Low light, indoor, action shots.....help pls

[Honda90]

More success than failure now....although they are still not the sharpness that I want, so pls any comments welcome.

I still have exposure setting to experiment with but overall they are a ton better than my first batch of pics and all thanks to your feedback, this site it awesome!! here is a sample of one of the better pics. Comments welcome.





full focal length of 200mm




some fuzziness




more sharpness

 

[Honda90]

those photos were shot on TV with the iso being auto, obviously the fast the speed the darker even with the +2 exposure. Again please suggestions.

My ultimate goal is to shoot these being amazingly crisp my T1i is a 15mp camera and my Canon 70x200m f/2.8 L USM.

 

[ARShutterbug]

Two of your examples show focusing error, which is a known problem with that old 70-200 lens, but also with the "rebel" camera. Your exposure time is still too slow, but the focusing error can be reduced by filling the frame with the moving object. If your intention is to have a wide-angle, then almost nobody is going to notice the problem. If you need to crop, then you need to fix this problem by increasing your focal length, or getting a lens and camera with a better auto-focus system.

 

[Olga Johnson]

ARShutterbug wrote:

Two of your examples show focusing error, which is a known problem with that old 70-200 lens, but also with the "rebel" camera. Your exposure time is still too slow, but the focusing error can be reduced by filling the frame with the moving object. If your intention is to have a wide-angle, then almost nobody is going to notice the problem. If you need to crop, then you need to fix this problem by increasing your focal length, or getting a lens and camera with a better auto-focus system.

Hard to fill the frame when he is already at 200mm at f/2.8 and the lighting is so low. Certainly there are longer f/2.8 lenses but at what cost? Nothing wrong with Rebel AF either. But the lighting and distance are his limiting factors given his equipment. Even a better camera won't be able to overcome those limits.

 

[Olga Johnson]

I am puzzled with the necessity of the +2 of exposure compensation. Are the pictures much brighter than the actual scene? Or have you been lowering the exposure in raw conversion to minimize the noise?

 

[Honda90]

Olga Johnson wrote:

I am puzzled with the necessity of the +2 of exposure compensation. Are the pictures much brighter than the actual scene? Or have you been lowering the exposure in raw conversion to minimize the noise?

 

[Honda90]

So would my next try be to increase my iso to 3200 and also increase my shutter speed, that would be possible with the current lighting conditions. Then clean up the noise?

 

[ARShutterbug]

You should be using ISO Speed 3200 to increase your exposure time, but if your lens and camera aren't keeping up, you're still out of focus. Now, of course, you shouldn't have a big problem panning across with the object and maintaining focus, as long as you put the centre focus point squarely on the object so that it doesn't focus on the background. The problem of focus error really starts when the object is not moving perpendicular to the camera.

Buy some noise-reduction software if you need it, but right now you have other problems to fix. I recommend Noise Ninja:

PictureCode home page: Photo Ninja

Photo Ninja is a professional-grade raw converter that delivers exceptional image quality with a distinctive, natural look.

www.picturecode.com

 

[confyushis]

Honda90 wrote:

So would my next try be to increase my iso to 3200 and also increase my shutter speed, that would be possible with the current lighting conditions. Then clean up the noise?

you essentially have 3 things to worry about:

• aperture - which is wide open at f/2.8
• shutter speed - which is too slow at 1/125s
• iso - which is currently at 1600

by increasing your iso to 3200 or even 6400 (the t1i can crank it up to 12800 per canon's website) you could get your shutter speed up to 1/250s or faster. try M mode and keep the settings where you need them. adjusting EV only tells your camera to adjust the 3 things automatically.

why let your camera mess around when you know what the issue is? shutter speed is the priority ...

good luck ...

 

[Honda90]

Tks, will give that a go. What I have also done in the past couple hours is the farting with the picture color and exposure which has really made me like more of the good pics...but next week I'll try the other settings and report back....TKS!! everyone.

 

[Olga Johnson]

+2 gives you a slower shutter speed! Not faster. And always remember that you can remove noise from an image but you cannot do much with a blurry image.

 

[Honda90]

crap, I thought it made the exposure brighter. I can't wait to test again next week, tks!!

 

[Olga Johnson]

Brighter, yes. Faster shutter, no. Wish it worked that way.

 

[MAC]

Honda90 wrote:

crap, I thought it made the exposure brighter. I can't wait to test again next week, tks!!

you need ss 1/500 for basketball

you need ss 1/200 for dancing

what are you photographing?

do you have your back button remapped to focus?

are you in AIServo?

 

[Olga Johnson]

You obviously didn't read any of the previous messages. lol!

He is shooting horse and rider in a very poorly lit arena with a T1i and 70-200 f/2.8. Look at his posts of the last 4 days and you will see what his problem is.

 

[MAC]

Olga Johnson wrote:

You obviously didn't read any of the previous messages. lol!

He is shooting horse and rider in a very poorly lit arena with a T1i and 70-200 f/2.8. Look at his posts of the last 4 days and you will see what his problem is.

 

[cnw180]

Just to share my experience shooting in low light...

I set the iso to what I can get away with, but 3200 or 6400 if necessary, however I shoot in manual rather than shutter or aperture priority modes. I find this gives my more control over my shots. I read the book "Understanding Exposure" and this is what taught me to use this method. I can tell you, this is a good book and my shots are really improving!

One other thing, many lenses are softer at f.2.8 which could at least explain in part the lack of sharpness. Obviously a faster shutter speed helps too, as does underexposing a little to keep the shutter speed up, then lastly correcting the exposure in post processing.

Adobe light room is relatively cheap and is very good post processing your images, especially removing noise.

Just my thoughts!

 

[canuck dave]

Yes, Honda90, please 'listen' to what Olga is saying.

You need LIGHT to take photos. The camera and lens manufacturers just LOVE folks who do not understand basics and their profits are skyrocketing as they sell the 'magic cure' with 'faster' lenses and better sensors.

 

[MAC]

cnw180 wrote:

Just to share my experience shooting in low light...

I set the iso to what I can get away with, but 3200 or 6400 if necessary, however I shoot in manual rather than shutter or aperture priority modes. I find this gives my more control over my shots. I read the book "Understanding Exposure" and this is what taught me to use this method. I can tell you, this is a good book and my shots are really improving!

One other thing, many lenses are softer at f.2.8 which could at least explain in part the lack of sharpness. Obviously a faster shutter speed helps too, as does underexposing a little to keep the shutter speed up, then lastly correcting the exposure in post processing.

Adobe light room is relatively cheap and is very good post processing your images, especially removing noise.

Just my thoughts!

mostly manual mode indoors

1) always think ss first - what it takes to stop motion. set the ss in manual mode.

2) think aperture second - dof - in low light this usually is near or at wide open.

3) then set iso so you are at least at the mid bar in the viewfinder - I ETTR in RAW by 2/3-1 stop

 

[Honda90]

Took over 800 pics last night and for the first time got some amazing pics of the kids riding by me at a lope and they were in focus!! Too cool when things work. Got home today and did a bit of farting with the pics on my computer with the standard built in software but will go online and invest in some good post production software this weekend. It's very exciting to see the pictures jump out at you once you clean them up.

I kept to M, with a ss of 1/80 or so for them standing and walking, iso of 3200 and f/2.8. Once they started to speed up I cranked it to 1/200 and 1/250 and it really helped with getting a lot more clear pics. I think it's only going to get better from here. I also used my monopod to help with the stability.

I will try out the sofware suggestion and if anyone else had good beginner software pls let me know. I will post some update pics soon.




Again, thanks!!!!