Nikon D3100 & Long exposures

[lolage]

Hi,

I like doing long exposure shots however if I do a 2minute long exposure, it takes just over 2 mins to process it. I initially thought this was due to my slow(ish) SD card - but have been told its not? Is there any way to speed up this process or am I just going to have to be more patient?

Thanks

 

[JamesH]

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[lolage]

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Hey

before you edited your post you mentioned turning off noise reduction. I did this and it is now very quick - however isnt this going to affect image quality?

Thanks

 

[boyfalldown]

Hey

before you edited your post you mentioned turning off noise reduction. I did this and it is now very quick - however isnt this going to affect image quality?

Thanks

I think it sounds like you have long exposure NR switched on. Don't switch it off, you'll get a very noisy image. For this to work it need to run a second blank exposure of the sames length as your real one, so it is time consumming

 

[TCR4x4]

There is a setting called long exposure noise reduction which takes a black image the same length as your initial exposure. So if you have a 2 minute shutter speed, it will take another shot of 2 minutes.
Turning this off will shorten the exposure time, but will leave some more noise in the image, but this should be removable with an editing package and noise removal software. Its a trade off really, do you want quicker exposures or slightly noisier images?