters can be easily applied or removed, it’s worth taking a test image with the filter on to see how it’s working and another without the filter. Usually, anytime you see the bright glow of city lights is an excellent time to use a light pollution filter.
Best Light Pollution Filters
NiSi 100mm Natural Filter for Nighttime Light Pollution
The NiSi 100mm Natural Filter for Nighttime Light Pollution is a great drop-in filter meant to reduce light pollution in your images. As a 100mm drop-in filter, it will fit nearly any lens provided you already own a compatible drop-in system. This filter is perfect for astrophotographers who want the highest quality image with the least amount of light pollution present. If you already own a NiSi drop-in filter kit, this filter is an easy add-on to throw in your bag for next time you’re shooting at night.
NiSi 55mm Natural Night Filter (Light Pollution Filter)
The NiSi Natural Night Filter is a screw-in filter that cuts the light pollution out of your night images. This filter is perfect for photographers who don’t own a drop-in system or those who want to travel quickly and lightly. It’s very similar in function to the NiSi Natural Filter for Nighttime Light Pollution, and the only key difference is that this filter is a screw-in, while the prior filter is used in a drop-in system.
Hoya 77mm Red Starscape Filter
This Red Starscape Filter from Hoya is an intensifying filter that helps boost color and contrast in specific colors while not affecting others. This filter specifically targets red, orange, and brown in your image. This can benefit Milky Way photographers by helping bring out the colors of the stars. Additionally, landscape photographers can find great use with this filter, especially during the fall. Photographing fall foliage with Hoya’s Red Starscape Filter can produce some incredible colors straight out of the camera that you couldn’t easily create in post-processing.
Hoya 77mm Green Starscape Filter
The Green Starscape Filter from Hoya works very similarly to the red version, but this one only affects colors on the green spectrum. This filter can significantly benefit your aurora images. Although, you won’t see a significant impact when shooting the Milky Way or a typical night sky. This filter produces excellent results when used around waterfalls, forests, or anywhere you’d expect to see lush green foliage. The filter adds contrast and saturation to help the greens pop in your photography.
Tiffen 52mm WW IR Neutral Density 3.0 Filter
Tiffen’s WW II Neutral Density 3.0 Filter works like a buffed-up ND filter. It comes in numerous different darkness versions, allowing you to block between 0.3 and 10 light stops. Additionally, the filter uses an IR blocker to reduce Infra-Red pollution from hitting your camera’s sensor. This ensures that only light visible to the human eye can reach the sensor. Most modern cameras have an IR-blocker internally, but you should consider picking up this filter if you shoot on an older DSLR camera or even a film camera.
Conclusion
Light pollution is not going away soon, so it might be time to invest in some light pollution filters to help you get better images in the camera. For most night photographers, light pollution isn’t welcomed. Thankfully, we can avoid it with the correct filters. In most situations, the benefits of a light pollution filter far outweigh the disadvantages. Luckily, these filters are more accessible than ever. Any photographer can easily purchase and use a light pollution filter. Even if you get far from the city lights, there are very few places left where you can experience true darkness with no light pollution.
