M2P Best settings for night

[Darkabaz]

Shoot some night images last week, but every time the pictures have a lot of noise, even with iso 100 it is not good at all. In my opinion the m2p's limitations are just in sight.
A Opel astra would also not accelerate from 0 -100 in 5 seconds...

BUT: I see on social media a looot of m2p pictures with night which does not have that much of noise i have... do, what are the best settings for night photography? I try iso 100/200 AND shutterspeed 3-5 seconds: this is a bit better but so shaky that is it is not useable. Everything below that shutspeed is not usable,too dark .

Any tips are very welcome

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

I take 5 shots in BURST mode (not AEB) and stack them in Photoshop using this method:

A Look at Reducing Noise in Photographs Using Median Blending

Between a recent post here on PetaPixel about the Beauty of Space Photography, and my own experiments on blending series of images using averaging

petapixel.com

It works well. Here's a few low-light image that use this method (note that these are soft when zoomed in because they're social-media sized JPGs from a much larger source).:








Chris

 

[offtheback]

Shoot some night images last week, but every time the pictures have a lot of noise, even with iso 100 it is not good at all. In my opinion the m2p's limitations are just in sight.
A Opel astra would also not accelerate from 0 -100 in 5 seconds...

BUT: I see on social media a looot of m2p pictures with night which does not have that much of noise i have... do, what are the best settings for night photography? I try iso 100/200 AND shutterspeed 3-5 seconds: this is a bit better but so shaky that is it is not useable. Everything below that shutspeed is not usable,too dark .

Any tips are very welcome

Best to make sure you let in the most light to keep noise down.I use the zebra lines and let some show up.I usuallydo ok with exposures of 2-3 seconds if I take multiple shots-not just in burst.I've had ok results at 200 or 400 depending on the subject.

 

[Darkabaz]

I take 5 shots in BURST mode (not AEB) and stack them in Photoshop using this method:

A Look at Reducing Noise in Photographs Using Median Blending

Between a recent post here on PetaPixel about the Beauty of Space Photography, and my own experiments on blending series of images using averaging

petapixel.com

It works well. Here's a few low-light image that use this method (note that these are soft when zoomed in because they're social-media sized JPGs from a much larger source).:


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Chris

AMAZING SHOTS.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

AMAZING SHOTS.

Thanks, I appreciate that.

I forgot to add that as the light fades from the sky, I move to ISO 200 and then 400, but not any higher. With much better cameras/sensors (land based), I can shoot 800-1600-3200 ISO without too much noise, but the M2P at 800 or above is unusable to me. This is supposedly where one would benefit from the M3 with it's M34 sensor.

Also, I shoot with the aperture at f2.8 (wide open), which agrees with offtheback states above (collect as much light as possible). There's not much reason for increased DOF from these distances (and this lens has plenty of DOF at f2.8 anyway) and the quality starts to degrade after f4 or f5.6.

And since several seconds would blow out the artificial lights too much, I usually don't go over 1 minute, maybe 2. Some of the above shuts were under 1 second. The trick here is to expose for the highlights and raise the shadows in post.

Raising the shadows is another way to increase noise though, doing the median stack first is important. Then follow it up with a small amount of denoise if you need.

Chris

 

[Ralph thompson]

Small note for none photographers, the original post asked about ”night” photography whereas the photographs posted by Chris are twilight photographs. Big difference. The period from sunset for about 30mins is called twilight, light level drops quickly but city lights are usually on within a few minutes of sunset. This is the golden period for beautiful photography. It’s a similar situation for 30 mins before sunrise. After twilight end then you will get a dark sky/ground/buildings with just an array of lights. To photograph in the mid twilight zone youll have to increase ISO to around 400, wide open aperture and a shutter speed of around 1/30 sec. Check the histogram, make sure there is no gap on the RHS (under exposure). You may get photographs at slower shutter speeds but you are likely to get soft images.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Small note for none photographers, the original post asked about ”night” photography whereas the photographs posted by Chris are twilight photographs. Big difference. The period from sunset for about 30mins is called twilight, light level drops quickly but city lights are usually on within a few minutes of sunset. This is the golden period for beautiful photography. It’s a similar situation for 30 mins before sunrise. After twilight end then you will get a dark sky/ground/buildings with just an array of lights. To photograph in the mid twilight zone youll have to increase ISO to around 400, wide open aperture and a shutter speed of around 1/30 sec. Check the histogram, make sure there is no gap on the RHS (under exposure). You may get photographs at slower shutter speeds but you are likely to get soft images.

