How does in-camera dark-frame noise reduction work on long exposures?
Asked 12/22/2017
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When a camera’s long-exposure noise reduction is enabled, it typically takes a second exposure with the shutter closed after the main shot. In software, dark-frame reduction is often described as subtracting that dark frame from the original image, but that can seem too simplistic because the final image usually does not show obvious black pixels in brighter areas.
How is this usually done inside the camera? Is it just dark-frame subtraction, or do cameras also use the dark frame as a map of hot pixels and then interpolate or replace those pixels in a more sophisticated way?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
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I am confident that the exact method used by each camera manufacturer is different and company-confidential. All manufacturers have a large vested interest in getting the maximum image quality using methods that are undetectable and therefore not reproducible by their competition.
In the case of Nikon, several sources describe a simple subtraction; for instance: https://improvephotography.com/48889/long-exposure-noise-reduction-use/
Dark frame subtraction occurs when that reference file, the dark frame, is used to subtract the hot pixels from the image file that includes both the signal and noise, which is the photo you intended to capture, plus the resulting noise.
And also: https://www.nikonians.org/reviews/understanding-long-exposure-noise-reduction
When you enable Long Exposure NR and an exposure is longer than one second (eight seconds on older Nikon DSLRs), the camera will take two pictures with approximately the same exposure time for each. The first picture is normal. The second picture is a black-frame subtraction exposure, which is exposed for about the same duration as the first picture, but with the shutter closed.
The camera examines the noise in the black-frame subtraction exposure and subtracts it from the first, normal image.
I am unaware of any in-camera long exposure noise reduction (LENR) that uses a more sophisticated process, although exact methodologies may be and probably are proprietary and confidential.
Because astrophotography sometimes requires stacking many images, dozens or even hundreds, perhaps, it is usually preferable to take all the exposures without LENR and take a few dark frames at the end. The dark frame(s) can then be subtracted in software during post-processing. As well, sophisticated processing, noise reduction, despeckling, etc., can then be applied and compared as desired.
Originally by user13846. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user13846
8y ago
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The exact algorithm is usually proprietary, so there is no single published method for all brands. In general, in-camera long-exposure noise reduction works by taking a second “dark” exposure of the same length with the shutter closed, then using that frame to identify fixed-pattern noise and hot pixels.
For many cameras, the basic process is indeed dark-frame subtraction. In practice, this does not necessarily leave obvious black pixels because the camera is working on raw sensor data before demosaicing, tone mapping, sharpening, and JPEG processing. It may also combine subtraction with hot-pixel detection and replacement, so affected pixels can be corrected or blended with neighboring values rather than left visibly dark.
So the short answer is: yes, dark-frame subtraction is the core idea, but cameras may also apply additional processing to hide artifacts and preserve image quality. The precise details vary by manufacturer and are generally not public.
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