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UER Forum > UE Photography > Stacking high ISO images to remove noise? (Viewed 2986 times)
Piecat 


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Stacking high ISO images to remove noise?
< on 7/27/2015 5:37 PM >
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Hey all,

Often times I'm not able to bring a tripod due to size/weight, and usually I find myself in pretty dark lighting. Taking a longer exposure works for some shots, but will blur the picture if you're not perfectly still. Cranking up the ISO also works, but it leaves my pictures terribly noisy.

So what if I were to take 5-20 shots with the really high ISO and a fast shutter speed, then stack and average the images in Photoshop (To remove the noise)? I know this process exists for taking pictures of landmarks without people in the shot, which is where I got the idea from.

Thoughts? Have any of you tried this before?




NotQuiteHuman 


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Re: Stacking high ISO images to remove noise?
< Reply # 1 on 7/27/2015 6:21 PM >
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I've heard of this being done to get high quality astrophotography shots. Some star stacking programs have advanced noise reduction features that use "dark frames" to subtract out noise and hot pixels. I believe there are also techniques for stacking underexposed frames to get a low noise, correctly exposed image, but I'd have to look that up again to remember how it works. That might be what your looking for.

How do you plan on taking the 5-20 identical shots without a tripod?




Wong Guy 


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Re: Stacking high ISO images to remove noise?
< Reply # 2 on 7/27/2015 6:41 PM >
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you will more then likely get motion blur even in quick 5-10 shots.. lets say your camera is capable of 7fps. thats still almost 1.5 seconds of trying to hold your camera still.. I only know one person that can shoot at 1/20 without blur.. but he's an exception with very steady hands.
I doubt he could even get it perfectly aligned. 5-10 shots in a row free hand.
Yes you can use auto align in photoshop..

A tripod IMO is a must if you plan on stacking.


The dark frame method is more for astrophotography and fireworks.. you turn NR completely off. you fire as many shots as you want... the trick then is to take numerous dark frame pics to use for Noise reduction at the end. Put your lens cap back on and snap a few pics * USing the same settings and focal length as those you want to use it against for NR or the sky stacking apps won't register right for NR *


EDIT: If a tripod isn't accessible.. bring few plastic bag. You maybe able to reposition chairs or tables and use as tripod.. put plastic bag under the camera so your camera won't pick up all the dirt from resting on the object you're using as a tripod.



[last edit 7/27/2015 6:43 PM by Wong Guy - edited 1 times]

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Piecat 


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Re: Stacking high ISO images to remove noise?
< Reply # 3 on 7/27/2015 6:50 PM >
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As long as I turn AF off, they should be similar enough that I can use the Photoshop "Auto align image" feature.

I've been playing around with it. I tried some in my basement:


That's 8 pictures, 1/5 s at f/4.5, ISO 6400 on my wide angle at 10mm. Certainly not perfect, but the best I could do without a tripod or something to rest my camera on.




Piecat 


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Re: Stacking high ISO images to remove noise?
< Reply # 4 on 7/27/2015 6:58 PM >
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Here's at 12800, f/4.5, 1/20th of a second with me leaning against a wall.

http://i.imgur.com/0KtHBAf.jpg


It's certainly not perfect, but it's working pretty well for me.



[last edit 7/27/2015 7:16 PM by Piecat - edited 1 times]

relik 


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Re: Stacking high ISO images to remove noise?
< Reply # 5 on 7/27/2015 7:28 PM >
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Seems like a lot of work that a tripod could easily solve. Just get a tripod, dude!




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Orangedrink 


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Re: Stacking high ISO images to remove noise?
< Reply # 6 on 7/27/2015 9:07 PM >
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Yeah this is possible though I've never been able to make it work well when I tried it for astrophotography. I may have been doing something wrong. Here's the tutorial I was following if you want to try it yourself:
http://www.lonelys...g-noise-reduction/

If Size and weight (or even price) are really what's preventing you getting a tripod something like this would probably work pretty well for you:
http://amzn.com/B001AK04VY

I use one of these sometimes with a medium sized mirrorless camera and it does ok. Not great but ok. If you have a fairly small point and shoot I bet it would be a big help.

