Author Topic: Reducing Noise on Night Time Shots (Read 5683 times)

No Free Lunch · « **on:** March 22, 2015, 09:37 »

Hi MSG folks- When taking night time shots which method works best to reduce noise - all images taken with camera on tripod

1. Lowest ISO (i.e., ISO100) and a long exposure (i.e., 15 seconds) or
2. Higher ISO (ISO 800) and a shorter exposure (5 seconds)

Thanks

Tom

fritz · « **Reply #1 on:** March 22, 2015, 09:45 »

ISO100

adi911 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 22, 2015, 15:19 »

Usually low ISO means low Noise. Nowadays good cameras handle Higher ISO and produce low noise. So basically ISO 100 will produce low noise unless is very cold outside. At very cold temperatures and long exposure you may get unexpected noise even at ISO 100.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #3 on:** March 22, 2015, 16:13 »

Check your camera to see, but sometimes, noise and sharp focus is preferable (i.e. higher ISO to get faster shutter speed). You can't fix an out of focus shot, but you can fix noise (up to a point). Wind, anything moving (water) may be the deciding factor on which way is best to go.

And if you have the time, shoot both and compare

pancaketom · « **Reply #4 on:** March 22, 2015, 18:02 »

I was under the impression that excess heat caused excess noise. Thus when it is cold you would get less noise?

In astronomy they cool the sensors with liquid nitrogen. I presume that isn't to add noise.

In general as long as you can deal with the longer exposure a low iso seems to give better results. Even better if nothing is moving would be taking a bunch of images and stacking them.

roede-orm · « **Reply #5 on:** March 23, 2015, 05:32 »

A long exposure heats the sensor. This results in more noise. Cold temperatures outside should actually result in less noise.

Lizard · « **Reply #6 on:** March 23, 2015, 05:44 »

Quote from: roede-orm on March 23, 2015, 05:32

A long exposure heats the sensor. This results in more noise. Cold temperatures outside should actually result in less noise.

It should be like that, I remember reading an article with photo samples on Canon 5D where ISO 200 actually gave significantly less noise than ISO 100 while rising ISO to 400 was worse option from those 3 in same low light conditions. It was on urban small city center shoot with not too much lights.

I haven't test that myself though.

samards · « **Reply #7 on:** March 23, 2015, 06:37 »

As lower ISO as possible of course.

The other thing is to enable in-camera long exposure NR. Then camera makes one image with the same settings, just with the shutter closed - that would record only noise, and then reduce that from the original picture. That will consume double shooting time (imagine that you need like 2 min exposure and then 2 min more for noise reduction shot, and then processing time...), but it is worth it!

fotoVoyager · « **Reply #8 on:** March 23, 2015, 09:02 »

Another trick for long exposures (longer than the ones originally mentioned) is image stacking. Works really well for star trails.

roede-orm · « **Reply #9 on:** March 24, 2015, 07:45 »

Quote from: samards on March 23, 2015, 06:37

As lower ISO as possible of course.

But there is another problem. If you reduce the ISO lower than 100 ISO, the Cam (in every case Nikon) will produce Pictures with much harder contrasts. Actually like it was in the good old days with low ISO film material.

w7lwi · « **Reply #10 on:** March 24, 2015, 10:45 »

Here's a site that has some pretty good information on astrophotography.

http://www.davemorrowphotography.com/p/tutorial-shooting-night-sky.html

samards · « **Reply #11 on:** March 25, 2015, 07:42 »

Quote from: roede-orm on March 24, 2015, 07:45

But there is another problem. If you reduce the ISO lower than 100 ISO, the Cam (in every case Nikon) will produce Pictures with much harder contrasts. Actually like it was in the good old days with low ISO film material.

Hm, good to know that, anyway my Nikon goes from ISO 100... I thought mostly Canon makes cameras with ISO less than 100?

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #12 on:** March 26, 2015, 17:59 »

most perfect nighttime shots are actually taken at the blue moment which is really still not black night .
then a second shot is taken when the lights are all turned on and the two shots are combined.
this way, you will not have noise problems.
needless to say, yes, ISO is as low as necessary and tripod as the camera is not to be shifted.
wifi is easiest for this without touching the camera or lens. manual focus not forget. all manual.

enstoker · « **Reply #13 on:** March 27, 2015, 00:53 »

Quote from: w7lwi on March 24, 2015, 10:45

Here's a site that has some pretty good information on astrophotography.

http://www.davemorrowphotography.com/p/tutorial-shooting-night-sky.html

Tnx for this very nice info.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #14 on:** March 27, 2015, 09:38 »

Quote from: w7lwi on March 24, 2015, 10:45

Here's a site that has some pretty good information on astrophotography.

http://www.davemorrowphotography.com/p/tutorial-shooting-night-sky.html

Not only good information, but what gorgeous images - thanks

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Author Topic: Reducing Noise on Night Time Shots (Read 5683 times)

No Free Lunch

fritz

adi911

Jo Ann Snover

pancaketom

roede-orm

Lizard

samards

fotoVoyager

roede-orm

w7lwi

samards

etudiante_rapide

enstoker

Jo Ann Snover

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