High ISO advice please...

mpriest13

Ok...I am shooting a wedding and there is no flash allowed during the ceremony. It will be reasonably well lit as I understand it.

I will be using a D300 and a 24-70 f2.8. What is the best way to shoot. High ISOs (800 and above) start to get a little grainy even with the D300.

What is the best way to reduce noise in the pictures shooting at higher ISOs.?? I guess shoot at 2.8 with as low ISO as possible and try and reduce noise in post? Don't underexpose, right? Are there any other tips that can help?

Thanks!

FedererPhoto

mpriest13 wrote:

Ok...I am shooting a wedding and there is no flash allowed during the ceremony. It will be reasonably well lit as I understand it.

I will be using a D300 and a 24-70 f2.8. What is the best way to shoot. High ISOs (800 and above) start to get a little grainy even with the D300.

What is the best way to reduce noise in the pictures shooting at higher ISOs.?? I guess shoot at 2.8 with as low ISO as possible and try and reduce noise in post? Don't underexpose, right? Are there any other tips that can help?

Thanks!

Shoot wide open at the lowest ISO that gives you the shutter speed you need to get the shot you want. The pro and recessional are going to be the hardest parts.

If that's ISO 800, great. If that means you need to go to 3200, then that's what you have to do.

To help minimize noise, nail the exposure - noise multiplies exponentially if you underexpose and have to bring it up in post.

Also, don't be afraid to go slower with the shutter... in certain situations, blur is not ALWAYS bad.

Renting a prime like the 85 f/1.4 might help (~140mm equiv FoV on a DX sensor) ... but I'm not sure you'd want to use it for the processional, as you'd probably miss the subjects focus perfectly. You might also want to look into the 70-200 f/2.8 VR (the VR will be key)

Formals - tripod and drop your shutter to get good ISO's... or better yet, see if you can find a great spot outdoors to do them.

Additionally, you could look at renting an FX camera.
Best of luck.

mpriest13

FedererPhoto wrote:

Shoot wide open at the lowest ISO that gives you the shutter speed you need to get the shot you want. The pro and recessional are going to be the hardest parts.

If that's ISO 800, great. If that means you need to go to 3200, then that's what you have to do.

To help minimize noise, nail the exposure - noise multiplies exponentially if you underexpose and have to bring it up in post.

Also, don't be afraid to go slower with the shutter... in certain situations, blur is not ALWAYS bad.

Renting a prime like the 85 f/1.4 might help (~140mm equiv FoV on a DX sensor) ... but I'm not sure you'd want to use it for the processional, as you'd probably miss the subjects focus perfectly. You might also want to look into the 70-200 f/2.8 VR (the VR will be key)

Formals - tripod and drop your shutter to get good ISO's... or better yet, see if you can find a great spot outdoors to do them.

Additionally, you could look at renting an FX camera.
Best of luck.

Thanks for the advice. I do have a 50mm f1.4 that I could use but, like you said, it is pretty tough to get spot on focus at anything less than 2.8 or so. Why would an FX body help in this situation? I never thought of that.

We are planning on doing the formals outside (weather permitting). I am thinking of buying a mono pod for the ceremony shots. My tripod is pretty cumbersome to be carrying around. Will a mono pod help in low shutter situations? I still have to hold it still.....

angevin1

I am not bothered by the Noise of the D300 up to 2k ISO provided I keep it to the right in the histogram. Beyond that it is still good, just resolution tend to drop off.

I think they were suggesting an FX due to higher ISO performance~

sweet caroline

Ask about flash during processional and recessional- some will allow it even when it's a no during the actual ceremony. I have been getting more comfortable with the higher ISOs with the D300. It really is true that if you nail the exposure, it makes the noise so much less noticeable. Here's one I took at 2.8, ISO 1600 (forgive the slight tilt).

mpriest13

angevin1 wrote:

I am not bothered by the Noise of the D300 up to 2k ISO provided I keep it to the right in the histogram. Beyond that it is still good, just resolution tend to drop off.

