who is afraid of the dark?

[Skyman]

I have always loved night time photography, but last weekend i did something completely new for me. I took photos in what many would call complete darkness. I am used to using film for these shots however i went digital on the most recent ones and am wondering if anyone out there has had a play with this. my exposure times varied between 2-9 minutes at iso 100 and f 2.8 on a canon 300d with 28mm lens i did notice on some of the pictures there was noticable noise with the odd pixel here and there going a completely random colour. i know these compositions are very average but i am still playing with the digital long exposure. any tricks or tips would be greatly appreaciated. For those of you that know sydney the area is the Gap. famous for the number of suicides that have taken place there.

[Norfindel]

In theory, you can take another picture after that, with the lens and viewfinder cap in place, obtaining a dark frame, then substract the dark frame from the normal frame. This is called "Dark (or Black) Frame Noise Reduction", and some cameras came with the option to use it automatically, the 300D don't. Check google for programs that use this dark frame more sucesfully than merely substracting it.

[another view]

the odd pixel here and there going a completely random colour

These are "hot pixels" and will show up with long exposures. Usually they're pretty easy to clone out in Photoshop. You can send your camera in for service, but I've never thought that was necessary.

Are you using a UV filter? The ghost images in the first shot make me think that you are - light bounces off the front element of the lens and is reflected on the filter. I guess this can happen inside the lens, but UV filters are usually the biggest culprit.

[Skyman]

Are you using a UV filter? The ghost images in the first shot make me think that you are - light bounces off the front element of the lens and is reflected on the filter. I guess this can happen inside the lens, but UV filters are usually the biggest culprit.

yes i had a uv filter. i normally don't use one but it was a fairly windy night and there was a lot of sea spray in the air that i wanted to keep off the lens. I have seen ayrie birds in shots with L series glass and no filter depending on the placement of light, but you are right the ghost imaging in the first picture is quite off putting.