Does long exposure noise reduction affect RAW files?
Asked 8/20/2010
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On a Canon 5D, if I enable long exposure noise reduction, the camera takes a second dark frame and subtracts it from the original exposure. Does that correction get applied to RAW files too, or only to JPEGs?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
16y ago
2 Answers
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It's effective. Basically, the camera can use the second, dark frame, to subtract signal out of the first frame, so it definitely gets used in RAW. In fact, if you try it, you'll discover that you end up with only one RAW image as the DFS image is discarded after use.
On this topic, however, I'd note that you want to use this carefully. If you're doing long night exposures, DFS can double the amount of time it takes to snap a shot and that cuts into your shooting time. Many astrophotographers will do their own DFS after the fact as a result of that and us Pentaxians are gnashing our teeth because we have no option to shut it off (my only complaint about Pentax).
Originally by user472. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user472
16y ago
0
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Yes. Long exposure noise reduction generally affects RAW captures as well as JPEGs.
This feature works by taking a second exposure with the shutter closed (a dark frame) and subtracting that sensor noise/pattern noise from the original image. Because it uses data from a separate exposure, the correction is applied before or as the RAW file is written, so you typically still get just one RAW file and not the dark frame itself.
That’s different from standard high-ISO or JPEG-style noise reduction, which is often only applied to processed image data and can be redone later in software.
The main downside is speed: with long exposure NR enabled, each long shot can take roughly twice as long because the camera must make the matching dark-frame exposure. For night or astrophotography, some photographers prefer to leave it off and create/apply their own dark frames later to avoid losing shooting time.
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