Available Light

I Was Reading A Post Yesterday That Spoke Of A Len' Sweet Spot. I Feel Like Im Constantly Trying To Squeeze Every Bit Of Available Light I Can Get Just To Make A Shot, Hence Im Always Shooting All The Way Open And Still Getting Under Exposed Shot That I Feel I Need To Lighten In Photo Editiing Software. I Dont Like The Grainy Look I Get When I Use Iso 800 But What's My Alternative. I Use A 20d With The 17-85. It's Like I Shoot Shoot Shoot And Once In A While I Get A Good Shot. But I Really Feel Lost Most Of The Time.

Whew Grumpy, those caps are killing me :)

Most lenses seem to be sharpest at around f8, but for those of us shooting in low light we rarely get to see f8, or anything close. You do not mention though what camera ans lens your shooting with so we can't help much. Also post some examples, this too may help us help you.

JS

They are a drag to carry, setup, break-down, for each shot. But if your subject is not moving, low light photos just pop with color and sharpness when shooting in the sweetspot.....

If you can't use the sweet spot, then don't use the sweet spot. More than 75% of my photos are shot wide open due to low light. It's much more important to get the shot than to get the sharpest shot.

I totally agree with Sebastian's comment. Looks like the poster is using a 20D with a 17-85 lens; maybe the original post was modified.

I'm guessing that's not a real fast lens. Try a 50mm f1.8 at under $100USD. Very sharp and fast lens and important for low light work. It's probably at least two stops faster than what you have now.

Underexposed images that have been lightened in Photoshop look worse (and more noisy) to me than a properly exposed high-ISO shot. ISO1600 in that camera looks pretty good from what I've seen. If it's still a problem, you can look into Noise Ninja or other noise-reducing software that you'd apply in Photoshop.