NiSi Natural Night Filter Tests
June 10, 2017
The first part of this gallery, photos 1-26, consist of image pairs that demonstrate the effectiveness of the NiSi Natural Night Filter (NNF). The first of each pair is the shot taken with the NNF filter, the second is the unfiltered version. To avoid ambiguity, any photo taken with the NiSi has NNF in its filename. Each set of image pairs was processed through Adobe Lightroom with indentical settings, the exception being photos 15 and 16. Photos 15 and 16 are duplicates of 13 and 14, but with different processing, each having a custom white balance taken from the same spot on the side of one of the concrete buildings. So, unlike the other image pairs, the WB settings in Lightroom were different in 15 and 16, in order to neutralize the colour cast of each shot independently. This serves to demonstrate that just a simple white-balance correction cannot achieve what the NiSi NNF filter provides out-of-camera.
With the aurora photo pair (23 and 24), you can see more easily see the subtle blues and purples with the NNF version. Also note the snow on the distant peaks has a slight orange cast on the unfiltered version, residual light pollution from the nearby city most likely. So, subtracting the slight bit of orange sky-glow coming from the city has improved the aurora shot as well. The tracked two minute time exposure comparison (25 and 26) of the North America Nebula region in Cygnus, shows how much light pollution sky-glow can be reduced. I really cranked the contrast and vibrance in that shot, in order to show the faint red emission nebulae, so the orange sky-glow is greatly exaggerated on the non-filtered shot, which was processed with the same settings as the filterered one.
The final images, photos 27 through 36, were all taken with the NiSi filter, no more comparisons. The last few fun crazy light-painted shots were taken by having my colleague Nicole run through the time exposures, painting light with a long, colour changing LED light-bar. Note that you can use the left/right curser keys on your keyboard to switch between images, allowing for smooth comparisons.
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XP2_BC17_01336-NNF
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XP2_BC17_01337
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XP2_BC17_01341-NNF
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XP2_BC17_01342
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XP2_BC17_01345-NNF
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XP2_BC17_01346
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XP2_BC17_01348-NNF
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XP2_BC17_01349
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XP2_BC17_01353-NNF
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XP2_BC17_01352
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XP2_BC17_01354-NNF
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XP2_BC17_01355
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XP2_BC17_01656-NNF
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XP2_BC17_01655
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XP2_BC17_01656-NNF-WB
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XP2_BC17_01655-WB
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XP2_BC17_01661-NNF
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XP2_BC17_01662
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XP2_BC17_01668-NNF
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XP2_BC17_01669
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XP2_BC17_01670-NNF
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XP2_BC17_01671
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XP2_BC17_02266-NNF
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XP2_BC17_02267
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XP2_BC17_02399-NNF
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XP2_BC17_02398
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XP2_BC17_02252-NNF
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XP2_BC17_02258-NNF
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XP2_BC17_02283-NNF
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XP2_BC17_02405-NNF
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XP2_BC17_02420-NNF
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XP2_BC17_01674-NNF
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XP2_BC17_01678-NNF
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XP2_BC17_01688-NNF
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XP2_BC17_01703-NNF
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XP2_BC17_01723-NNF