[Edited for grammar]



[last edit 7/27/2015 9:08 PM by Orangedrink - edited 1 times]

Piecat 


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Re: Stacking high ISO images to remove noise?
< Reply # 7 on 7/27/2015 9:58 PM >
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Posted by relik
Seems like a lot of work that a tripod could easily solve. Just get a tripod, dude!


I'm waiting on one to ship! My last one had a crack in the plastic that finally snapped.

Though, I'm not too serious about the stacking, I was mostly just curious




DJ Craig 

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Re: Stacking high ISO images to remove noise?
< Reply # 8 on 7/28/2015 5:21 PM >
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This can help to eliminate random noise, but not fixed pattern noise:
http://www.cambrid...ls/image-noise.htm




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NotQuiteHuman 


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Re: Stacking high ISO images to remove noise?
< Reply # 9 on 7/28/2015 10:15 PM >
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Thanks for the examples! Although I probably wouldn't use this seriously either, this is still cool to know and could come in handy if I didn't bother to bring a tripod or couldn't bring one due to location constraints. What do you use for stacking?



[last edit 7/28/2015 10:16 PM by NotQuiteHuman - edited 1 times]

Piecat 


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Re: Stacking high ISO images to remove noise?
< Reply # 10 on 7/29/2015 4:12 AM >
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Posted by NotQuiteHuman
Thanks for the examples! Although I probably wouldn't use this seriously either, this is still cool to know and could come in handy if I didn't bother to bring a tripod or couldn't bring one due to location constraints. What do you use for stacking?


I import them into Photoshop using Bridge. Tools->Photoshop->Photo-merge. I chose auto for these pictures, then turned off all the extras (Blend Images Together). It automatically imports and aligns the layers based on content. Then you select all the layers, convert it into a smart object, and then go in Layer->Smart Objects->Stack Mode->Mean.

You don't have to use bridge though, you can add each image as a layer, then select them all and go Edit->Auto-Align Layers.

I'm sure GIMP has similar tools to accomplish this. If there is no stack mode, you could always change the opacity of the layers to (1/n)% and that should accomplish the same thing.




azuro1125 


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Re: Stacking high ISO images to remove noise?
< Reply # 11 on 7/29/2015 2:23 PM >
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I think it's a really unique way to solve your problem, but in the end tripods will make your life easier. You were getting some neat results with ISO stacking though.




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jessepwnsyew 


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Re: Stacking high ISO images to remove noise?
< Reply # 12 on 8/10/2015 3:31 PM >
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I don't know what kind of camera you're using, but here are a couple small cheap options to keep your camera steady instead of bring an entire tripod.

http://www.amazon....smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

http://www.amazon....smid=A5P685FOISDSV

http://www.amazon....mid=A1BSRCWKIA94M3




Deuterium 


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Re: Stacking high ISO images to remove noise?
< Reply # 13 on 9/4/2015 12:17 AM >
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Posted by Wong Guy
the trick then is to take numerous dark frame pics to use for Noise reduction at the end.


A lot of cameras already do this internally as a part of noise reduction algorithm for high ISO and long exposures. It makes a dark frame internally with the shutter closed and subtract the output from the image.




Piecat 


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Re: Stacking high ISO images to remove noise?
< Reply # 14 on 9/5/2015 11:25 AM >
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jessepwnsyew:
I like the looks of the first and second one. They look pretty useful, I might get one.


Deuterium:
This is true, but I'm not sure if cameras do it in RAW. I think I remember reading somewhere that my camera only does that in .jpg mode.



[last edit 9/5/2015 11:25 AM by Piecat - edited 1 times]

Deuterium 


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Re: Stacking high ISO images to remove noise?
< Reply # 15 on 9/5/2015 5:30 PM >
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Posted by Piecat
jessepwnsyew:
I like the looks of the first and second one. They look pretty useful, I might get one.


Deuterium:
This is true, but I'm not sure if cameras do it in RAW. I think I remember reading somewhere that my camera only does that in .jpg mode.


Try it. See the difference with the NR off vs on




UER Forum > UE Photography > Stacking high ISO images to remove noise? (Viewed 2986 times)


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