underexposing to handhold / for effect

[stacy]

I feel like I'm asking too questions this week- sorry...but not too

sorry to ask :)

 

Ok- so last weekend I was shooting dancing with a 70-200 2.8 and no

flash on camera- flash on a stick only and for a few shots the flash

did not recover which left the images very underexposed. I brought

them up two stops in RAW and adjusted curves and added more

noise...hmmm I like them!

 

This was shot at 1/60 f3.5 @1600iso on a 20D- the 70-200 was zoomed

to 180. I would not have been able to handhold a proper exposure

with no flash- it was very dark. Do any of you underexpose on

purpose in order to not use a tripod or to create a noisy effect?

How far can you underexpose then pull it back up before all this

noise is introduced? Thanks!<div></div>

[mattalofs]

I don't think there is any one answer to this because we perceive noise or grain differently dependent on other factors of the picture. Composition and color seem to have a large impact on our perception of noisiness. I think a wide shot shows noise quicker than a tight one like the one you've displayed; I'd guess the details are small enough in a wide shot that they are obscured by the noise. A preponderance of red also seem to signal in my brain at least that a shot is too noisy. Not sure why that is, but it could be that low light color shots often exhibit a red shift due to the temp of the light or other factors. If that's the case, 'red signals grainy' might be more of a learned association than something physiological.

 

I think the posted shots works on screen, although it might not work printed. I'm surprised that there isn't more motion blur shooting 180 at 1/60; you must have steady hands.

[stacy]

Hmm- ya I guess you're right Matt- there might not be an answer. It just seems like if you knew in advance how far you could underexpose and then bring up in RAW without introducing too much noise you would have some other options when working in low light. I'll keep experimenting. I did some room shots a couple of weeks ago and underexposed about two stops without causing much damage- noise ninja was able to help anyway.

 

I went back a checked the data on this shot and it was all correct except it was iso 800. Luckily they were more slowly swaying than really dancing :)

 

Here is one on film that I underexposed by about a stop- no flash- but the room was covered in colored lights. She is very red and the shadows are very noisy. I'm not going to proof this one so I'm not too concerned, but I don't think I'll try this experiment on film much more :)<div></div>

[ben_rubinstein___mancheste]

I've done that a couple of times when the flash didn't fire, convert to B&W and the horrible noise becomes cool grain ;-)

[bj_bignell]

Just an observation: the bride looks like she has a 5 o'clock shadow. The noise doesn't seem consistent across the tonal scale; it appears much heavier in the shadows. In film, you'd have more grain in the highlights on her face and arm, appearing as dark specks in the bright area.

 

Is there a way to apply noise above a certain value only, or perhaps Photoshop film grain plugin that would better approximate real grain? It's really a beautiful shot, but I can't get over the fact that it looks like she has whiskers...

[wedding-photography-denver]

Personally, I like the film image quite well.

 

I have found that (using the 20d) to underexpose by 1.5 stops is about the limit of what I like do. Largely due to the fact that I don't always want a B&W image and I don't care much for the noise/banding when it remains a color image.

 

I have made mistakes in metering that resulted in being under by 2/3 or so and had to bring up the exposure on several grouped images. NOT my favorite thing to do and not as recoverable (IMHO) as with NPH or similar.

[stacy]

ughh- whiskers- i didn't notice that. I did read an article one time about taking grain from film -like a sky or something and layering it into a photo for a more realistic look- that might be worth a try.

[johnmarkpainter]

Stacy,

 

Two Stops and then use Noise Ninja (don't worry...it won't get rid of ALL of the noise)

[stacy]

Thanks you guys- I'll try to keep my exposure within 1.5- 2 stops this weekend and see if I can get rid of the whiskers :)