Took this star shot and caught a falling star!

[Danudin]

Was trying, night shots on Saturday, and was surprised at the number of stars visible using just the 18-70mm lens set at 18mm in night landscape mode. And was even better pleased to spot a shooting star near the top right hand corner. When I went to edit it I noticed a lot of noise that I couldn't seem to clear in PSE5. Could someone in the know please advise me as how I could improve chances of getting another serendipidous shot without so much noise?
Thanks Guys
Ron
comet01.jpg
As downloaded.

cometAutosmartfix.jpg
Auto selected in Editor

[Not4wood]

As you see, it all depends on the settings.

You have 2 choices to make when shooting that will really effect the noise level.

1 is the longer time exposures will over heat the pixels on your sensor and they will show up as dots (grain on our older Film Days).
2 is the Higher ISO settings will end up doing almost the same thing. The sensor is overheating trying to look around and capture anything that it can see and again will overheat and create those dots called noise.

I have looked and I have never seen a freeware Noise Reduction add-on for either Elements or the CS Line. There are however a few choices to make if you want to pay for them.

Noise Ninja http://www.picturecode.com/
Neat Image http://www.neatimage.com/ and
Nik Software http://www.niksoftware.com/dfine/en/entry.php

are I think are the top offered.

[Danudin]

Thanks for the quick response Mark, and the second link seems likely to be of use if the plugin works on elements. I think that I have read enough of your advice (and others) to realize that there would be some tool somewhere, to do the job. I did think it likely though, that there might be some benefit in using the "M" mode with a bulb setting or even "S" mode with fixed aperture settings that would do a better job than the auto "Night Landscape" setting. Just looking to improve my knowledge, and using "M" has enabled me to come up with some pretty good flower shots (recent gallery uploads), (My Opinion only). However fluking that comet (Shooting Star) has whetted my appetite for similar or better if I am lucky and hoped to maximize the result in camera (Not a Legal term mind), so thought others may have been down the road. Never met you but consider you a friend for the help you continue to provide.
Ron

P.S. I forgot to add the relevant data, here it is:

ISO 200
Focal / L 38mm
F stop f/5.6
Exposure 25 seconds

[Not4wood]

Ron,

It all depends on the camera and what the manufacturer has in mind when it gives out the programming for each individual camera. Some of the P&S and also the advanced P&S cameras are a bit better in what the cameras brain can see and understand then the DSLR cameras brain. The DSLR on average has a larger sensor and that gives them automatically a better level of quality over a P&S.

Now, to not get into the argument! I've taken, and have seen some very wonderful images from P&S cameras. The Noise levels for these smaller sensors are horrible when let to get out of control. I know on my P&S If I Zoom out I must keep it simple and in lens zoom. If I should go to Digital Zoom the Noise Levels just run rampant and the image is so degraded that its almost unusable.

Manual or semi-Manual is the way to go. In my camera I do have some or limited Noise Control functions. I have set and used them but truthfully, I cant see a difference for the images whether I had it on or off. I dont think it did anything and I had to try and remove the noise in Adobe anyway.

[Danudin]

Not sure of your advice here as I have the following equipment:
Nikon D70s Nikon 18 - 70 lens + Sigma 70 - 300 lens
And not a point and shoot that I am currently using. But if I read between the lines correctly, you advise keep on trying and try to find out what works best. Trust me Wilco. This is becoming the fun (maybe wrong word) part of photography. Thanks again and I will revisit the links you provided.
Ron

[Not4wood]

I'll be honest with you, I just looked at what I wrote and I think I was trying to compare the Noise Levels of other cameras and to at least get you going into the direction of going further with Post Processing.

Otherwise, I am tired, its been a very long week and I can't seem to remember what the * @ $ _ I was saying....

I am also having a discussion with someone else about Sharpening, that its the nature of the beast. Noise, Sharpening its all part of the Workflow and something that we have to try and get used to in overcoming part of the process to make our images look good..

[Danudin]

Mark, too easy when you juggle so much help to us and the reply had lots of good stuff in it that WILL mean something to me further down the track, I pick up specks of gold where ever I find them! I am really rapt in the improvement that you guys have enabled mME to achieve "Who'da Thunk it Mrs Plunkett?"
You just keep being the wise man sitting on high and leave it to us to decypher the meanings!

Thanks muchly Ron

[Not4wood]

Haha, your being too kind!

[Danudin]

My penchant for night photograhs has yielded another gift.

I know that this is out of focus but I have been trying for over a month to get just this shot.

Now all I have to do is get it in focus.

As you can make out it is a flying fox(Fruit bat) and I never saw him until I checked on the computer

[Howie]

Hi Dunedin,
My friends reckon I am a conspiracy theorist, NOT TRUE! Just Paranoid ! I think we should be told! Why does this crittur look just like ET?
Seriously, nice shot.
Howard