Very noise low light high ISO pictures from 600D

I think, Noise effected sharpness a lot. They are very very noisy when looked at 100% instead of just noisy. Not sure if i am missing something in terms of exposure. I was expecting better pictures in normal viewing even they are noisy at 100%. Please feel free to give any tips and suggestions.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/khwaja76/119757​23665/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/khwaja76/119761​22864/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/khwaja76/119761​16874/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/khwaja76/119760​34903/

First pic looks like you metered on the yellow tie and not the face....

And it had harsh backlighting. They are very noisy though...

Post the exif

Frodge wrote in post #16610500
First pic looks like you metered on the yellow tie and not the face....

I used weighted metering for first pic. I should have used spot metering. But i am not sure how camera meters with focus and recompose. I used EC.

Frodge wrote in post #16610509
Post the exif

I will post exif info once flickr is up. I posted flickr links with exif info.

Thanks

khwaja wrote in post #16610519
I used weighted metering. I should have used spot metering. But i am not sure how camera meters with focus and recompose. I used EC.

Where was your focus point? It seems that the tie is more in focus than the face. That window with the sun blaring through does not help this situation whatsoever? What kind of ec did you use? Part is blown and te other part is underexposed wih lots of noise. The only time I ever see noise like this is pushing high iso with low light with the t3i.

Heya,

ISO 1600, 3200, etc. Yeap, noisy. That's high ISO for that sensor.

I find that sensor does well with ISO up to 800, after that, it's noticeably noisy.

Not sure what you were using, but those are not very fast moving moments. You didn't need high ISO for this. You were using 30mm, so you should have been able to snap those photos at 1/30s shutter speed, or near that. Aperture wide open to about F2.8. ISO could have been left minimal. You could take a photo in a near dark room at those settings. I'm not sure what mode you were running that was pumping ISO to 3200 like that. But that was basically the problem. I would have used Manual for these shots, or Av mode with set aperture and set ISO. Again, at 30mm, even a slow shutter speed will result in a sharp image, and it looks like there was enough light to not need to drop as low as 1/30s, but you could have shot around there. I think your metering was odd too. But high ISO like that really contributes to blowing out everything, so it metered that bright window, darkened everything else, raised ISO to 3200 like that, then exposed, and you ended up with that washed out grainy look. Try spot metering and evaluative metering and do it on an object in front of a window. See how it affects your light.

Going through your photos and their settings, the randomness of it makes me think you were just shooting in a near fully auto mode? If so, definitely get out of that and start learning the triad of exposure and setting it yourself. All the photos are pushing high ISO, with random apertures ranging from 2.2 to 5 (weird), with variable shutter speeds that are all faster than necessary considering the focal length.

As for improving, besides learning your camera and how to set things for exposure better, you should pay attention to lighting. You were always shooting with a bright light at the back of your target without a flash. Had you simply shot from that side, instead of into it, you would have had way nicer looking photos just from the lighting change.

Start setting your camera's exposure settings.
Start looking at the light, not just what you're pointing the camera at.

Very best,

It doesn't look that bad. My T1i (500d) is much worse for ISO 1600 or above. It's what it is, as a low end Rebel.

l89kip wrote in post #16610590
It doesn't look that bad. My T1i (500d) is much worse for ISO 1600 or above. It's what it is, as a low end Rebel.

The model of camera means nothing here because the 550d and up share the same sensor as higher models. This situation is a mix of missed focus, exposure issues and subsequent pulling off exposure digitally, and possible lack of raw/jpg/post processing tools or techniques.

We really need to know how this was shot, what the raw shows if shot in raw, and how it was turned into a jpg to be shared here.

l89kip wrote in post #16610590
It doesn't look that bad. My T1i (500d) is much worse for ISO 1600 or above. It's what it is, as a low end Rebel.

They're pretty noisy.

First of all..

Stop pixel peeping at 100%. It will just drive you crazy.

Secondly, these do look pretty normal considering the lighting and the ISO being used. Which mode were you in?

I have to disagree with the above poster, 1/30 for a person is pretty slow, unless they and everyone else in the frame are holding very still you are going to get subject motion blur. The speed of 1/128 is not a bad choice and I don't see subject motion or camera shake as issues in your photos.

What I do notice is that you have your Exposure Bias set to a full +1, which is going to also affect the ISO decision the camera is going to make.

Honestly, if it is something you can use, a flash is going to really help you in this situation. Even using the onboard flash set to say -1 FEC is going to act as a fill light to bring up the subject while not needing the full +1 EV and you can use a lower ISO. Ideally a "real" flash that you can bounce and/or diffuse is going to give you the best results, but it does make the camera more bulky.

Shooting into very strong backlighting will always be a problem, but if you try to recover dark detail in post processing, it will cause the noise that is in the dark areas to become much more visible. If the image started out as JPG rather than raw, the noise problem will be even more exacerbated by editing. While there is not much that you can do about the lighting in a situation such as this, try to have the camera and subject locations with respect to the lighting such that the light source is behind you rather than in front.

Get a flash so that you don't have to run such high ISOs on a Rebel. Could you have shot with flash at the ceremony?

Bill Boehme wrote in post #16610669
Shooting into very strong backlighting will always be a problem, but if you try to recover dark detail in post processing, it will cause the noise that is in the dark areas to become much more visible. If the image started out as JPG rather than raw, the noise problem will be even more exacerbated by editing. While there is not much that you can do about the lighting in a situation such as this, try to have the camera and subject locations with respect to the lighting such that the light source is behind you rather than in front.

^^

I agree, you have strong back lighting. Next time get between the light source (window) and your subject and try lowering the ISO and shutter speed and as others have said, ---- turn down that exposure compensation! (should be at -0-)


with good exposure and no back lighting ISO 3200 shouldn't be a problem

same sensor (60D) and same lens (Sigma 30mm 1.4)

ISO 3200