Always skipped dark frames, but a weird streak changed my view

I used to think taking dark frames was just extra time for no real gain, you know? But then I got this bright line in all my shots of the Andromeda galaxy last night, and it ruined the whole set. After digging around, I found out my camera's sensor has amp glow that only dark frames can fix. So I took some, stacked them in, and boom, the line was gone, so now I'm a believer.

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the_alice7mo ago

My friend had the exact same stubborn phase, refusing to take darks for over a year. He kept getting these weird gradients in his Orion shots that no amount of flats would fix. Finally, someone told him to look at a single raw sub stretched really hard, and there was this perfect little pattern of hot pixels from a warm sensor. He caved and took a set of dark frames, stacked them in, and it was like someone wiped a dirty window clean. He sent me a before-and-after and it was honestly shocking. Never argued about the extra time again after that.

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alexj997mo ago

Shoot darks for every new temperature now.

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mason.jason6mo ago

That story about the hot pixel pattern is a perfect example of why I don't do it for every temp. My camera's sensor is really stable, and I've built a big library of dark frames at my usual temps. I check a raw sub every few months, and the pattern hasn't changed in years. Shooting new ones every single time feels like a waste of clear sky for me.

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