How to edit the Milky Way (Astrophotography)?

 Hi, I would like to share my techniques of editing your Milky Way. My way may not be the best, but it will help you in your photo(s). Before that, the most basic requirement of editing your photo(s) is that you need to shoot your photo(s) in RAW. This will enable you to do a better editing without losing any of your photo's details. For astrophotography, we can hardly determine the actual color of your stars/objects if compared to landscape photography. Hence, it is up to your imagination. But do not over edited.

This is the original photo from camera

The software that i use to edit my photo is Lightroom. Below is the screen shot of my initial photo which imported into Lightroom. Go to "Develop" button....You can see the camera setting, original color setting and my original photo which without enhancement.(You can click the photo to have a better view)

The most basic of editing is the white balance. For me, i personally prefer the value between 2900k to 3300k. The idea of this value is to balance up the blueish of the sky. But in different light pollution environment, the value may be different. Then, i prefer the "tint" value to be set to "0" to avoid any unnatural color. But in certain environment, you may adjust the value from -10 to 10 but not too much as it will ruin your photo. I set the Exposure to +1.00 to increase the brightness of overall photo, Black to 15 to balance up the Exposure adjusted, Contrast at +50 and Vibrance at +40. Remember, it is not advisable to increase the Clarity of overall picture as it will cause unwanted tone in your foreground.

Next, go to the gradient function and set the value as such :
Exposure : 0.5
Contrast : 100
Clarity : 100
Saturation : -20
The drag across the milky way but don't too much. From this moment, you can see the color and tone of your milky way.

Again, add another gradient with this setting
Contrast : +50
Clarity : +50
Drag across your milky way. Your milky way will be more dramatic.

Next, go to the "Tone Curve", slightly adjust to "S" shape. This will enhance the bright and dark area in your overall photo.

With all these steps, you are actually creating a lot of noise in your photo. Below you can see the color noises when it is zoomed in.

Te recuse your editing, go to Noise Reduction function. Normally i set 25 for Luminance and 50 for Color. Too much noise reduction may reduce the sharpness of your photo.

Finally export your photo. Below is the result of my editing.

Final result : Milky Way & Shooting Star

 I hope this basic editing may help you in getting your best Milky Way. Happy Editing.

You can view some of my result in this time lapse