What is a good setting..

[Candice]

Afternoon!

I mostly take photos of my two girls.. parrots that is :D.. and they are constantly moving.
So I use a fast shutter speed with my ex flash for the photos to turn out well.
But I was wondering if there would be a way to take photos of them with out the flash and have them turn out? I get a lot of heavy shadows with the flash.. less with the ex flash then the pop up flash but I would rather see none.
And let me say again, They are ALWAYS MOVING! LOLOLOL
I am lucky to get shots of them at high shutter speed.
I tried when I first got the camera to take pictures with out the flash at a lower shutter speed. I remember them turning out so so but don't remember what settings I used.
Any help appreciated :)

[Candice]

Here is a photo I just took.
It turned out a little dark but it was fixed in camera RAW and I had to fix the noise. the ISO was 400 the shutter speed 60.
Does that seem right? Is is supposed to turn out dark and you have to fix noise everytime?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v688/Candiflip/November30th20063RNMED.jpg

[Lauren]

Are you indoors? 400 is about the lowest ISO I would recommend, I am usually up at 800 or 1600 when I'm indoors. Also what aperture are you shooting at? If you're using a quite narrow aperture to get the depth of field, you're really restricting the light coming in.

[Candice]

400 is pretty noisy. If I go up to 800 or 1600 it will be even more.
the apature was as low as it would go on this lens, 5.6.
Oh, yes I am in doors with an over head light on, and a stand up light on that has two lights on it(one big & one small) also with the blinds open.

[Lauren]

Hmm, I'm looking at your specs... a 20D should be able to go up past 400 without affecting noise, providing you are getting the correct exposure. I pushed the XT (very similar sensor and processor) up to 1600 a lot and it wasn't that noisy - sometimes it was almost like silk.

When you use your external flash, how are you using it? If you are bouncing it from either the ceiling or the wall behind you, you shouldn't have much shadow at all - particularly if you attach some kind of softener. But if you don't want to use your flash, you need to get a lens that is better suited for lower light. Either the 50mm 1.8 or the more expensive 85mm 1.8 are ideal.

[Candice]

I have a 100mm lens so I just tried to use that at 60, 3.2, 400 and the lighting turned out good but they were all blurry none of them turned out good.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v688/Candiflip/December1st20066MED.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v688/Candiflip/December1st20063MED.jpg
those are two of the 'best' ones.
The rest were just allll blurry!
with the 85mm lens does it get blurry like the 100mm? I don't have this problem with my 17-85mm.

[Candice]

Oh and the noise was LESS with the 100mm lens I did not reduce the nose in these photos.

[Lauren]

What focus point are you using? I think the 100mm ones are actually misfocused, because if you look at the second one, the foot and some of the neck feathers are in focus. Try manually selecting your focus point and focusing on the eyes if you can - I know animals are hard to get still long enough to lock focus!

[Pachimac]

oooo- I think the pictures you showed are gorgeous!!!!!

[Candice]

Thank you Susan!

About the focusing, I always focus focus on the eyes but then they start moving. for some reason the 100mm gets blurry.
I guess untill I can get a new lens I will just use my 17-85mm and then reduce the noise.
Thanks!
Ohh.. You never answered me, does the 85mm have a hard time focusing like the 100mm does? I don't have a hard time focusing with my 100mm when I am doing close up of like flowers and stuff but not some general shots of the girls.

[Pachimac]

YW. I have a hugely hard time with focus too!

Thank you Susan!

About the focusing, I always focus focus on the eyes but then they start moving. for some reason the 100mm gets blurry.
I guess untill I can get a new lens I will just use my 17-85mm and then reduce the noise.
Thanks!
Ohh.. You never answered me, does the 85mm have a hard time focusing like the 100mm does? I don't have a hard time focusing with my 100mm when I am doing close up of like flowers and stuff but not some general shots of the girls.

[Candice]

I took out my Understanding Exposure book and read a little. I think I understand a little more now.
Here is a photo right out of the camera no editing at all not even in camera raw.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v688/Candiflip/December4th20062ROCMED.jpg