Agreed, most of those are twilight-ish and that is for me the golden period. But they are still examples of a) higher ISO values and b) deep shadows. Raising shadows in 200-400 ISO with the M2P means noise.

I've taken a lot of full-night photography with land-based cameras, but I just poked around in my galleries of drone shots and really there is nothing in full darkness. I've taken them, but never like 'em enough to publish any.

Chris

 

[Ralph thompson]

Yes they are very nice photographs Chris, certainly not criticizing, thanks for posting. With a DSLR I usually aim for those truly golden moments 5mins either side of the end of twilight but the noise levels in M2P are really bad at high ISO, and I find 1/30th to be fairly safe shutter speed, no slower (although I have had slower work) as I'm sure you know. I just compromise, shoot around sunset plus 15 mins then do some pulling and pushing in Lightroom.

 

[Darkabaz]

How about the noise and the mavic 3? Is that one much better? Saw some movies with diff between m2p and m3, but not get it hot with it. The price looks like the be the biggest point

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

How about the noise and the mavic 3? Is that one much better? Saw some movies with diff between m2p and m3, but not get it hot with it. The price looks like the be the biggest point

I personally don't have an M3, but there's a lot of discussions over in the M3 forums of the supposed advantages of the newer M3 sensor.

Chris

 

[offtheback]

I personally don't have an M3, but there's a lot of discussions over in the M3 forums of the supposed advantages of the newer M3 sensor.

Chris

All things being equal(unusual)a 4/3 sensor should have about 3/4-1 stop noise advantage and about 1 more stop of dynamic range.

 

[MaxE1955!]

I take 5 shots in BURST mode (not AEB) and stack them in Photoshop using this method:

A Look at Reducing Noise in Photographs Using Median Blending

Between a recent post here on PetaPixel about the Beauty of Space Photography, and my own experiments on blending series of images using averaging

petapixel.com

It works well. Here's a few low-light image that use this method (note that these are soft when zoomed in because they're social-media sized JPGs from a much larger source).:


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Chris

Wow, extra nice images! Very well done sir!!!

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Wow, extra nice images! Very well done sir!!!

Thanks Max.

 

[Meta4]

I see on social media a looot of m2p pictures with night which does not have that much of noise i have... do, what are the best settings for night photography? I try iso 100/200 AND shutterspeed 3-5 seconds: this is a bit better but so shaky that is it is not useable. Everything below that shutspeed is not usable,too dark .

Any tips are very welcome

As well as camera settings, what you are shooting can make a big difference.
The camera works well when things are lit well, but won't be able to do much with large areas of darkness.
Choosing and framing your subject can make a big difference.

 

[offtheback]

Along with al the tips here,consider getting a free trial of DXO Pure Raw.I've used it with an Olympus 4/3 camera and my M2P and gotten some surprisingly good results at higher ISO's.It allows 3 degrees of noise reduction and can yield 1-1.5 stops of correction-I.E.-ISO 800 would look like ISO 400 or perhaps ISO 300(not in settings but you get the picture) .Preservation of detail is very good as it uses AI.Topaz Denoise is also said to be good.

 

[PAW]

Along with al the tips here,consider getting a free trial of DXO Pure Raw.I've used it with an Olympus 4/3 camera and my M2P and gotten some surprisingly good results at higher ISO's.It allows 3 degrees of noise reduction and can yield 1-1.5 stops of correction-I.E.-ISO 800 would look like ISO 400 or perhaps ISO 300(not in settings but you get the picture) .Preservation of detail is very good as it uses AI.Topaz Denoise is also said to be good.

Interesting comparison between Topaz DeNoise and stacking.
Topaz DeNoise AI vs. stacked exposure

 

[Rupuze]

Beautiful shots!
Thanks fort the tip re burst shooting/stacking.