I think they were suggesting an FX due to higher ISO performance~

Duh, of course. That makes sense. I guess I always figure they more expensive FX bodys have higher ISO performace for reasons other than the fact they are full frame. I don't know how these amazing cameras work only how to work them...

mpriest13

sweet caroline wrote:

Ask about flash during processional and recessional- some will allow it even when it's a no during the actual ceremony. I have been getting more comfortable with the higher ISOs with the D300. It really is true that if you nail the exposure, it makes the noise so much less noticeable. Here's one I took at 2.8, ISO 1600 (forgive the slight tilt).

That's not to bad. I have a real problem with noise. It makes me crazy. It is a pet peeve of mine. I have to learn to accept a moderate amount of noise....

Kinkajou

Not sure whether it's been mentioned or not yet... but shoot RAW. I just did one where no flash was allowed during the ceremony... it was pretty well-lit, but shooting in RAW allowed me to do some de-noising that wasn't too obvious to the finished image.

Also, in PP you can do a very very very VERY mild Gaussian blur in worst case scenarios... or make it B&W, where noise/graininess is usually ok

Also, I did use my tripod as a monopod during the ceremony.

Good luck!

Scott_Quier

Research has shown:

1. You want to get the shots - regardless of the ISO you need to get them
2. Use the ISO necessary to get the shutter speed you need
3. When the choice is between a lower ISO with a push in post or a higher ISO but properly exposed, go with the higher ISO - always.
4. Shoot RAW - that will give you the most data to work with in post
5. Process the RAW to 16-bits
6. Run the really noisy shots through a noise reduction software (NoiseNinja, Neat Image, etc) before rendering to JPG
7. Don't run an image through the noise reduction software unless you absolutely have to. You will be surprise how much noise you can tolerate in a print. What you see on the screen does not translate 100% to the print. Really.
8. For the really, really noisy shots, convert to B&W and call it an artistic rendering

But, the bottom line is really found in #7 above.

mpriest13

Scott_Quier wrote:

Research has shown:

1. You want to get the shots - regardless of the ISO you need to get them
2. Use the ISO necessary to get the shutter speed you need
3. When the choice is between a lower ISO with a push in post or a higher ISO but properly exposed, go with the higher ISO - always.
4. Shoot RAW - that will give you the most data to work with in post
5. Process the RAW to 16-bits
6. Run the really noisy shots through a noise reduction software (NoiseNinja, Neat Image, etc) before rendering to JPG
7. Don't run an image through the noise reduction software unless you absolutely have to. You will be surprise how much noise you can tolerate in a print. What you see on the screen does not translate 100% to the print. Really.
8. For the really, really noisy shots, convert to B&W and call it an artistic rendering

But, the bottom line is really found in #7 above.

Thanks Scott. Your 3rd point is the one that I have the hardest time with. When I am faced with a situation where I have to bump the ISO up past 1600 and I KNOW it is going to get noisy I am always tempted to lower the ISO and underexpose and try and fix it in post. Obviously I have learned that strategy can actually cause MORE noise. Thanks for the help!

zoomer

+1 to what Scott said.
Underexposure is death, so is overuse of noise reduction.
Use the 1.4 at 1.8 and have fun. Unless you are very close the depth of field will work out ok. At the worst a slight blur from short depth of field is better than major noise or blurring from noise reduction.

You may be surprised how much depth of field you have at 10-20 feet even at 1.8 shoot in C focus mode when dealing with skinny depth of field.

mmmatt

In dim, ambient lighting situations I like to shoot in shutter priority mode. A non moving subject is good to about 1/80th sec and processional and whatnot you need to be closer to 1/160thto ward off motion blur. I would rather have underexposure and noise than a blurred subject in most cases. Certainly motion blur can be used as an effect but I wouldn't do too much of it. Make sure you know your personal shutter speed limits at different focal lengths both hand holding and using your monopod, and then use those as your minimums. VR does you no good btw with a moving subject!

In post, I pay close attention to the black levels and contrast. I tend to prefer fairly "rich" processing but pulling down the blacks can help a lot on an underexposed image, though that will reveal more noise if you aren't careful.

my $.02
Matt

Swartzy

Pretty much all the bases have been covered here...so, just to show another example of perfect exposure at 3200 ISO...Nail it and run with it.