Best Settings for Low Light Photography on EOS R6 Mark II with RF 50mm f/1.2L?

[jhonndee]

Hey everyone,

I recently picked up the Canon EOS R6 Mark II paired with the RF 50mm f/1.2L lens, and I’m experimenting with low light shooting, mainly street scenes and indoor portraits. I love the sharpness and bokeh, but I’m still dialing in the ideal settings.

Specs I’m working with:

• Body: Canon EOS R6 Mark II (24.2MP Full-Frame CMOS, DIGIC X)
• Lens: RF 50mm f/1.2L USM
• ISO range: Auto 100–12800 (sometimes pushing to 25600)
• Shutter speed: ~1/60 to 1/200 sec
• IBIS: Enabled
• AF Mode: Eye Detection AF / Servo

Any tips on ISO ceiling, noise reduction in-camera vs post, or customizing picture profiles for low light? Would love to hear your setups and workflow, especially for handheld shots with minimal artificial lighting.

Thanks in advance!
Jhonn Dee

[Hazel_T]

Hi jhondee,

The specific settings to use vary from shoot to shoot, so there aren't settings we could recommend that would work in all situations. In general ISO range is in line with what we would expect. The shutter range would be good to use while hand holding the camera is IS enabled. 

Depending on how low the light conditions get you may want to look into using longer shutter speeds and a tripod. When the light gets low enough it can get to the point where you might not be able to get a good clear exposure while hand holding the camera. In those situations we would recommend mounting the camera on a tripod, turn off IS, and use longer shutter speeds of a second or longer. That is especially helpful for things like astrophotography or low light landscapes.

In low light you may want to look at using the Long Exposure Noise Reduction and High ISO Speed NR settings. Those settings can help clear up some of the noise introduced through higher ISO settings and long exposures. It would be good to try testing each level of those settings by themselves to narrow down which one gives you the image quality you prefer.

[kvbarkley]

If IBIS is working with your lens, I would push the shutter speed down to 1/15 and use good technique.

[jrhoffman75]

If you are using Lightroom, Photoshop or another editing program I recommend you shoot in RAW and use the editing tools in the software vs in-camera. I use the same ISO range as you and am happy with the results.