Low light with the 50d

[dk]

As people have seen in other marques, i did a car day yesterday and have just been reviewing the photos on my flickr account and i must saw, considering how low the light was for most of them, the camera and lens did a bloody good job!

When I arrived, it was 7:30 and the first shots of the cars lines up were all before 8am, and the light was very low, most shots taken at 1/20 second i think, handheld, utilising IS from the lens and ISO 1600 from the camera, and there is very little grain at large size.

An example:

then towards the end of the night, took some more, again, the below is handheld and with iso 1600, this was about 5pm and it was nearly dark but it looks so light!

1/8 second!

The full lot are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/david_knight/sets/72157610197721838/

I am really impressed with the pics, my brother took a top of the range sony compact, i know i shouldn't compare but the difference is massive. (and so it should be for the price difference)

These pics do show the cameras ability to shoot at iso 1600 and get very usable pics and how the IS also helped to negate the need for a tripod. And TBH, the pictures don't do the lighting justice as to how dark it was in the shots.

And to this day, I still haven't even popped the flash up, not even to test it works, never had the need and thats after 3000 photos.

p.s. sorry i haven't used any of those funny angled have to tilt our head to view them shots, i'm a boring horizontal man

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Distinct lack of Clios ! :nono:





Seriously though - Awesome photos / camera !

 

[MrMark]

Re: Low light p**n with the 50d

Should'nt the thread read "low light p**n with the 50d"???

 

[Tigger]

Really good pics, flash used by any chance?

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Really good pics, flash used by any chance?

And to this day, I still haven't even popped the flash up, not even to test it works, never had the need and thats after 3000 photos.

:quiet:

 

[dk]

:quiet:

lol, thanks, saved me the job, yeah, I am really impressed with the combination i currently have with this body and the 17-55 F2.8 IS lens, so versatile!

Can't decide whether I like this pic or not, i've seen pics on here before where only the nose is in focus, just can't decide though? Was in a big rush when i took this, was changing drivers and heard them coming around the corner so just grabbed the camera, didn't have chance to even look at the settings and fired one off!

And I think this is one of my favourites of the lambo, not sure why, just is

have to say though, the lambo was very difficult to get on its own, every time i tried in the low light the picture came out dark, must have been doing something wrong, tried changing the white balance and that didn't seem to make enough difference, they look ok PP but still not sure what I should have been doing with the camera at the time.

 

[Tigger]

:quiet:

Oops sorry - drink in the reading's out!

 

[JJ!]

F2.8 and ISO 1600 and IS... should have done better

Only kidding, nice shots

 

[5parky]

Horizontal FTMFW!! I hate having to tilt my head to see a picture properly.

Awesome pics, id love to have that camera and lens.

Looks like you had a great day (I read your thread )

 

[ukaskew]

Can't decide whether I like this pic or not, i've seen pics on here before where only the nose is in focus, just can't decide though?

I love it, but I have made a small career out of similar shots! Shows a good sense of speed, which imo is very important with moving cars, especially ones that look like they should be going fast. The number plate is pin sharp, can't ask for more than that.

have to say though, the lambo was very difficult to get on its own, every time i tried in the low light the picture came out dark, must have been doing something wrong, tried changing the white balance and that didn't seem to make enough difference, they look ok PP but still not sure what I should have been doing with the camera at the time.

All the other cars are dark - the Lambo is white (stating the obvious I know!), depending on your metering settings the camera was probably trying to massively overcompensate for a large bright area, hence why it was coming out dark. Could try the widest metering setting next time (called Matrix on Nikon, not sure about the Canon) as that should balance it a bit more.

White cars are a complete dog to shoot, particularly in a motorsport setting when you can't stand around and fine tune a shot. I was shooting white 197 Cups at Brands all day and still couldn't perfect it, everything was underexposed even though my D50s metering is usually pretty good. This is probably about 3 stops too dark, yet Racing Blue or Red cars can come along a second later and be perfect...

Pleased you're loving the low light capabilities anyhow, it's been the biggest revelation for me since getting my D90, it's almost scary to think where DSLRs will be in a few years.

 

[dunganick]

Like Chris says you were probably using spot metering, you could try Partial or Evaluative. although shooting as close to the car with it filling most of the frame you would probably still struggle. Only other way i know of is to use manual everything and set exposure yourself. Or use auto settings and just adjust it to over expose x number of stops over. You can do this if you focus and then turn the large thumb wheel (assuming 40d and 50d are the same)

Black and White cars are horrid, also Lights on cars will naturally enough do the same.

Nice photos all the same, good and sharp.

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Can't decide whether I like this pic or not, i've seen pics on here before where only the nose is in focus, just can't decide though? Was in a big rush when i took this, was changing drivers and heard them coming around the corner so just grabbed the camera, didn't have chance to even look at the settings and fired one off!

Personal opinion - it looks better cropped, I think ... ?

 

[LaurenF]

Looks good cropped.

Amazing photos, would never guess from looking at them that they were taken in low light!

 

[dk]

Personal opinion - it looks better cropped, I think ... ?

thanks, totally agree!

 

[dk]

Like Chris says you were probably using spot metering, you could try Partial or Evaluative. although shooting as close to the car with it filling most of the frame you would probably still struggle. Only other way i know of is to use manual everything and set exposure yourself. Or use auto settings and just adjust it to over expose x number of stops over. You can do this if you focus and then turn the large thumb wheel (assuming 40d and 50d are the same)

Black and White cars are horrid, also Lights on cars will naturally enough do the same.

Nice photos all the same, good and sharp.

right, it was the shots where it was full on lambo rather than the ones where the lambo was just a feature as below, before and after adjusting the contrast in PS, i have it in RAW too but i've never touched raw before so don't really know what to do with it. This was taken at the same time as the first farrari and the rear of the lambo above!

I also did try adjusting the metering too, tried them all.

 

[JJ!]

hmmm.. for me the adjusted one has better colour but is a bit more noisy.

 

[dk]

thats using PS, would it have any better results if i used the raw photo?

Anyone have something that can edit 50d raw photos that i can send them the raw pic to show me what can be done please?