I am loving my 30D

[Raymond Lin]

ISO1600 !!!! 1/50, 50mm f/1.8, 550EX speedlite

straight off the camera, the noise level (lack of) is unbelievable. Never would I thought you even use this setting (not with colour film anyway or in any point and shoot, good thou my Canon S70 is), practiaclly the only way to shoot in the dark with a flash handheld to avoid a overexposed subject with some background lighting instead a pitch dark background.

edit

had a go with PS and ran through noiseware

 

[morgan]

2 things...composition is terrible...rule of thirds taken to the exteme (and past it!)

secondly why are you using iso1600 when using the flash?...absolutely no need whatsoever

thirdly no deed to open the lens right up - you are loosing a lot of sharpness....1/50 or 1/60 @ f4-f6.4 would also give you a nice ambient light for the background. You wont see pitch black backgrounds unless you start using reall fast shutter speeds (1/125-200 and using something like f11-16 etc)

As you are using flash, if you are concerned about loosing light from the background also use a slower shutter. the pop of light from the flash should freeze the foreground and the longer shutter will help to gain background light.

use the camera in manual mode or even pop it into Program mode. As stupid as this sounds the results are always consistantly good....well worth an experiment!

 

[Darryn]

Nothing as harsh to say about this as Morgan, id say, very nice lack of noise considering the ISO. Id personally run the finished image thru Unsharpen Mask, Crop or Clone out the Left Hand side nose and clone or burn the odd shaped distracting catchlights out of her eyes.

 

[cyKey]

secondly why are you using iso1600 when using the flash?...absolutely no need whatsoever

....well worth an experiment!

For the love of god man calm down. I'm fairly sure he's just playing with his new toy. As he said IS01600 to bring out the background a bit, and as you said "well worth an experiment."

 

[GSDog]

2 things...composition is terrible...rule of thirds taken to the exteme (and past it!)

secondly why are you using iso1600 when using the flash?...absolutely no need whatsoever

I think you will find he was only testing, which is why he said "ISO1600 !!!!" and "straight off the camera, the noise level (lack of) is unbelievable."

I'm glad you are liking the 30D

 

[morgan]

sorry its a monday morning

i dont belive that increasing the iso will have much of an effect on the background. As he is using a 550ex it will adjust the light output to comensate for the selected aperture and shutter under the given conditions.

I'm calm now...phew. No offence meant raymond. I guess I should be thanking you for not posting a shot of a firework

 

[FranchiseJuan]

The white ballence is more accurate on the edited version (on my uncalabrated monitor at work). I don't think anyone has mentioned it, but if you are shooting flash, then you should learn to always shoot in manual mode. Selecte the apiture and shutter speed, and adjust exposure by adjusting flash compensation. This is the way to shoot most parties, and social functions.

You could use Program mode, but It never seems to select the ballence of ambient lighting and flash lighting I was looking for.

 

[SDK^]

i dont belive that increasing the iso will have much of an effect on the background. As he is using a 550ex it will adjust the light output to comensate for the selected aperture and shutter under the given conditions.

In all circumstances flash lights the foreground and exposure (shutter, aperture, ISO) for the background

I'm sure you know this already - In Av and Tv Mode the camera meters for the background and the flash meters for the foreground. In manual mode you control this yourself.

 

[cyKey]

In all circumstances flash lights the foreground and exposure (shutter, aperture, ISO) for the background

I'm sure you know this already - In Av and Tv Mode the camera meters for the background and the flash meters for the foreground. In manual mode you control this yourself.

Just what I thought, but I didn't want a spear being thrown at me You sometimes need to bump up the ISO so that the shutter speed isn't too low, as I've noticed recently.

 

[morgan]

I have always found that the best way to do flash at parties/receptions/functions etc is to leave iso out of the equation. Set it to a sensible level. Iso 200/400 and manually set the aperture and shutter to get the effect.

Its far easier to optimise 2 variables than 3 imo...

 

[skankmaster]

In darkish places like in parties, where i usually dont have a tripod, i tend to revert to being a p-shooter, while alternating between 400 - 800. My hands are just not steady enough unless theres a nice tripod height shoulder to take advantage of.