Night time long exposure problems...

Doing a quick shot as I type to test the theories... City centre though so may not work yet...

Note to self: Settings do not work in a city suburb.

Need to clear this rotten throat infection and go try it properly.

totalbeginner wrote in post #3298788
Generally you will get horrendous noise if you try to increase exposure in PP. The closer you can get to a correct exposure in-camera, the less likely you are to get noise. As mentioned before, slightly over-exposing will make PP much "cleaner".

I get no noise by increasing the exposure in PP. I get more noise when I expose for over 8 mins. Maybe I have a different sensor than you?

Dave/Manipula, in case it isn't obvious, you can meter off a very dark sky. Just open up the lens all the way and set the ISO as high as it will go. Take the meter reading. Then set the ISO and aperture how you like them, and set the shutter speed accordingly.

Example: 10 seconds @ ISO 1600, f/4 = 10 minutes 40 seconds @ ISO 100, f/8.

Worth doing IMO rather than trial and error, because it's so important to get the exposure right in shots like this.

StewartR wrote in post #3301119
Dave/Manipula, in case it isn't obvious, you can meter off a very dark sky. Just open up the lens all the way and set the ISO as high as it will go. Take the meter reading. Then set the ISO and aperture how you like them, and set the shutter speed accordingly.

Example: 10 seconds @ ISO 1600, f/4 = 10 minutes 40 seconds @ ISO 100, f/8.

Worth doing IMO rather than trial and error, because it's so important to get the exposure right in shots like this.

I'd agree with this, however, any longer than 7 minutes and it gets noisy in my experience. So I just go for 7 minutes and then levels adjust if need be. 7 mins will never overexpose at night.

Cheers for the tips chaps, just need to get out there and test them now. I shall report when this has been achieved!

NZFritz wrote in post #3295868
Hey dude, I won't try and tell you how to do it, I'll just post a pic with my settings (not a brilliant image, but cool because it was taken at night).

5D
ISO - 50 @ f4
6 mins 48 seconds

First is direct from camera
Second is levels adjusted with 20% saturation

If you keep your exposures below 8 mins on the 5D, you won't get noise, (and below IS0 400)

I really like the first shot. But by chance are the dark lines at the bottom of the picture from your tripod?

faust wrote in post #3303552
I really like the first shot. But by chance are the dark lines at the bottom of the picture from your tripod?

HA, yes they are, the moon was very low in the sky and casting a shadow, knew it'd be a crop before I took the pic, lol.