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Night time shooting

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#1 1tio1
Hey Gunther,

I'm using a Canon 7D, which produces a fair amount of noise when shooting above ISO 800. But when you want to capture some stars, without running into star trails, you've gotta pump up the ISO to get below the particular shutter speed that avoids star trailing in the resulting image.

Well, let's say I'm shooting at a still usable ISO 1600, to get the most out of my frames. What do you find the best way to reduce the noise in post without smoothening it out in LR5 with the noise reduction Luminance slider and lose so much detail in the sky?

Is there a better way?

Thanks!
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#2 Gunther
I like the Noise Reduction in Lightroom, it makes a pretty good job. They even improved it in LR5.2 - you might want to try that and play with the sliders. But for real good night captures you will definitely need the best sensor you can get.
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#3 1tio1
(2013-09-03, 23:42)gwegner Wrote: I like the Noise Reduction in Lightroom, it makes a pretty good job. They even improved it in LR5.2 - you might want to try that and play with the sliders. But for real good night captures you will definitely need the best sensor you can get.

So you don't use the more difficult method of jumping into Photoshop and by using layers from black frames with a 'difference' as layer blending type?

Or what I've read somewhere else, with a 'Median' filter?

Thanks!
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#4 Gunther
Not at all... My time is too precious for that. Apart from this I'm convinced that the Lightroom Noise Reduction does an outstanding job and only few algorithms are better - but those are way to time consuming and don't fit in the workflow and the results are not that much better - it's not worth the efforts in my opinion.
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#5 1tio1
(2013-09-04, 00:54)gwegner Wrote: Not at all... My time is too precious for that. Apart from this I'm convinced that the Lightroom Noise Reduction does an outstanding job and only few algorithms are better - but those are way to time consuming and don't fit in the workflow and the results are not that much better - it's not worth the efforts in my opinion.

Okay, since your milky way shots look fantastic, I'm gonna stick with LR.
Thanks!
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#6 Ulli
Hmm Gunther I suppose you've never used Noiseware? http://imagenomic.com/nw.aspx I thin you'll change your definition of "outstanding job" ;-)
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#7 Gunther
Ulli, that does not matter since it is not applicable to the time lapse process. At least not if your time is limited (mine is).
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#8 Ulli
Until now I never used it in a timelapseworkflow but why should it not applicable? Just batch-process the exported jpg or tif from LR before rendering in LRTimelapse. Sure this needs time, but only of the PC. Everybody had to decide this for himself but if you feel you get better results you should insert this little step (when shooting at high ISO and high temperatures of course).
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#9 Gunther
Never felt, I would need it - but on the other hand, I have the latest sensors and for me Lightroom NR does a fantastic job, especially in 5.2 they improved it further.
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