Noisy full-body shots, nice close-ups?

Hello all! I am new here...found you guys while googling the issue I am posting about! This seems like a really great resource and I am looking forward to countless hours of browsing topics while I should be working!

My question...I am using a 30D and Sigma 28-70...but I had the same trouble with a 28-70 L 2.8 that was a short-lived purchase.....close ups are nice, sharp and smooth, but full body shots...when cropped in closer, are noisy and not as well focused. I've seen it with flash, without, and ranging from ISO 640 and up. A few times the pictures have been slightly, just slightly underexposed, but last time I had a shoot I even overexposed just slightly, still having the same problem. As long as the images are printed huge it's not a big deal, but what is going on? Is this user error? Camera problem? Lens problem? I've heard some not so flattering comments about the 28/24-70 L..people having focus issues.
This has frustrated me so much I actually made myself sick while working on wedding pictures!!! BLECH!!!!!!!

Understand the issue here. Have you considered buying a 70-200 for the longer range and keep the shorter zoom? I've found the IS on my 70-200 very useful for events and weddings.

I have a 70-200 2.8 Sigma, not Canon though. I am hoping to upgrade all my lenses to Canon in the next few years. This problem has showed up mostly in the group shots, which were in the church with flash (580ex bounced) also in a family session outdoors, overcast day so I used some fill flash, most family shots are noisy, some the focus doesn't seem right on......

Concerning the noise issue. I think that if you would try the same amount of crop on one of your closeup shots, you would find the noise is there too - assuming you used the same ISO setting as you used in the full body shots. I'll leave the focus issue to someone else.

a sample with be most useful. also, is the noise more visible in areas other than the face?

SuzyView wrote in post #3393258
Understand the issue here. Have you considered buying a 70-200 for the longer range and keep the shorter zoom? I've found the IS on my 70-200 very useful for events and weddings.

Suzy, there is NOTHING wrong with either of the lenses he mentioned that would require him to buy a new expnsive lens. besides, even if he did buy the 70-200, what will he do when he finds himself in places where 70 is too long?

Chigger that is an excellent point, I would imagine I have just never thought to crop in on some nosehairs before ha!! I really hadn't thought of that before.....that does make sense!

Let me hop onto my other computer and I'll find an example...........

please post both examples (one close up and one full body)

Okay! Here is from the outdoor session......does anyone else hate save for web color? Isn't there a trick to make it look better? UGH!

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Kind of a silly question, but, why are you using such high ISO? Since you're shooting outdoors and using fill flash, why not knock the ISO down to 200. That might solve your noise problem.

I guess it was because I was doing shots without, then with fill flash...it was an overcast day so I had to crank it up some to get decent ss....I guess I just wasn't thinking.... duh! Maybe that's a lot of my problem.....but if it was decently exposed, would there be any noise? (or at least not this much noise?) I have some wedding shots...but I'm having trouble getting t hem to post....

KRM wrote in post #3393253
My question...I am using a 30D and Sigma 28-70...but I had the same trouble with a 28-70 L 2.8 that was a short-lived purchase.....close ups are nice, sharp and smooth, but full body shots...when cropped in closer, are noisy and not as well focused.

I see what you mean. As a test I took your full shot and cropped it to match your crop. The original gets cropped to 16% of the original width, or only 2.5% of the original area.

In order to make the crop the same size as the one you posted I had to blow it up 330%.

There's nothing wrong with your lenses - you just can't *do* that and expect sharpness anything like the original.

-js

Okay, had to do the photobucket thing, these wouldn't upload.... Now what the heck did I do here? I have done 5 weddings with this combo of equip..30D, 28-70, 580ex.....nothing has turned out like this!!! This is a bit underexposed.....is this a case of I should have relied on the flash more?

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Oh I guess one did attach! Wow that save for web color is horrid! It's not even Monday...but I'm having a Monday!