5d mkiii, grain in low-light - Am I just asking for too much?

[BozillaNZ]

Thumb up for privatebydesign's reply. 1/1250s with flash isn't going to end up well, nor was it necessary. 1/200 is all you needed.

[jdramirez]

...... I was shooting at iso 2500, f2.8, and 1/1250th of a second shutter speeds. I was half bouncing light off of the rink's ceiling and half bouncing it off the built in card of the 580. 

Honestly, any feedback would be welcome.

Nice version:

Yep, that is a realistic output for a 2,500iso shot that dark at 100% with little to no processing. However, after you "cooked it" you should get very nice results.

Blunt answer:

1/1250 with flash that you think you are bouncing! Get real, your sync speed is 1/200, you have long since gone into HSS territory and that is an exercise in futility with one and flash trying to bounce it. You should be at 1/100-1/200, you would have around five more stops of flash power, and don't forget, your flash is the effective shutter speed in this kind of shot, you could probably shoot at 1/30 and not get trails, though trails would add an impression of movement in this case. Personally I'd be dragging the shutter, 1/15-1/40 and using second curtain sync.

Stop buying multi thousand dollar toys and start getting some online classes. I'd highly recommend this Creative Live class by Mark Wallace. Which is the best $99 you could spend on your flash photography.

http://www.creativelive.com/courses/speedlights-101-mark-wallace

Or this Canon speedlite bible by Syl Arena. Which if you are too cheap for the videos is superb value at $30.

http://www.amazon.com/Speedliters-Handbook-Learning-Craft-Speedlites/dp/032171105X

I understood I was doing something "wrong" and I expected to get lambasted... so I appreciate the feedback.  I would say that in the area of speedlite photography, I am definitely the weakest... however, I in a month and change when her birthday comes around, I wasn't planning on shooting with these settings. 

I plan on using off camera flash and using a better tool to bounce the light for side lit images.  Maybe it works... maybe it doesn't.  I'm a gambler in that regard...

[rpt]

...... I was shooting at iso 2500, f2.8, and 1/1250th of a second shutter speeds. I was half bouncing light off of the rink's ceiling and half bouncing it off the built in card of the 580. 

Honestly, any feedback would be welcome.

Nice version:

Yep, that is a realistic output for a 2,500iso shot that dark at 100% with little to no processing. However, after you "cooked it" you should get very nice results.

Blunt answer:

1/1250 with flash that you think you are bouncing! Get real, your sync speed is 1/200, you have long since gone into HSS territory and that is an exercise in futility with one and flash trying to bounce it. You should be at 1/100-1/200, you would have around five more stops of flash power, and don't forget, your flash is the effective shutter speed in this kind of shot, you could probably shoot at 1/30 and not get trails, though trails would add an impression of movement in this case. Personally I'd be dragging the shutter, 1/15-1/40 and using second curtain sync.

Stop buying multi thousand dollar toys and start getting some online classes. I'd highly recommend this Creative Live class by Mark Wallace. Which is the best $99 you could spend on your flash photography.

http://www.creativelive.com/courses/speedlights-101-mark-wallace

Or this Canon speedlite bible by Syl Arena. Which if you are too cheap for the videos is superb value at $30.

http://www.amazon.com/Speedliters-Handbook-Learning-Craft-Speedlites/dp/032171105X

I understood I was doing something "wrong" and I expected to get lambasted... so I appreciate the feedback.  I would say that in the area of speedlite photography, I am definitely the weakest... however, I in a month and change when her birthday comes around, I wasn't planning on shooting with these settings. 

I plan on using off camera flash and using a better tool to bounce the light for side lit images.  Maybe it works... maybe it doesn't.  I'm a gambler in that regard...

Also note the comments by Zv about the ISO. If you took the shutter speed down to 1/200, your ISO could go down quite low so less noise...

[RLPhoto]

@ ISO 3200 on a 5D3 exposed correctly should show minimal grain. This photo was accepted by a stock agency @ full res no problemo.

[jdramirez]

@ ISO 3200 on a 5D3 exposed correctly should show minimal grain. This photo was accepted by a stock agency @ full res no problemo.

Nice photo... but the dog is stationary with a shallow depth of field which suggests a wide open aperture which begs the question... why did you need an iso of 3200? 

And while the image can lie... it looks like it was taken outdoors during day light hours and not inside a dark skating rink. 

[RLPhoto]

@ ISO 3200 on a 5D3 exposed correctly should show minimal grain. This photo was accepted by a stock agency @ full res no problemo.

Nice photo... but the dog is stationary with a shallow depth of field which suggests a wide open aperture which begs the question... why did you need an iso of 3200? 

And while the image can lie... it looks like it was taken outdoors during day light hours and not inside a dark skating rink.

135L - 1/200th - f/2 - ISO 3200

The noise @ ISO 3200 - 6400 should be like the photo above if you nail the exposure correctly.

[adhocphotographer]

Looks normal to me...

[dslrdummy]

 
Lovely shot RLP. Slightly tacking, did you spot focus and on the eye or the nose? Very impressed that you got both in focus with that dof.
Thanks.

[alexanderferdinand]

Nice shot, RLP!
Less grain at high iso: exposure to the right; sometimes kind of weird color by artificial light can also cause higher grain, if you try to get a correct WB in post.
And last but not least: grain in focus looks good, out of focus kind of "spongy".

[PVS]

Print it in whichever size you like and tell me again that you spotted any grain in those shots.

[jdramirez]

Print it in whichever size you like and tell me again that you spotted any grain in those shots.

Huh? 

[PVS]

The whole point of taking photos is to view the prints.
And enjoy their artistic, technical, documentary or sentimental values.

At least it used to be like, in case things changed some please pass me the map.

[PVS]

ps - please do try printing sometimes, you might be surprised.

[jdramirez]

The whole point of taking photos is to view the prints.
And enjoy their artistic, technical, documentary or sentimental values.

At least it used to be like, in case things changed some please pass me the map.

I do print stills.  I don't think anything I took on Friday was wall worthy, so the really good ones go up on the wall and on facebook, and the average ones, like what I got on Friday, go up on Facebook so family members can coo and aww about how cute she is and how great of a photog I am.  Though, as evidenced by others opinion and my request for advice/suggestions, I know that to not be true. 

I try not to take offense at what people are saying when I am asking for help, but I could help but think that she was correctly exposed.  And I have take photos of football before and I found that 1/1000 of a second to be a touch slow... and I have taken photos at 1/30 and 1/60 of a second in a skating rink and I found those to be worthless... at the very least not what I was going for. 

And it is difficult to see grain in my 3 inch screen... and sharpness, and bokeh... so I go in with a game plan and sometimes it works... and sometimes it does... and then I look to see if it was something I was doing horribly wrong or whether it is simply a limitation of the gear. 

So my settings weren't ideal, but I get to do a little trial and error for the next time and I'm comfortable with doing that. 

[drjlo]

I was using the 5D mkiii, a 70-200mm f/2.8L IS mkii, and a 580exii speedlite... I was half bouncing light off of the rink's ceiling and half bouncing it off the built in card of the 580. 

I shoot with exactly the same equipment, EXCEPT I never use the built in card of 580, which is tiny.  I highly recommend large bounce cards which are cheap and really help push "half" the light forward, which the tiny card is not even close to doing.  All the other stuff about shutter speed, ISO are good advice also. 

If all fails, a good noise reduction program like Imagenomic NoiseWare Pro or Neat Image NR can save the day.