Jeff Wahaus
Senior Member
I've been pointing my camera towards the sky recently and have a few questions about the optimal camera settings. My goal is to capture the most detail and dynamic range while avoiding noise.
My gut tells me to expose something like this. To my eyes the sky was very dark (by non-adjusted eye standards as I was just 1 min earlier inside in the lights). The image is obviously overexposed but adjustments in post can deal with that.
ISO 6400, 45mm, 2 Sec @ f1.2
This shot was hand-held by the way, the E-M1iii image stabilization is amazing!
Using Olympus Workspace I did some extreme adjustments to the highlight/shadow curves and got this:
Highlight +14, Mid -14, Shadow -10
This looks pretty good for a single image nighttime shot of stars. There is a fair amount of noise, mostly chroma, and Topaz DeNoise wasn't really able to improve the image unless you want faint stars to disappear (which I don't).
I know stacking multiple images is the way to go for the best dynamic range but that's not really what this discussion is about. For a single image, what tends to be the best settings?
What are the most useful camera settings and post adjustments to preserve detail of the faint stars and yet darken the background and also get rid of noise?
Is it better to overexpose and darken in post?
I tried a few shots at 4 seconds handheld but that was a bit much for the camera to handle (visible movement trails). It's amazing how many more stars the camera picks up than your eyes can see. The shot above managed to capture a comet (or something moving) but it seems it was moving too slow for a comet. In the next frame I took it was still there but in a lower position and more faint (space force?). The adjustments I made in post made the tail dissapear more than I would have liked.
My gut tells me to expose something like this. To my eyes the sky was very dark (by non-adjusted eye standards as I was just 1 min earlier inside in the lights). The image is obviously overexposed but adjustments in post can deal with that.
ISO 6400, 45mm, 2 Sec @ f1.2
This shot was hand-held by the way, the E-M1iii image stabilization is amazing!
Using Olympus Workspace I did some extreme adjustments to the highlight/shadow curves and got this:
Highlight +14, Mid -14, Shadow -10
This looks pretty good for a single image nighttime shot of stars. There is a fair amount of noise, mostly chroma, and Topaz DeNoise wasn't really able to improve the image unless you want faint stars to disappear (which I don't).
I know stacking multiple images is the way to go for the best dynamic range but that's not really what this discussion is about. For a single image, what tends to be the best settings?
What are the most useful camera settings and post adjustments to preserve detail of the faint stars and yet darken the background and also get rid of noise?
Is it better to overexpose and darken in post?
I tried a few shots at 4 seconds handheld but that was a bit much for the camera to handle (visible movement trails). It's amazing how many more stars the camera picks up than your eyes can see. The shot above managed to capture a comet (or something moving) but it seems it was moving too slow for a comet. In the next frame I took it was still there but in a lower position and more faint (space force?). The adjustments I made in post made the tail dissapear more than I would have liked.
