low natural light settings

[toverman]

Originally Posted by lilpamely

I tried 1600 and 3200 but I'm getting a grainy effect and noise lines. I need to give it another try with my tripod and see if it makes a difference(again my little boy and girl do move which gives me the blur effect). I keep hearing that you don't get noise at 1600 or 3200 but I keep seeing it. I wonder if its my lens. I'm using the Canon 50mm f1.8 with its not very fast but I like the results with perfect lighting conditions. I just order a 24-70 f/2.8 and I can't decided on either 85mm f1.2 or 135mm f/2.0

Thanks again for everyones help. Its been very useful

I'd recommend an 85 f/1.8 over an 85 f/1.2, unless you're just itching to spend $1,800 on that excellent lens!

[johnastovall]

For Low light nothing beat an f/1.0 lens. If you want to work in that environment it's just the cost of doing business. As for noise, Noise Ninja. Also consider converting to Back and White and exploting the noise as grain effects. Alien Skin's Exposure it the best I've found for this.

[49884]

I have just recently been taking the same photo's of my 11 month old using the same lens on my 30D. I open the blinds to a position that allows the most available light into the room, open the lens all the way in AV and start to fire away. The ss does drop a bit low but by taking numerous shots i'm able to get a couple of keepers. I think by taking many shots you are bound to get a good one of them being still enough, but it's certainly not easy. You're also wrestling with a very shallow DOF which can get you a blurry look. My iso is set at 800 with acceptable results, i'm surprised you're experiencing too much noise on that mark II at 800.

[ldelacruz]

Originally Posted by 49884

I have just recently been taking the same photo's of my 11 month old using the same lens on my 30D. I open the blinds to a position that allows the most available light into the room, open the lens all the way in AV and start to fire away. The ss does drop a bit low but by taking numerous shots i'm able to get a couple of keepers. I think by taking many shots you are bound to get a good one of them being still enough, but it's certainly not easy. You're also wrestling with a very shallow DOF which can get you a blurry look. My iso is set at 800 with acceptable results, i'm surprised you're experiencing too much noise on that mark II at 800.

She said she is gonna use a tripod to cut down on noise? Hmmmmm?

ldelacruz added 12 Minutes and 22 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Originally Posted by lilpamely

In a low light setting, I want to take a picture using the natural lighting. The problem is that I want a sharp picture, little or no noise plus no blurs. I'm shooting with a Canon 5D mark ii and a 50mm f1.8.

I set the camera in AV but the shutter speed drops to 1/8 or 1/15. When I take a picture of my son, he comes out of focus. If I set it to Manual with an aperture of f/1.8 and shutter speed of 60+ (80 or 100) and the iso to 800. The image comes out to dark and with some noise. The higher the iso, the more noise I'm getting. I don't want to use a flash, I want to capture the natural setting. Any suggestions.

My sugestion would be to take lessons or hire a pro. Either choice would be very helpful.

[Dobick]

From what I am hearing, you may be looking too closely at the image (otherwise known as pixel peeping) if you are not happy with the noise level at 1600. The other possiblity is that you might be underexposing the image, and if that is happening, when you go in and adjust the settings after the fact, then you will indeed get a lot of noise. make certain that you have everything exposed the way that you want it in the camera (or even a bit over exposed) and see what you come up with. I would also suggest posting some examples so that we can see what you consider noisy, etc.

Thank you

Dobick added 5 Minutes and 46 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Originally Posted by ldelacruz

She said she is gonna use a tripod to cut down on noise? Hmmmmm?

ldelacruz added 12 Minutes and 22 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below



My sugestion would be to take lessons or hire a pro. Either choice would be very helpful.

Lonnie,
She is a pro.

[ldelacruz]

Lonnie,
She is a pro

Ooops! My bad! I should have said take lessons or hire a different pro.

I am trying to save her the $2K She wants to spend on a new lens. $250 for private lessons or $2K on a new lens plus a year of trial and error learning how to use it?