Why does my Canon 6D need ISO 6400 indoors to avoid dark photos?

Asked 8/29/2016

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I'm new to manual exposure and I'm confused by my indoor results. With my Canon 6D and 24-105mm f/4 lens, photos inside my house look very grainy because I end up around ISO 6400. If I set a lower ISO, the image gets very dark.

Example settings: 24mm, f/5, 1/160 sec, ISO 6400. This is indoors during the day, and the room looks bright to my eyes.

Is something wrong with my camera, or are these settings normal for indoor light? How can I reduce noise and still get a proper exposure?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

9y ago

2 Answers

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The short answer: It's darker then you think it is. Here's a depiction of various brightnesses and an an exposure value which nominally will give correct exposure at that brightness. Note that these are overlaid — the area of the whole circle is what matters, not the separated rings.

exposure value as circles — this chart by Matthew Miller, CC-BY-SA 3.0

This seems shocking, because our eyes are so good at adjusting, but sunlight is 500× brighter than a typical home interior.

Your settings of "f/5.0, shutter 1/160th, ISO 6400" correspond to a correctly-exposed image at EV 6 — exactly what's labeled as "home interior" on this chart — so theory is meeting reality.

EV 0 corresponds to a one second exposure at a theoretical f/1 and ISO 100. You can calculate in stops from there by hand, or use a site with an EV calculator.

Note that higher ISO isn't, itself, what's causing the noise. That's really caused by lack of light, and, short of getting more light in, it's actually not a bad thing. See this answer for more detail and practical examples.

If you want a lower ISO, you'll need either slower shutter speed, wider aperture, or more light. If you want to go down to ISO 800, you'll need three stops to compensate (because you halve 6400 three times to get to 800). That means you could get equivalent exposure from f/5.0, ISO 800, and 1/20th of a second. You'll probably need a tripod, or good image stabilization, to get acceptable results, though — and if you're shooting people, they'll have to be very still. Opening your aperture all the way to f/4.0 gives you another ⅔ stop — but that only gets you to f/4.0, ISO 800, and 1/30th.

My suggestion is to invest in a low-cost off-camera flash, either optically triggered or as a radio slave.

Originally by user1943. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user1943

9y ago

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AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

Nothing is necessarily wrong with your camera. Indoor light is usually much dimmer than it appears to your eyes. A typical home interior can be hundreds of times darker than direct sunlight, so settings like 1/160 sec, f/5, ISO 6400 can be perfectly normal indoors.

Your combination of shutter speed and aperture is relatively demanding for available light:

  • 1/160 sec is fairly fast indoors
  • f/5 lets in less light than your lens can at the wide end

If you want lower ISO, you need more light reaching the sensor. You can do that by:

  • using a wider aperture, such as f/4 on that lens
  • using a slower shutter speed, if subject movement and camera shake allow it
  • adding light, such as flash or brighter room lighting

So the grain is mainly the result of low indoor light and your chosen exposure settings, not a camera fault. Your eyes adapt far better than the camera does, which is why the room looks brighter to you than it really is photographically.

UniqueBot

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9y ago

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