DSLR noise reduction?

[willcastle]

Should I turn this setting off? I brought a magazine about astrophotography (which was scarily light on actual advice) and it said you should definitely turn on noise cancellation and set it to its highest amount. 

But this doubles photography times (I.e a five minute exposure takes an additional 5 minutes for the noise reduction to be applied to the image). 

I thought I read in another forum that it is better to turn off noise cancellation and just take darks and flats to reduce noise but I can’t find that post. 

Can anyone advise me?  

[dobblob]

Absolute final answer, yes turn it off. Waste of time with it on. And correct use darks and flats.

[willcastle]

Okay thanks for your reply. Does it just not work as well? I assume that darks and flats are just more effective at removing noise?

[cuivenion]

5 minutes ago, dobblob said:

Absolute final answer, yes turn it off. Waste of time with it on. And correct use darks and flats.

Second that. I would add that dithering is also good practice, especially with DSLR's.

https://astrobackyard.com/dithering-astrophotography/

[alacant]

Hi. You'll probably find that DSLR dark frames add more noise, so best to shoot only light, flat and bias and dithering a random amount between the former. Much quicker too:)

HTH

EDIT; Ooops, apologies @cuivenion we were writing at the same time.

 

Edited January 7, 2020 by alacant

[cuivenion]

1 minute ago, willcastle said:

Okay thanks for your reply. Does it just not work as well? I assume that darks and flats are just more effective at removing noise?

Like you said, it massively cuts into imaging time. Dark's also introduce less noise into the image when they're stacked and the noise reduction is effectively one dark being applied to one frame.

[dobblob]

LENR should not be used anyway as the result is not in RAW. RAW format (as unadulterated data as the camera can produce)  is what you need for stacking.

LENR corrupts the data even before you start stacking. 

[cuivenion]

6 minutes ago, alacant said:

Hi. You'll probably find that DSLR dark frames add more noise, so best to shoot only light, flat and bias and dithering a random amount between the former. Much quicker too:)

HTH

 

This is what I do, but a some DSLR user's still swear by darks. I think it depends on your camera and processing software. Darks are temperature dependant and it's hard to produce a uniform high number of them with a DSLR.  All in all what Alacant said above is the easier way to go.

Edited January 7, 2020 by cuivenion

[cuivenion]

9 minutes ago, alacant said:

Hi. You'll probably find that DSLR dark frames add more noise, so best to shoot only light, flat and bias and dithering a random amount between the former. Much quicker too:)

HTH

EDIT; Ooops, apologies @cuivenion we were writing at the same time.

 

Lol no probs.

[willcastle]

1 hour ago, dobblob said:

LENR should not be used anyway as the result is not in RAW. RAW format (as unadulterated data as the camera can produce)  is what you need for stacking.

LENR corrupts the data even before you start stacking. 

Just to clarify, if my camera is set to RAW and I have noise reduction on, it will change the format of the image to not be a RAW file?!

[happy-kat]

I use an 1100d, turn noise reduction off, use RAW, use either ISO 800 or 1600 (the latter is the optimum), I also like to use back button focus this minimises mistakes with focusing, I use my android phone and DSLR Controller to focus and setup my camera and then take the images using the intavolometre. If you do not have a remote release then can use the inbuilt delay timer.

Edit

Flats and dark flats are really good for noise. I use bias files and sometimes the master bias as a dark once I'm in DSS.

Edit 2

Using in camera noise reduction is the sort of thing to use when out and about general shooting using the camera like at a meal or social event.

Edited January 7, 2020 by happy-kat

[ollypenrice]

You need a better magazine!!!

Olly

[carastro]

Yup agree with above comments.  Built in camera noise reduction is a complete waste of clear skies.

Carole 

[Davey-T]

Other good thing to turn off when using a DSLR for astro is auto image rotation.

Dave