Iso

shming

Question out of curiosity: I shoot with a canon 5d MK II and I'm curious to know from others out there. What is the highest ISO (no flash) you guys are willing to push it up to during a church ceremony (I gave up flash at ceremonies some time ago - now if I can get the Brides to slow down!!! :rofl ). I've done 3200 and I am very pleased - however my wife shoots with a 50d and she she won't won't even risk 1600 with that body. I'm starting to wonder if my clients will even notice grain / noise the way us photographers do - I mean I don't even want to take that chance - but here is my dilemma - I'll take great emotion and feeling within a photo before a crisp sharp photo with perfect lighting any day of the week hands down. To me High ISO low noise has been a lifesaver!! But - it sure is nice when they all come together isn't it? I guess I've finally reached the point where I'm finally just shooting and letting go of all the technicalities of a proper photo. It's a nice feeling. So enough of that (I know I'm rambling) --- what ISO are you guys willing to push it too? Have any of you found that your clients really don't mind the noise? I'm dying to know.:barb

tenoverthenose

I recently shot my 5dII at 6400 ISO exclusively during a candlelit ceremony. To make it more interesting, most of it was shot a 1/60 1.2 with my 85, so I really didn't have too much of a choice otherwise. The pictures were properly exposed and look amazing. Sure, there's more noise than iso 100, but the ambience and mood that it picks up is tasty.

shming

Wow
I haven't pushed mine to 6400 yet - I'm dying to though. - seems risky - I agree with you - it's all about the ambience and mood. There was a time for me that it was all about composition, exposure, etc. It was only when those elements started to come naturally for me that I was able to capture the mood again (took years!!!) - and the result was "stop thinking - just do it." That's why the high ISO is so important to me --- Did you end up keeping the color or did you go with monochrome? and Wow 1/60 1.2 ISO 6400 --- must of been an extreme lowlight situation -- hat's off to you!!!

tenoverthenose wrote:

I recently shot my 5dII at 6400 ISO exclusively during a candlelit ceremony. To make it more interesting, most of it was shot a 1/60 1.2 with my 85, so I really didn't have too much of a choice otherwise. The pictures were properly exposed and look amazing. Sure, there's more noise than iso 100, but the ambience and mood that it picks up is tasty.

tenoverthenose

shming wrote:

I haven't pushed mine to 6400 yet - I'm dying to though. - seems risky - I agree with you - it's all about the ambience and mood. There was a time for me that it was all about composition, exposure, etc. It was only when those elements started to come naturally for me that I was able to capture the mood again (took years!!!) - and the result was "stop thinking - just do it." That's why the high ISO is so important to me --- Did you end up keeping the color or did you go with monochrome? and Wow 1/60 1.2 ISO 6400 --- must of been an extreme lowlight situation -- hat's off to you!!!

I ended up with a mix of color and b&w, just like everything else. That camera is just capable of amazing images in low light unlike anything else that I have used. I regularly shoot receptions at 3200 iso to bring in as much ambient light as possible (while still using strobes). It looks good to my eye and so far I haven't had any complaints from clients. The most important thing when shooting at these iso's is to NAIL your exposure and white balance. From my experience, adjust it later really brings in the noise.

example:

heatherfeather

Incredible photo, Ten.

shming

I agree --- Beautiful

marikris

I was just about to ask for photo examples

Grinder

shming wrote:

Question out of curiosity: I shoot with a canon 5d MK II and I'm curious to know from others out there. What is the highest ISO (no flash) you guys are willing to push it up to during a church ceremony

Hi,

I dont shoot stills only video with that camera and my experience is you have to be careful with anything over 3200 as it could add noise and the liveview is much more forgiving then when you see it on a large screen display later.

I usually am using f/4 lense when shooting video so if you have a faster lens that could help and by looking at the photo Ten displayed, it seems to be very acceptable as creative art for photography, but its always good to experiment at the jobs with different setting and see what you get before dedicating all the shots to something that might not work later, but again, I am very surprised at that candle ceremony image and how good it looks. For video with f/4 that would have a lot of grain in it, yet look pretty good in the liveview, so I already know an f/4 lens with that setting might not be so forgiving.

Ps - we are also not shooting 21 MP when in video mode, that mode is 1920x1080 and the dpi is more like 72 which relates to an A4 Image at best when printed, so that has something to do with it too.

-G