40D film grain

AdamLewis wrote in post #7462171
Expose your pictures properly and this will be much less of an issue.

I think the issue here is that she is ALREADY doing all she can to "expose properly" f/5.6 is wide open for that lens when it is on the high side of 100mm She is shooting at 1/50th of a second, which is pretty slow for over 100mm - already twice as long as the reciprocal of the focal length, and that doesn't even count crop factor! And, she is already at 640 iso, which is getting very close the end of the useful range on the 40d.

So, tell me, which of these factors should she adjust to "expose properly".

Rad

ISO 640 shouldn't be at the useful end of a 40D if it performs like the 30D. I bet an underexpose shot at that ISO will probably have more noise than a well exposed or a slightly overexposed shot at ISO 1600. I shoot at ISO 1600 all the time with the 30D and have no issues.

David S wrote in post #7462714
ISO 640 shouldn't be at the useful end of a 40D if it performs like the 30D. I bet an underexpose shot at that ISO will probably have more noise than a well exposed or a slightly overexposed shot at ISO 1600. I shoot at ISO 1600 all the time with the 30D and have no issues.

She's right. I took this at ISO 3200 with a 28-135mm IS lens. My shutter speed was even too slow....

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Radtech1 wrote in post #7462519
I think the issue here is that she is ALREADY doing all she can to "expose properly" f/5.6 is wide open for that lens when it is on the high side of 100mm She is shooting at 1/50th of a second, which is pretty slow for over 100mm - already twice as long as the reciprocal of the focal length, and that doesn't even count crop factor! And, she is already at 640 iso, which is getting very close the end of the useful range on the 40d.

So, tell me, which of these factors should she adjust to "expose properly".

Rad

"exposing properly" also means metering off the colors in the scene. Different colors reflect different amounts of light which then in turn determine where on the meter a particular color should fall on. For instance the red is a mid town so the hash should be zeroed out on the meter. From there the person can decided which iso, shutter speed and f stop would be appropriate to get them the shot they need. This will also take them making some artistic decisions as the snow would most likely be over exposed at that point. So then they have to choose where to crop or if they want to zoom in closer in camera to minimize how much snow is in the scene etc. just my opinion.

KarlosDaJackal wrote in post #7455166
Its easy enough when you know how. To dial in exposure compensation on a 40d you need to do the following.

1. make sure the camera is fully on, with the line that leads to the rear dial, if you have it just pointed at on, the rear wheel won't work (useful if your nose keeps hitting it, but we need it for compensation)
2. spin the wheel and if your in one of the semi auto modes, you will see the metre move from -2 to +2 depending on the direction you spin the wheel.

NOTE: You must have the camera active in order for the wheel to actually cause the exposure compensation to move. So partially depress the shutter release before you try to make an adjustment.

A thought occurred to me today while shooting an indoors school event...

I'll bet a lot of people underexpose shots because they use the rear LCD to judge if the shot was properly exposed, but....
it's possible they forgot that they had increased the LCD brightness level so they could see the image better in bright light...
but in makng the LCD brighter they will incorrectly believe that the exposure is okay...
when in fact it's UNDERexposed...

Wild Style wrote in post #7462432
shouldn't the little girl's skin have been at -1 1/2 or so instead of at zero? He probably could have zeroed out the hash on the kids red jacket, that's a mid tone I think, no?

If you're not using spot metering, it doesn't matter what you're pointed at, the meter will not be right.

kitacanon wrote in post #7467334
A thought occurred to me today while shooting an indoors school event...

I'll bet a lot of people underexpose shots because they use the rear LCD to judge if the shot was properly exposed, but....
it's possible they forgot that they had increased the LCD brightness level so they could see the image better in bright light...
but in makng the LCD brighter they will incorrectly believe that the exposure is okay...
when in fact it's UNDERexposed...

I completely agree. Which is why it's always better to rely on the histogram, and also why I ALWAYS set my screen brightness to -1 from default. Sure, having to shade my lcd to look at the picture isn't always the most convenient, but if I have to chimp, it might as well be accurate.

Both you examples have a large area of white which will fool your light meter to thinking it is getting enough light. When you have large amounts of white in the frame you'll need EC +2/3 to +1 2/3 depending how much white.

griptape wrote in post #7467418
If you're not using spot metering, it doesn't matter what you're pointed at, the meter will not be right.

indeed

griptape wrote in post #7467418
If you're not using spot metering, it doesn't matter what you're pointed at, the meter will not be right.

I'd rather say: It thinks it is metering off medium gray. So you have to "translate" for him.

So, in this case: dark skintone: About -1 on the scale or so. For an avarage caucasian skintone: about +1.

If you don't "translate" for your camera, the result will be wrong.
But it won't be the *meter* that was not correct
You just have to know what you're doing, and what value on the scale a certain tone in the scene should represent...

Use the built-in flash for the time being. You still can filter some of the noise out with software such as PSE.

Since you don't have a lens designed for low light shooting, why not using flash? You may want to buy a flash you can mount on your camera. Also, a lens such as the 50mm f/1.8 only costs around $80.00.