Belle's Enchanted Tales

[scmbaby]

I have a Canon 7D and my results from Belle's Enchanted Tales last October were less than I hoped for. What ISO would you recommend for the best results with the least noise?

 

[havoc315]

Depends on your lens. Depends on whether you are trying to capture Belle (who is moving) or just shots of static objects.
But regardless, you want the lowest ISO that will achieve a properly exposed shot. If your aperture is 1.4 with a shutter speed of 1/30, that will be a very different ISO than if your aperture is 5.6 with a shutter speed of 1/200.

 

[mom2rtk]

I have a T2i, which I think has the same sensor as the 7D. I shot at 3200ISO, but probably could have gotten by with 1600. I think what makes that setting so challenging is the dark lighting coupled with strong spotlights. I would definitely suggest shooting in RAW. I had issues with odd color casts on my shots and was very happy to have as much leeway as possible to make adjustments after getting home.

Some are happy with the performance of this sensor at 3200ISO, some are not. I'm fine with it after applying some noise reduction in Lightroom. The truth is you can get away with a lower ISO than I used if you just shoot in the spotlit areas, but not if you want to shoot out of those areas.

What lens did you use?


IMG_8573 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

IMG_8582 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

IMG_8606 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

IMG_8559 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

IMG_8641 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

IMG_8624 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

 

[mcraige]

I shot at 3200ISO, but probably could have gotten by with 1600. I think what makes that setting so challenging is the dark lighting coupled with strong spotlights. I would definitely suggest shooting in RAW.

I have a Sony A65, and I also shot at ISO 3200 1/100 sec using my 18-55mm kit lens. I would have loved to use my 30mm f1.4, but the room is too small. I shot in JPEG, but should have used RAW.

 

[havoc315]

I have a Sony A65, and I also shot at ISO 3200 1/100 sec using my 18-55mm kit lens. I would have loved to use my 30mm f1.4, but the room is too small. I shot in JPEG, but should have used RAW.

3200 isn't great on the A65, but it's passable.
I assume you were shooting at 18mm and aperture of 3.5.
Had you been able to shoot at 1.4, you would have then used an ISO of 800 or less (maybe even 400), though depth of field may have been too narrow. Though you could easily have shot at ISO 1600.

 

[jimim]

Oh that place is rough! I always get weird light stuff going on like mom2 said. I get the yellow raccoon eye thing going on. I usually use a soft chocolate/brown preset I have for lightroom and call it a day! Lol.

It's just a very hard room even with a fast lens cause of the whacky lighting they got going on in there.

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[mom2rtk]

Oh that place is rough! I always get weird light stuff going on like mom2 said. I get the yellow raccoon eye thing going on. I usually use a soft chocolate/brown preset I have for lightroom and call it a day! Lol.

It's just a very hard room even with a fast lens cause of the whacky lighting they got going on in there.

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You'd think their photopass photographers would at least get it right. I mean, how hard is it to figure it out and mimic those settings on all the photopass cameras in there? We have done the attraction 4 times, and had photopass each time. In general my photos are much better than theirs. Some of their shots are ok, but some are absolute garbage with a very strong red tint. RAW totally saved me in there.

 

[scmbaby]

I was using my Canon 24-70 f2.8...... Love the lens. My kid was in the show and I was trying to get shots if him. Belle looked ok, but he was more in the shadow area and it was grainy. Since I'm shooting a moving 5 year old I like to stay at at least 1/100th if at all possible, with a 2.8 app. Low light photography is my nemesis. Still trying to get good focused shots of kids in low light, with no noise, and without using flash. For me , this is mission impossible. :-(. Other photographers seem to do a better job and I can't seem to find the secret formula/balance.

 

[mom2rtk]

I was using my Canon 24-70 f2.8...... Love the lens. My kid was in the show and I was trying to get shots if him. Belle looked ok, but he was more in the shadow area and it was grainy. Since I'm shooting a moving 5 year old I like to stay at at least 1/100th if at all possible, with a 2.8 app. Low light photography is my nemesis. Still trying to get good focused shots of kids in low light, with no noise, and without using flash. For me , this is mission impossible. :-(. Other photographers seem to do a better job and I can't seem to find the secret formula/balance.

You're not going to get a shot in there with no noise. Do you do much post processing? This one is really going to require being ok with a higher ISO and applying some noise reduction later.

A 2.8 lens is capable of getting the job done on this one.

 

[mcraige]

3200 isn't great on the A65, but it's passable.
I assume you were shooting at 18mm and aperture of 3.5.
Had you been able to shoot at 1.4, you would have then used an ISO of 800 or less (maybe even 400), though depth of field may have been too narrow. Though you could easily have shot at ISO 1600.

Yes, I was shooting at 18mm and f3.5. I went back and looked at pics I took at other rides/shows at ISO 3200, ISO 6400, and even ISO 12,800. Some are good, some OK, and some just usable. I definitely need more practice at ETWB.

 

[havoc315]

Yes, I was shooting at 18mm and f3.5. I went back and looked at pics I took at other rides/shows at ISO 3200, ISO 6400, and even ISO 12,800. Some are good, some OK, and some just usable. I definitely need more practice at ETWB.

I used to shoot with the a55, very similar noise performance. A properly exposed and processed ISO 3200 shot gave me a perfectly nice medium sized image but certainly nothing to pixel peep. 6400 was hit or miss --- could be really ugly, but if properly exposed and processed, could still be usable. Never got anything decent at 12800.
Now I shoot with the a99, while I see a bit of noise even at 1600, I can get nice 8x10s and even larger as high as 6400, and usable shots at 12800.

 

[WDWFigment]

I've done aperture priority @ f/3.2 with auto ISO on a ceiling of ISO 3200/6400 and a minimum shutter speed of 1/100th and have been satisfied with the results.

I wouldn't go with an aperture lower than f/2.8 simply because you'll end up with out of focus people. Not everyone is going to be on the same plane. At 1/100th shutter speed, you'll end up with motion blur on some photos, so fire off a lot of shots. The benefit is that you'll end up with cleaner shots in terms of noise.

Basically, you're looking at very similar settings to what you'd use for Fantasmic or MSEP.

 

[photo_chick]

I have a Canon 7D and my results from Belle's Enchanted Tales last October were less than I hoped for. What ISO would you recommend for the best results with the least noise?

I just shot it for the first time this week. My biggest concern was the light fall off at times. It was pretty dramatic so I decided to ETTR a bit more than usual and bring down the bright areas in editing to balance out the exposure a bit. It helped with noise because I didn't have to bring up the shadow areas so I avoided adding more noise in during editing that way.

FWIW... I had my 28-105 f/4 and shot at ISO 12800 with my 6D.

And embrace the noise. You'll be a lot happier once you learn to work with it instead of fighting it.