Went out at dusk this evening, 9.30 pm uk time, okay not great light, but I could of read a book easily without any extra light. using a 55-200 4.5 - 5.6 lens at first, pitch black in my screen unless I turned my SS right down and my iso to a whopping 12600 and it was so noiseyyyyy! Swap lens to my nifty fifty, the f.1.8 makes it much better but for taking fast moving pictures of my dog 1/1000s and above its still so noisey! I have a dog event next week that I’ve been asked to take some photographs at, which is at around 8pm in the evening, anybody got any help with any settings I could try to ease the pain?
This is expected, you are using a shutter speed which is quite fast, possibly to freeze the action of the dog, but that allows light to the sensor for a extremely brief fraction of a sec. Even with the wide open lens at 1.8, it is a high EV value....11.67.... which would be usable on an overcast day. Your ISO had to compensate since it was so dark out. If your shooting at dusk you looking at an EV value maybe down near 2 give or take. https://photographylife.com/exposure-value Even at 3200 ISO you will find noise, but the image may be usable depending on the print size. On the plus side it sounds like you should be able to get a usable ISO if you used 1/60th - 1/100th of a second in that lighting but the ISO will still be fairly high. Regarding it being earlier at 8pm, your in better shape, but the lens opened up and the shutter just fast enough to stop action a person doesn't need 1/250 a dog fidgeting probably does. Its all a balance, keep the iso down if you can maybe 800 as dusk approaches, and dial higher if needed. If I was shooting portraits in the evening i would have strobes gelled to match the lighting which i diffuse and try to create light to supplement the setting sun. That way I can live at a low ISO with f4 and a shutter around 1/80th for the portrait and get most of the light from my strobes.
ƒ1.4 lenses are the goto for me in low light, when it comes to low light and action you'll need to use higher iso, i find with the sigma 105mm ƒ1.4 is decent at 2000 iso on my M50, probably due to the huge front element and higher quality of the sigma art glass The key with higher iso on the M50 is don't crop!, over 400 iso in low light you really want to be filling the frame with you composition, when you start to crop in you going to be blowing that noise up too, though there are some good denoise programs out there like topaz denoise etc if yo need a zoom lens then the fastest i have seen is the sigma 50-100mm ƒ1.8, i've not tried it myself as yet, i went with the older 50-150mm ƒ2.8 EX apo os as it had a the focal range i needed and OS with shutter speeds for running dogs around 1/800+ if you looking to capture the action you will need extra lighting for a clean looking image, not sure if you will be allowed strobes / flash if you are then thats great if you know the distance to subject of the event a fast prime is going to be the best result if you are using ambient light, not too dark in the uk at the moment at 10pm so 8pm you could be good still. if you are shooting still objects the 18-150mm IS is good for 1/6 hand held sharp thru the focal range, but thats not going to help you out for the given scenario take a look on MPB.com for some used ƒ1.4 lenses, they are my goto uk reseller of used gear, excellent service and delivery look into the 32mm ƒ1.4 as its the best efm lens but focal wise you may want wider or tighter, either way there are a few good ƒ1.4 lenses out there a quick mention on the 55-200mm, yep its a bit too slow for low light and not really much chance with low light and action, the lens itself in day light or with a strobe/flsh is very nice, i have it to but the efm zoom of choice for me is the 18-150mm, its not going to do much for you in the low light with action but i find it alot more versatile than the 55-200mm, reason, it has a good close up ability, great image stabilization and its still got decent reach, its 18mm wide end is alot better for close up and wides too, i found as a single lens the 55-200mm was too tight alot of the time cavet to this is i do have longer lenses so loosing the 50mm off the end doesnt matter to me as much
