I love photography.

Photography is great. It's one of those "hobbies" that I'm actually willing to stick with, through thick and thin. Since I got into photography, I've taken a fair number of good shots, a good amount of decent shots and about eight thousand lousy shots.

Normally I analyze my photos based on information from this site and google. However, in this case I was particularly disappointed with my evening shoot. I managed to get some very interesting shots. However, they were rubbish from a technical stand point. I try not to use flash in low light.

The following photo's bokeh is particularly soft(!), and the reds are overexposed. Not to mention the high level of noise. I cropped the image to reveal the absolute worse point. The exposure on the subject was fine. The photo was taken with a T1i, 50mm 1.8 prime. 400 ISO, 1/10, Ap priority, at 1.8 (autofocused). Without seeing the full picture, what do you all think? Any suggestions? The second cropped photo is a slightly noisy, but preferred bokeh.

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At 1/10 without IS on the lens you are bound to get motion blur hand held, that motion blur will effect the bokeh. Minimum of 1/60th or 1/focal length which ever is shorter was the rule of thumb I was given. That said I can only see what I presume to be the edges of the subject.

TBH an idea of what you were trying to achieve would help. Any reason why you choose not to use the flash?

I suppose my goal is to get great, low-light portrait shots. I don't like to alert my subjects with a flash for focus and a flash for the exposure. I guess I'm trying to achieve the impossible. I want low-noise, sharp, in-focus images without flash in low light. (Hehe.) Perhaps it's only possible with a higher end DSLR. Or, perhaps I should learn to utilize a decent flash? Not sure.

With IS you can get a claimed 4 stop equivalent on shutter time with some lenses. So that could help here. I'm guessing you are using the on board flash rather than a flashgun. Flashguns emit an infra red light to focus with which means no warning before the flash fires. Though if you have enough light to focus with without the flash IIRC you can turn of the focusing flashes as well as preflash in the custom functions menu, so the onboard should only flash when you take the picture.

May be wrong on the focusing flashes. Could always focus then press the flash button to pop the flash up before taking the shot if so.

Bokeh is always soft as opposed to the main subject because bokeh is the quality of the out of focus areas.. Sharp bokeh is an oxymoron!! It just doesn't exist..

Definitely not!!

Low noise, sharp in focus images in low light are possible with any DSLR.. Hone your shooting techniques..

Generally, you're always going to see noise in the dark areas, because they're "underexposed" by definition. The key to mostly noise free shots is to use a high enough ISO to properly expose the important areas of the image.
Another way to reduce high ISO noise is to slightly overexpose in RAW & then dial it back in processing. And you have to be careful to get just the exposure you need.

Gavin shoots a lot at various high ISOs & provides fun captions as well.
The week's sporting events in images...

Some from Christan at ISO 800 using a 40D: New Pee Wee (11-12 yr old) Baseball

ISO 1600 @ 20D. EXIF is included in:
The Johnny Headband Band

ISO 3200 & 20D is pushing the 20D limits. EXIF is included in:
Barbara Payton & Her Band @ ISO 3200

Need an exposure crutch?

Why?
Post #47

Thanks for the tips. It's good to see photos that have similar characteristics to mine. Sounds like it's back to the fundamentals for me.