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B-TeasleyComment by bassbone: The image has some very nice elements (the boat and the bridge balancing each other), but the camera settings you have chosen have really impacted the quality of the shots you can achieve. Shooting much above 800 on the T2i is really asking a bit too much. The images at this high ISO setting are suffering from very significant pixelation issues and as a result look blotchy.
I noticed you were using f13 for this image and 1/4000th of a second, but I think you would have had much better luck by opening the aperture a ways under these light conditions and using a more moderate exposure time. Yes, smaller apertures allow for greater depth of field, but you need to balance the DOF with the amount of available light. Also, the object is not moving very fast (limited wake) and you could have easily captured the same image with a much longer exposure time.
My recommendation is to lock that ISO as low as possible while allowing you the control of both aperture and exposure time.
Simply adjusting the aperature to f8 and adjusting the shutter speed to 1/500 would you buy you enough light to move that ISO all the way down to 400. The sensor on the entry level DSLRs really don't handle high ISO well.
I also looked your other outtake from the challenge, and the same issues with pixelation due to the high ISO are extreme.
A question for you....do you have the settings on your camera to autoselect ISO? If so, I would highly recommend that you switch that off. Using that setting will turn your camera into an expensive P&S with little of the functionality and flexibility that the DSLR in your hand is capable. In general, lock the ISO as low as possible and use the aperature and shutter speed settings to control the light.
Good luck!
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