Exposure Mode for low light

For low light photography (as in a church wedding without a tripod) it is frustrating to set the camera at shutter priority to avoid camera shake for the focal length I'm using (ex. 1/125 for 100mm since I'm using a 10D which has a 1.6 multiplier). After I make the setting I put it up to my eye to focus and take the picture only to find out on the screen that it shot the picture at 1/30 or so and it's blurry. What is the quickest way to avoid the blur:
1) Keep in shutter priority and look at LCD before taking picture and if already at lowest aperture then change ISO to get faster shutter speed. If already at 1600 iso then adjust compensation to be -1 or -2 and can adjust up later and lose some quality to gain speed since shooting in raw.
2) Shoot in Aperture priority at lowest aperture and adjust iso until get usable shutter speed. If necessary adjust compensation to be -1 or -2 and can adjust up later and lose some quality to gain speed since shooting in raw.
3) Shoot in Manual mode to start with so will know shutter set at will be actual shutter speed and can quickly adjust iso / aperture so exposure is correct and if need to can shoot at -1 or -2 and adjust later since shooting in raw.

Get L glass with a large aperture (1 - 1.4). With a zoom, maybe 2.8, I am not sure.

I took a few night scenes of Hong Kong harbor after dark, no tripod, no flash with a 10D. A few were usable.

Otherwise, precious moments are gone, and one would constantly be haunted by the recurring thought--what one could have gotten but didn't. If a time machine were available now, I would buy an L glass at twice the price and go back to those moments and take all those shots I missed.

Alas!

It depends.
If you are shooting still subjects then a solid tripod is first on the list then a lens with IS would dramatically help.

If you are shooting moving subjects, you need a fast lens and boost the ISO. With the 10D you can shoot at 800 or 1600 and get good prints. You can still use a tripod to make sure there is no camera movement but if fast enough speeds are attained then you are fine handholding.

If you go to my site below and look under the cabaret pics, you will see if you look at the exif, what I used to capture the dancers and singers almost constantly moving. I bought a 50mm F1.8 ($70 USD) and shot ISO400 & 800. These were all handheld.

As a novice, these particular situations elude me.

However, I did want to say that I am very impressed by Michael's cabaret pictures... they turned out wayyy better than I would've expected in those condidtions!

A fast lens and 800-1600 ISO works wonders with the 10D.

I used a 70-200mm f/2.8 at 800 and sometimes 1600 for the fashion show in my gallery,. handheld, no flash.

I used full manual once I was comfortable with the liughting,. at first I was set to aperture priority f/2.8,. 800 ISO and let the shutter lie where it may.... and used a lot of burst,. I find that the second image in a burst has less handheld camera shalke than the first image.. (makes sense,. no trigger jolt)

Use a monopod! its not that big and much easier to carry arround. shot with ISO 800,1600 or even 3200. Then get NEATIMAGE from www.neatimage.com (its available for download) and get the noise out. Its a fantastic program and realy simple to handle.

regards
Peter

Scientifically, it is not possible to eliminate the white noise from observed and processed information. One may devise an algorithm to make pictures sharper or better. But such program is already available in Photoshop.

If

T = true observed information by a lens (just ignore errors introduced by a lens)

e = white noise or error (added by CMOS or CCD),

What we get is A = T + e.

Such a white noise is added for instance, when we record music by audiotape. The tape itself adds a white noise e, which is the hissing sound. How do we get rid of it? It is impossible to get rid of it after the fact. One can devise a method to minimize the noise before the fact.

Canon already used an algorithm to minimize it when digital information is recorded. Any modification will only add (false) cosmetics f, so that with additional processing, you get a false image

B = T + e + f,

which is further away from the truth, and the fraction of junk added, j = (e+f)/T, increases.

I have checked the images nucki kindly mentioned. I agree that some images may look smoother when printed. The new images are generally smoother than the originals, indicating some sort of averaging method. That is, instead of observing two pixels, one white and the other black, one would get two gray pixels. If we get one average color of each image we take, it would be one large gray square, instead of seeing landscapes or people.

I would stay away from it. However, if you like it better, that is fine. Some women look better with cosmetics. Many women use cosmetics for this reason. However, I wonder if they would submit themselves to a computerized costmetic treatment.