Originally posted by Tjompen1968 How long exposure times do you use in you low light photography? Do you use Long Exposure Noise reduction?
"Long Exposure Noise Reduction" is the one that takes a dark frame after every image? I always keep that off to minimize downtime between shots.My photo format is raw DNG. Initial processing is always with Lightroom. Either my camera doesn't have the dots, or my workflow hides them.
Exposure lengths vary:
For star trails, I usually use 30 second exposures, shutter mode is continuous high, and a locking shutter release cable. That minimizes delays between each photo. The K-1 can do much longer than 30 seconds but then I have to shift to Bulb mode rather than Manual. 30 seconds also prevents too bright a sky background when there is light pollution, and aircraft trails are easier to fix with short expsoures.
When I was visiting Devils Tower last summer, I was free from both light pollution and air traffic. I went as long as 20 minute exposures for star trails. Some minor hot pixels at 20 minutes, but they are single pixels not large white dots that others reported:
First sample below is 20 second ISO 6400, second sample is 1200 seconds (20 minutes) ISO 200: