50d ISO usability

failingretina

failingretina

Suspended / Banned
Messages
155
Name
Andy
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi there
I'm very new to the canon 50d, only had it a few days. I will be taking photos tonight at a gig with my 17-55 F/2.8 IS or maybe the nifty fifty. I haven't yet had chance to upload any photos I've taken with the 50d and so am not sure what ISO settings I can get away with using. What would you recommend as to the highest I can go without just having a picture full of noise?
Thanks
Andy
 
I use 3200 quite comfortably, run it through some free noise reduction software and you wouldn't know it was taken at high ISO at all. 6400 is messy, and I still haven't quite worked out how to get anything really useable from 12800 yet. 3200 is fine though :)
 
chris321 said:
I use 3200 quite comfortably, run it through some free noise reduction software and you wouldn't know it was taken at high ISO at all. 6400 is messy, and I still haven't quite worked out how to get anything really useable from 12800 yet. 3200 is fine though :)
Click to expand...

How :shrug:

Past 800 all I get is a noisy ugly mess of a picture. I've not used noise reduction software before mind, what do you use?
 
I don't really know, I assumed that was normal! I turned off HTP and ALO as per someone on here's suggestion, and shoot raw. Here are a few results:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisw321/4406396365/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisw321/4349753214/in/set-72157604185032294/ (and all of the ones to the right in my 'People' set titled 'Measure for Measure' were at 3200 as well.)

I use Noiseware Community edition. It doesn't integrate into photoshop which is a bit annoying, but it's free so I don't really mind. Gives a bit of a greeny tinge too for me, but that's easily fixed in photoshop. Give it a go! :thumbs:

Chris
 
ISO 3200 is useable on low DPI print or for low res screen.

This is ISO 3200, Noise reduction turned off on camera, A small amount of noise reduction added in LightRoom, but they were batched processed, so hardly taking my time over it. The biggest problem i find is that the 50d seems to loose alot of colour range at high ISO, so if your shooting something with skin, alot of the skin tones run together, this gives you a horrid wax look to the images on close inspection.

However they are useable in newspapers

s


s
 
I have just tried mine at 3200,quite impressed.:thumbs::)
 
A tip that I use which was posted a while ago on TP is to over-expose the images a little. It reduces the noise when you bring the exposure back down.

Don't fully understand it but I find it helps.. something to do with the sensor and that noise is less evident in lighter tones.

I shoot in raw and bring the expose back down and the images look good but I think iso 3200 is the limit for me.
 
i find alot of NR software loses sharpness of the subject and at high ISO's they dont exactly look pin sharp to start with. When i shot a wedding i made sure i didnt go over ISO 2000 IIRC. I also noticed a drop in image quality in the colours too.
 
depends on task and conditions, I've pushed to H2 before on my 50d and my 5dII, results are fine for web or the style of images where grain is acceptable.

Skin tones went properly to pot in the H modes though
 
Ste Manns said:
How :shrug:

Past 800 all I get is a noisy ugly mess of a picture. I've not used noise reduction software before mind, what do you use?
Click to expand...

Sorry to say this but you have a problem :) my 50D when I used it for weddings was always in the 3200 to 5000 range and IF you exposed correctly then the images were very good, we used to print to 12x8 all the time at those settings.

We have since gone to Nikon D700 & D3s so high ISO are now the norm :D :lol:

wilky
 
some great tips here...........

thanks TP.... fantastic site
 
Ste Manns said:
It would seem the free version is Windows only :'(

I have a Mac. Anyone know of something similar for OSX?
Click to expand...

Ah, not so good then! I've also heard a lot of good stuff about Noise Ninja, but I'm not sure about free ones. Incidentally, do you have any high ISO shots that we could see? I'd be interested if I just have lower standards about what's acceptable, or if we can help you with your setup/settings or something?

Chris
 
Sorry I forgot about this thread!

Ok, I've just taken these two snaps, the first is ISO100:
ISO-100-Test.jpg


And this is ISO3200:
ISO3200.jpg


Hopefully my quick test shots are an equal test - I used exactly the same settings (except for ISO) and used onboard flash. The second image has a lot of noise, visible even on the LCD screen, on the black areas. Maybe it won't be so visible in better light :shrug:

I've turned off all the settings which actually create noise as per the thread on here somewhere.
 
ETTR! and you shouldn't notice the noise much!

hate it when people moan about noise problems and the the remedy is purely because the shot's underexposed
 
buckas said:
ETTR! and you shouldn't notice the noise much!

hate it when people moan about noise problems and the the remedy is purely because the shot's underexposed
Click to expand...

Forgive my ignorance, but I've had about two hours sleep all week. What does ETTR! mean?

Also, I aint complaining I was asked to post pictures taken at different ISO's and I have. Exposure wise these two images were just a quick demo, using onboard flash and the same exposure on both except for the ISO setting. I wasn't aiming for works of art, they're also straight out of camera, no manipulation whatsoever.
 
Just googled it, it means 'Expose To The Right'.....i.e. slightly overexpose (pushing the histogram to the right) to reduce noise when brought back down (although if you're not careful it'll blow your highlights). I can see a little bit of noise, but put it through noise reduction and at this size I doubt you'd be able to see any difference between the two shots!

The noise is always going to look worse on the black bits, but with a bit of patience and some software all will be good!
 
Of course...Doh!

I actually always expose to the right, when I'm shooting properly. This was just a very quick test to post some examples. Looking at the two shots this morning at that size, it's not as noticeable as at 25% in photoshop/mac preview. At that size it really jumps out at you and is ugly. I deliberately chose something black (well it was to hand...)

However - it's not as bad as I first thought it might be, I haven't even tried high ISO since I turned those settings off that cause noise, but now I can see it is definitely better than it was. I'm still hunting for a Mac version of a free noise reduction software/plugin.
 
This really a tough question to answer, as different sorts of exposures are going to show noise more than others. Night shots and low light, so it seems, make noise more obvious, but this seems to be when you need it the most. :bang:

I've found that 1600 works well for most anything I do, so unless I have a really good reason to push it beyond that, I stay at or below 1600....
 
Surely over exposing the image requires a longer shutter speed (assuming your at widest aperture, because of the low light available) thus negating the point of a higher ISO?
 
willieturnip said:
Surely over exposing the image requires a longer shutter speed (assuming your at widest aperture, because of the low light available) thus negating the point of a higher ISO?
Click to expand...

No - the point is by pushing up the ISO you can use a faster shutter speed, exposing to the right just means 'slightly' over exposing, say by 1/3rd of a stop (or so I've read, works for me) We aren't talking a huge amount.
 
I find that noise isn't the only issue with higher ISO shots. If it's reduced dynamic range or whatever I don't know but there's often an unpleasant look to higher ISO shots which can look worse once noise reduction has been used.

Maybe it's sometimes best not to worry too much about noise and noise reduction and just go with whatever makes the shot look best? That might involve not actually carrying out any noise reduction or at least getting a better looking balance between noise and the effects of heavy post capture processing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top