diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c3bb16b..56fa6fb 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
   (used for the log `message`) and `event.dataset` (a field provided by the
   `elasticapm` integration) ([#46](https://github.com/elastic/ecs-logging-python/pull/46))
 * Add default/fallback handling for json.dumps ([#47](https://github.com/elastic/ecs-logging-python/pull/47))
+* Fixed an issue in `StdLibFormatter` when `exc_info=False` ([#42](https://github.com/elastic/ecs-logging-python/pull/42))
 
 ## 1.0.0 (2021-02-08)
 
diff --git a/ecs_logging/_stdlib.py b/ecs_logging/_stdlib.py
index 2de6e6d..a89abee 100644
--- a/ecs_logging/_stdlib.py
+++ b/ecs_logging/_stdlib.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 # under the License.
 
 import logging
+import sys
 import time
 from traceback import format_tb
 from ._meta import ECS_VERSION
@@ -112,6 +113,34 @@ def __init__(self, stack_trace_limit=None, exclude_fields=()):
         self._exclude_fields = frozenset(exclude_fields)
         self._stack_trace_limit = stack_trace_limit
 
+    def _record_error_type(self, record):
+        # type: (logging.LogRecord) -> Optional[str]
+        exc_info = record.exc_info
+        if not exc_info:
+            # exc_info is either an iterable or bool. If it doesn't
+            # evaluate to True, then no error type is used.
+            return None
+        if isinstance(exc_info, bool):
+            # if it is a bool, then look at sys.exc_info
+            exc_info = sys.exc_info()
+        if isinstance(exc_info, (list, tuple)) and exc_info[0] is not None:
+            return exc_info[0].__name__
+        return None
+
+    def _record_error_message(self, record):
+        # type: (logging.LogRecord) -> Optional[str]
+        exc_info = record.exc_info
+        if not exc_info:
+            # exc_info is either an iterable or bool. If it doesn't
+            # evaluate to True, then no error message is used.
+            return None
+        if isinstance(exc_info, bool):
+            # if it is a bool, then look at sys.exc_info
+            exc_info = sys.exc_info()
+        if isinstance(exc_info, (list, tuple)) and exc_info[1]:
+            return str(exc_info[1])
+        return None
+
     def format(self, record):
         # type: (logging.LogRecord) -> str
         result = self.format_to_ecs(record)
@@ -145,14 +174,8 @@ def format_to_ecs(self, record):
             "process.name": self._record_attribute("processName"),
             "process.thread.id": self._record_attribute("thread"),
             "process.thread.name": self._record_attribute("threadName"),
-            "error.type": lambda r: (
-                r.exc_info[0].__name__
-                if (r.exc_info is not None and r.exc_info[0] is not None)
-                else None
-            ),
-            "error.message": lambda r: (
-                str(r.exc_info[1]) if r.exc_info and r.exc_info[1] else None
-            ),
+            "error.type": self._record_error_type,
+            "error.message": self._record_error_message,
             "error.stack_trace": self._record_error_stack_trace,
         }  # type: Dict[str, Callable[[logging.LogRecord],Any]]
 
diff --git a/tests/test_stdlib_formatter.py b/tests/test_stdlib_formatter.py
index a6758af..f0a3d32 100644
--- a/tests/test_stdlib_formatter.py
+++ b/tests/test_stdlib_formatter.py
@@ -183,6 +183,21 @@ def test_stack_trace_limit_disabled(stack_trace_limit, logger):
     assert ecs["log"]["original"] == "there was an error"
 
 
+def test_exc_info_false_does_not_raise(logger):
+    stream = StringIO()
+    handler = logging.StreamHandler(stream)
+    handler.setFormatter(ecs_logging.StdlibFormatter())
+    logger.addHandler(handler)
+    logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
+
+    logger.info("there was %serror", "no ", exc_info=False)
+
+    ecs = json.loads(stream.getvalue().rstrip())
+    assert ecs["log.level"] == "info"
+    assert ecs["message"] == "there was no error"
+    assert "error" not in ecs
+
+
 def test_stack_trace_limit_traceback(logger):
     def f():
         g()