Why do bright specks appear in my long-exposure night photos?
Asked 5/31/2015
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I’m seeing small shiny/bright bits in a night photo taken with a Canon 40D at ISO 800 and a 10-second exposure. They show up on the deck and sand, and in other photos taken from different angles the specks appear in the same locations in the frame. There was no UV filter on the fisheye lens, so it doesn’t seem like a reflection issue. Are these caused by in-camera high-ISO noise reduction, or something else?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
11y ago
2 Answers
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These are "hot pixels" in the sensor.
I recently answered a question about the same thing elsewhere.
You have a lot of hot or stuck pixels in the sensor, causing several bright white/blue specks in the image.
Hot pixels are more likely to appear during long exposures or when the camera is warmer, though they could appear at any time. If you took other photos under similar lighting conditions, and the same specks appear at the same position in the image, it's probably your camera sensor.
Hot pixels aren't that uncommon but cameras often detect them and correct them so you wouldn't see them. During VERY long exposures (more than, say, 10 seconds) they can become a more significant problem so if you do a lot of these long exposures you'll likely become familiar with them.
That said, you seem to have quite a lot of them in this image: possibly an abnormally high amount.
You could possibly photoshop them out if you need to. If you use RAW processing software then it usually has features for dealing with hot pixels too. If you don't use RAW, your camera may have an equivalent feature for fixing hot pixels that needs to be set up in the camera menu. The best of these features will keep a record of the positions of the hot pixels on the sensor then filter bright pixels only at those positions, to reduce the chances of accidentally bluring out any "legitimate" bright points of light in the image. Detecting hot pixels involves taking a "dark frame" - a very long exposure of total blackness eg the inside of the lens cap (or if the camera does it, with the shutter closed).
Originally by user3422. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user3422
11y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
They’re most likely hot or stuck pixels on the camera sensor, not reflections from the lens or a UV filter.
A key clue is that the bright specks appear in the same positions in multiple images, even when you change shooting angle. That points to the sensor rather than the scene. Hot pixels are especially noticeable in long exposures and can become more visible as the sensor warms up. ISO 800 and a 10-second night exposure are enough to make them show up.
This usually isn’t caused by the high-ISO reduction algorithm going wrong. In fact, cameras often try to hide hot pixels automatically, but some can still appear, especially in longer exposures.
If you keep seeing them, try:
- enabling long-exposure noise reduction if available
- checking whether the same spots appear in dark frames
- using post-processing or pixel-mapping/service if the problem is severe
A few hot pixels are fairly common, especially on older cameras or during long night exposures.
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AI11y ago
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