Low light settings

[Hobby Shooter]

Yesterday I shot a school play that my daughter took part in and I was a little bit surprised over the not so good result I got from the pictures. I was limited to not being able to move around and I couldn't use flash. Not being able to move around seriously impaired my possibilities to compose the pictures better so I had to settle for basically just document the event as opposed to trying to get really good pictures. It also limited me to only using my 24-105 as that is the longest L lens I've got. I would have preferred to use my 35L for this with regards to opening up the aperture.

Anyway, the picture attached is an export from LR, I shot in RAW of course, I've applied the lens profile adjustment and then some basic WB and tone adjustments. I find it very noisy compared to what I have gotten before out of this camera lens combination. I haven't adjusted anything on NR or sharpening.

Any advise on how I could improve would be highly appreciated.

This photo is taken with 5D3, 24-105, ISO 6400, f/4.0 and 1/250 at 105 mm.

[Dylan777]

I'm not expert with LR - no advice. Since you shot raw, I think it's quite simple to reduce noise at that level in LR.

The picture you shared, I wouldn't shoot it at 1/250. I do not see much of moment. I would do 1/80 to 1/125 with f4 lens. That will bring your ISO down to 2000ish.

Another reason why, I love to shoot in "M" mode.

[crasher8]

You have an IS lens so I would have gone down to two stops below the FL of the lens which would lower the ISO considerably. You could have shot it at 1/80, f/5.6, ISO ~ 3200

[Hobby Shooter]

Thanks to both of you, I am trying back and forth with settings. This are good advices.


In this case I had set ISO to 6400, didn't let the camera chose. Will try M next time like you say Dylan.

LR, I am fine with. They look alot nicer after a little NR applied.

Cheers guys!

[Kernuak]

That looks very noisy for ISO 6400, although the lighting may not help. Try exporting a version where the RAW image is completely untouched to see if it is still just as noisy. That will rule out the processing as a cause.

[Drizzt321]

You were at 1/1250 of a second? Sure it's kids moving around, but out of curiosity why didn't you go down to 1/600, or even 1/300 and go down to ISO 3200/1600?

In terms of visible noise, what noise reduction settings did you use on Lightroom? Also, try exporting at a smaller resolution, more like what you'd put up on Facebook or what not. When you downscale, you tend to minimize the noise that's visible.

[Hobby Shooter]

That looks very noisy for ISO 6400, although the lighting may not help. Try exporting a version where the RAW image is completely untouched to see if it is still just as noisy. That will rule out the processing as a cause.

Kernuak, thanks I agree, I have shot at 12800 before with much less noise so I was a little surprised. That is why I posted this one. I will fiddle around with settings for next time, allow it for a slower shutter and lower ISO. I have deleted the RAWs already so I can't do that now. The light was really bad and there where a lot of black surfaces.

@Drizzt, I was at 1/250, will try to go slower next time and possibly try a lower ISO. I didn't apply any noise reduction to this sample as I wanted to show it as true to the original as possible. It looks better now with NR though.