Long exposure banding - Advice

tiger0096

I'm quite new to long exposure and it is a technique I want to become better as an amateur landscape photographer, but I'm having a little bit of banding in one of the top corner of the sky in my photo. I'm probably at fault, but I don't know what I did wrong. It was a cloudy evening, the banding is the same color as the clouds, it is not a colorful banding. It is not major, but it is annoying. I used a D610 with Samyang 14mm and a Fotodiox ND16 (RAW, f/8, 200sec, iso 100, long exposure NR On). I've shot some 30sec exposure photos before with this setup, but it was the first time the exposure was that long.

I know it would be much better with the example, but I tried to upload the photo on Flickr to show you what I'm talking about, but it is just so slow, I can't upload anything anymore. At the first sight of the settings I used, is there anything wrong?

Thanks

heartyfisher

DSLRs should not be used for exposures longer than 30 seconds due to sensor heating, causing cumulative noise. If you do want longer take a set of several 30second photos and then merge them. That's how star trails are done.

tiger0096

I knew for star trails, but I didn't know it was a problem for 2-4 minutes exposure, I was only expecting couple hot pixels. Thanks for the hint!

heartyfisher

of course its all theory on my part.. I have never exposed more than a few seconds on my DSLRs .. someone more knowledgeable my speak up.

tiger0096

No stress, every tips are welcomed!!

Ironheart

I guess I would ask, what are you trying to achieve with a 200sec exposure that can't be done in 30sec? Also, what RAW converter program are you using? NX-D is free and if it doesn't band, you can blame the other RAW converter.

tiger0096

I was trying to get the clouds movement completely accross the frame since 14mm is pretty wide. I know 200sec is pretty extreme, I could probably got the same effect with a shorter exposure. As for raw converter, I use ACR, then PSE 12 to remove dust spots, PTLens to remove the distortion and Color Efex Pro 4 for some fine tuning.

I also have Affinity, I'll give a shot to convert this RAW file.

Rx4Photo

I'm not sure that there is an exposure time recommendation or rule per se. If so, I've broken it a multitude of times in the name of art. I've read that some brands of ND filters may change the color hue of the final image but never have I come across any mention of banding caused by the ND filter. I also use ACR and have only noticed minimal banding when I try to increase exposure too much beyond the out of camera image. Otherwise, every thing tends to be smooth. My speculation is it's Color Efex Pro. I have that as well but using it less and less.

Here are a couple of my Long Exposures well beyond 30 seconds.

180 Seconds with B+W 10 stop ND filter - shot just after sunrise


326 Seconds with B+W 10 stop ND also just before sunrise.


... and this is the reason an iPhone(#) will never totally replace my DSLR ... but that's another subject

tiger0096

Thanks for the photos, those are very nice, and thanks for the tips. I think you may be right with color efex. I masked the sky with control points, since I didn't want to add any detail, but sometimes I get some weird square selection. Maybe it's my selection that caused the banding.

I don't have an extensive knowledge in photoshop, so I do like to apply some basic filters and get nice pop in less than 5 minutes, but those bugs are quite frustrating. Of course, I have to live with them because and I can't expect an unpdate from Nik.

I know I'm going off topic, but for Mac users, Macphun just released Luminar what seems to me some kind of Nik Collection replacement.

tiger0096

It finally worked to upload the picture, so here it is. I know it is not a piece of art, since I'm still experiencing with long exposure. The banding is in the upper right corner, as I said, it is not major, but I don't want this to happen on future piece of art!! hehe

Ironheart

@tiger0096 we don't see anything. Make sure to use the "embed" option not "bbcode"
http://forum.nikonrumors.com/discussion/46/how-to-post-a-photo-on-photo-a-day-new-instructions#latest

tiger0096

Oups, my bad, thanks @Ironheart

heartyfisher

looks like jpg artefacts to me ...

Ironheart

I edited your post (slightly). If you use the imbed sharing link from flickr, you don't also need to use the "insert image url" editor button, which also wraps html around the URL. Anyway, back on topic...

Typical noise "banding" which is what happens when you try to pull up the shadows in an underexposed (part of an) image. Here is an exaggerated example:

Technically I would call what you have posterization (also called color banding), which usually occurs when you edit in the 8-bit color space instead of the 16-bit space. Or just a poor conversion.

Just for grins run this same raw photo through Nikon's (free) Capture NX-D. I bet you won't see anything. Or for more fun, post the raw file on drop box or google drive and let us have a play with it

tiger0096

Not sure if it is gonna be today since I'm not home, but I'll post the Raw file!

Paperman

You might want to have a look at this topic, tiger0096 ...

forum.nikonrumors.com/discussion/3808/fog-photos-problem-with-weird-patterns-on-jpegs-in-camera-converted#latest

It was a similar issue . Can't say we reached a verdict as some said they did not even see it. It is like the posterization you see in the above tree/branch image .

Paperman

It's funny .... I am now - 2 years later - looking at the images I posted on a new computer screen and I don't see the concentric circles/patterns that I insisted were there ! !

tiger0096

Thanks for the post @Paperman ! Like others, I don't see it in your image :P At least, it gives me some solutions and some hints on why it happened, hopefully, it's only the first time I get this posterization in one of my photos.