long exposures critique

[mpphoto12]

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[Alan]

How long of an exposure time? What aperture? What ISO? Were you using a UV filter? Did you shoot jpeg, or RAW?


Your sensor needs cleaning.


Is that your shadow in the picture? :&lt


Filters will often reflect light back into the lens, and your light sources will be more diffused, and less like a point source. So, it's best to remove them for night shots.


I find that f/8 to a maximum of f/11 is the furthest I would stop the aperture down.


I also run ISO 100, unless there isn't much light. 800 or might be tried with the first pic, since there isn't much light source (except for the light pole) and the area to the right isn't coming through very well.


The third pic has lots of light, so that one could have had less shutter time.


Long exposures produce color noise, which can be removed with noise reduction programs.


If shot jpeg, I would set a color temperature to more like tungsten (2800-3000 K) with a custom color temp setting in your camera, if it can do this.


Have these shots been adjusted at all? Exposure increased? If so, and the exposure is increased too much, this will also introduce noise in the image, and blow the lights too diffusely.

[mpphoto12]

thanks i forget but i was at like f/13 and had about 30 secs or more in each and i dont see any sensor dust that was just snowflakes on my filter in that one lol ther ewas editing in raw i shot them in raw and i used iso 100 for all of them i wanted my shadow too i think it adds to the personality of it asd it ashows the mysterious photographer in the seen

[bassmangtk]

I really like the second one. The others are good, but I love a slightly creepy black and white of trees with no leaves.

[Tom Alicoate]

Are you sure those are really iso100? They look more like 1600 with the horizontal pattern noise.I would say make sure it is iso 100 and make a slightly brighter exposure, then darken it back down in post processing.


Tom

[Itheone]

I ran # 2 through EXIF viewer, it's shot with Canon Rebel XT, kit lens at 18mm f/16 ISO100 @61s.


BTW # 2 should be viewed in full size since the board is cutting 1/2 of it off.


Hope you don't mind, here's my rework of the photo:


Applied Noise Ninja, removed most spots from filter, cropped bottom and right, added grain and applied Holga cross process effect.





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[Flish]

What causes the grid like pattern in the noise?

[mpphoto12]

Hey how did you get the full file? how can i take the one that you fixed up and retouxch it in ps??

[Itheone]

If Firefox if you right click on the image you'll get the option to "view image", in IE you would have to right click and save the image to your computer to see it whole.


I reduced my version of your image down to 800 wide for better web viewing, I do not have the original size, sorry.

[Stefan Stuart Fletcher]

Thanks for your interesting posts and to others for valuable input. I just wanted to add two points:


1. Your camera's custom functions (depending the body) can be changed toadjust noise reduction for long exposures - but there's always a trade-off in IQ


2. If you don't have Noise Ninja, you can use another, less effective but still useful technique in PS CS3+.


a. Click on the channels tab in your layer window
b. Select the Red colour chanel
c. Go to Filter Menu > Noise > Despeckle
d. Click Ctrl/Cmd+F to repeat the filter command
e. Do the same twice for the Green chanel
f. Do it 3-4 times in the Blue chanel because blue is usually the prevalent colour.
Remember to click once again on the combined RGB chanel before returning to your image.
This isn't a great solution - you will need to sharpen your image - but it does help.


I also agree that a lower ISO usually produces better effects.