High ISO noise

[WJM]

I'm using a 6D mark ll. Others who use this , at what ISO do you consider noise becoming excessive?

 I shot a basketball game and it started to show a lot of noise starting at 800 or 1600 on up. 

I shot with a Canon 24-105 L ,Tamron 15-30 2.8 and a Tamron 70-200 2.8 G2.

Thanks for the feed back

[Waddizzle · Accepted solution]

The resolution of your sample is 640 x 427.  What resolution are you shooting at?  JPEG or RAW?

Suggestion:  Your shooting angle is too high above the floor.  You need to get down to the players' eye level, [if] not lower.

[Waddizzle]

Please post a sample of high ISO noise.  The following shot was taken with a 6D2 at ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/800.

Does this photo have a high ISO noise problem?

[Waddizzle]

This photo was shot at ISO 8000

[wq9nsc]

WJM,

Are you having to crop heavily to get the scene you want?  If so that makes the increased noise/loss of sharpness much more of a problem.  The closer you can come to filling the sensor with the desired image, the less that noise will be an issue.  Please do post some examples.

I consider noise excessive when it becomes clearly noticeable and starts to detract from the image.  HOWEVER as photographers we tend to be far more critical than others and particularly for sports sometimes some noise is inevitable given shooting conditions.  I am fortunate to do a lot of shooting in a well lit gym which allows ISO sensitivity from 2000-4000 which works very well with the cameras I am using.  But two years ago I was shooting football at a field with inadequate lighting at best and over half of the lighting standards were out that night.  One of the images I captured was shot across the field in one of the worst lit areas forcing the camera to ISO 40,000 but the player who made that leaping catch was overjoyed to have a record of it.  The noise drives me crazy but I was glad to make that young man happy with a record of his catch.

The football photo is at ISO 40,000 while the basketball photo is at a much happier ISO 2000. 

Your 6D2 doesn't have quite the high ISO performance of the 1DX and 1DX 2 I am using but I saw some images a parent shot of her daughter at a volleyball game with her 6D2 and with a little post process work I cleaned up her ISO 6400 images to what I thought were some very nice images.  Post processing is key when working with higher ISO to retain as much color and detail while smoothing out and removing the noise.

Rodger

[WJM]

                       This image is with the 24-105L  47mm , f4 1/640 at ISO800.

If I zoom in to 1:1 a lot of noise shows up in the bleachers

[kvbarkley]

More noise than these?:

https://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/6d-mk-ii.htm

[WJM]

Am I being to critical on myself and the equipment?

[kvbarkley · Accepted solution]

I think so, but you are the artist.

[Waddizzle · Accepted solution]

The resolution of your sample is 640 x 427.  What resolution are you shooting at?  JPEG or RAW?

Suggestion:  Your shooting angle is too high above the floor.  You need to get down to the players' eye level, [if] not lower.

[WJM]

It was a Raw exported as a Jpeg from LR.  The resolution I'm not sure of off the top of my head. 

As far as getting lower ,my knees give me a little trouble . But I will take that into consideration.

Thanks for the help.