Help for a Newbie: Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens

[TCampbell]

The image noise in your image isn't really that bad -- that's easily remedied with software. You marked your image as "Not OK" to edit -- so I didn't, but I could show you how much you could change this with a bit of adjustment (increase the contrast, slightly warm the image, and then de-noise.)

I dislike all the de-noising I've seen in most software (Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture -- all have marginal noise adjustment capabilities). I stumbled onto a Photoshop plug-in (which is also available as a Lightroom plug-in or Aperture plug-in and even available as a stand-alone program) called Imagenomic Noiseware Pro. I like it because it offers a great deal of control over HOW it processes to reduce noise. You can tune it for chroma noise vs. luma noise, and can tune it to tell that that noise mostly occurs in shadows and not so much in highlights, etc.) Consequently it does a much more targeted removal of the noise. Another popular noise plug-in is Noise Ninja -- I've tested it but went back to Noiseware Pro ... I found I didn't have quite as much control with Noise Ninja.

Don't fear the flash. Flash is fabulous BUT... only if you control it. We talk about 'soft' light and I've seen people put these little tiny diffuser caps on their flashes. It's not about putting something with a milky texture on the flash... it's about making the flash appear to originate from a very broad source. Bouncing off a (preferably white) ceiling or wall works wonders. When that's not available, a shoot-through photographic umbrella (white) is about $10. Once you start getting hooked, you realize how much MORE you could do if only you had other types of light modifiers (soft boxes, grids, snoots, and the list goes on.)

It's not so much "flash" that looks bad... it's "uncontrolled light" that looks bad. To create good light you need good shadows and you want them to have soft transitions from highlight to shadow and not originate from the camera (a little off to the side creates a bit of dimensionality to the image so you see more surface texture and contours rather than a flat 2D look.)