Picture quality advice needed

[Shera]

Here are some images I took of the Milky Way whilst on holiday in north Wales last week. I had one night where the sky was clear. It was the first time I had pointed my camera south the get the Milky Way. The camera is a Canon EOS400d which I am borrowing and I used an 18mm lens, f4.0, 1600 ISO and 30 sec exposures. I have edited the pictures in GIMP but when I open them to look at them, they appear grainy? Is it because they were saved as JPEG's? Is there a way to edit them on GIMP as RAW files? My camera saves RAW and JPEG's but the RAW files don't appear in GIMP when I open a file.  Also I can't work out how to reduce the brightness of the light in the second picture; I like the tent being in the shot otherwise I would've just cropped it-any ideas? Lastly, any comments about the actual images are most welcome! I'm pleased with them but not the picture quality, maybe it's my PC? Thanks guys!

[tooth_dr]

A combination of warm nights, high ISO and long exposure has introduced noise into your images. I also use a 400d but this is a common trait will all DSLRs. You could try using a lower ISO.  The noise will appear in jpeg and raw images. I don't use GIMP but I'm sure there will be a plugin to allow you to edit canon raw files.

 

Nice images of the MW. The second one is nice, but as with amplifying the weak light from stars you will also amplify strong lights i.e. light beside tent. 

[Bruce Leeroy]

I tried an edit of the final image in GIMP.

I duplicated your image and set the top layer as "Multiply" keeping the lower layer as "Normal" then "Desaturated" (I wouldn't normally desaturate but it helped), you can toggle the effect by sliding the opacity slider, lost alot of data but cleaned up quite a bit.

 

[Shera]

2 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

A combination of warm nights, high ISO and long exposure has introduced noise into your images. I also use a 400d but this is a common trait will all DSLRs. You could try using a lower ISO.  The noise will appear in jpeg and raw images. I don't use GIMP but I'm sure there will be a plugin to allow you to edit canon raw files.

 

Nice images of the MW. The second one is nice, but as with amplifying the weak light from stars you will also amplify strong lights i.e. light beside tent. 

Thanks, I forgot all about the atmosphere/weather conditions.

[Shera]

1 hour ago, Bruce Leeroy said:

I tried an edit of the final image in GIMP.

I duplicated your image and set the top layer as "Multiply" keeping the lower layer as "Normal" then "Desaturated" (I wouldn't normally desaturate but it helped), you can toggle the effect by sliding the opacity slider, lost alot of data but cleaned up quite a bit.

 

Thanks I will try and remember that for next time!

[Shera]

2 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

A combination of warm nights, high ISO and long exposure has introduced noise into your images. I also use a 400d but this is a common trait will all DSLRs. You could try using a lower ISO.  The noise will appear in jpeg and raw images. I don't use GIMP but I'm sure there will be a plugin to allow you to edit canon raw files.

 

Nice images of the MW. The second one is nice, but as with amplifying the weak light from stars you will also amplify strong lights i.e. light beside tent. 

Also, does your 400d have a live view screen or just the viewfinder? I'm finding the viewfinder slightly annoying for getting specific shots rather than a wide view and I'm not sure how I can get round not being able to see what I'm looking at properly.

[tooth_dr]

21 minutes ago, Shera said:

Also, does your 400d have a live view screen or just the viewfinder? I'm finding the viewfinder slightly annoying for getting specific shots rather than a wide view and I'm not sure how I can get round not being able to see what I'm looking at properly.

 

The 400d doesnt have liveview.  I switched between the 400d and the 1000d on holiday, and the lack of liveview in the 400d was frustrating!