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02/10/2011 12:18:38 PM · #1 |
My neighbor so kindly volunteered me to take photos for our churches Valentines Dance. It will be held in the churches gym at night and the lighting will be very poor. I don't really have a good lighting set-up and I don't really love shadows cast when using the on board flash. I do have three vivetar flashes with peanut triggers but no stands or soft boxes, so I don't think these will be practicle to use either.
I am thinking of going with no flash, using available light. If I bump up my ISO to say 400 and Use my 50mm on a wide open aperture I think I might be able to get something decent.
Keep in mind no one is paying for these shots, it's really just for fun, so the quality doesn't have to be superb. At the same time, this is a good way to get the word out to some of my neighbors and friends that I am available to take pictures of their kids and family, so I want to do a decent job.
Suggestions PLEASE!!!! |
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02/10/2011 12:32:05 PM · #2 |
I tried the available light method at my nieces 13th b-day party in a gym at the local YMCA. It was disappointing. I used my XSI at 1600 ISO and the 50mm f1.8II wide open. It can really suck going through a lot of photo's you loved and finding out they are blurry or poor from being hand held with low shutter speed. Also shooting wide open at f1.8 I found that I often missed the focus because the plane of focus is so short at wider aperture.
I don't know what equipment you have but I would suggest you try using your flash with a diffuser. Go out and by a cheap flash diffuser and/or dial back your flash exposure.
You can take a look at my results here:
Low Light Party |
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02/10/2011 12:39:24 PM · #3 |
A Gary Fong light defuser can really help. Nice soft even light. A little boring and predictable but you get the shot. For a wedding reception I shot last summer I shot with a Stofen cap diffuser on my SB600. I just had to make sure I got relatively close. The Gary Fong defuser would be softer and more even though. (Its on my wish list)
eta: Here's the shots I managed to get. The other thing I did was get the flash off camera with a cable. I just held the camera in one hand and the flash in the other. Apparently saying "The goofier you look the better your pictures are" is true.
//crtaylor.smugmug.com/Weddings/Dustin-and-Erin-Reception/14593168_Sx9V7
Message edited by author 2011-02-10 12:41:52. |
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02/10/2011 12:44:43 PM · #4 |
You're right, the optical triggers won't help much in a public setting. You can expect other people to be taking photos and the flashes will fire when any strobe goes off.
I'd suggest raising the ISO to more than 400 and doing some noise reduction on them. You can correct for some noise in PP, but not camera shake or motion blur. These were shot with an EOS20D at ISO 1600, (which has low light performance similar to your Rebel) but I was right up next to the stage. Even then my shutter speeds were iffy and many shots from the session were throwaways. Most certainly use a tripod or monopod. I used a monopod, as there was not enough room to use a tripod and I needed to be able to move around more easily.
  
Message edited by author 2011-02-10 12:46:49.
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02/10/2011 12:57:10 PM · #5 |
I got contracted to shoot a Zumba-thon at a skate rink with nothing more than blacklights on.For the most part, I shot with a single Vivitar 285HV, triggered with cheapo wireless triggers, bounced off a white wall at the end of the rink, changing aperture and ISO accordingly as I moved about. Also drug the shutter a lot to keep that special blue glow from the blacklights.
This one is with the flash as a backlight with the white wall providing fill.
Here's one with the light and stand in the shot
Message edited by author 2011-02-10 13:02:04.
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02/10/2011 01:22:38 PM · #6 |
| Thanks guys, I should have added that these will be posed shots and I will have my camera on a tripod so camera shake won't be and issue. I could shoot on the stage, it has stage lighting that I could adjust in any direction I wanted to. |
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02/10/2011 01:31:43 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by sjhuls:
I could shoot on the stage, it has stage lighting that I could adjust in any direction I wanted to. |
There ya go. Just be careful, stage lighting is often quite harsh. So bring the lights up to the bare minimum you need to do your job.
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02/10/2011 02:22:22 PM · #8 |
| Remember also that the tripod will take care of camera movement but won't do anything towards helping blur caused by moving subjects -- you'll still need to shoot at a sufficient speed. |
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02/10/2011 03:54:09 PM · #9 |
Typically in this type of situation, I find myself shooting @ 1.8 ISO 1600-3200 shutter @ 1/80-1/160...
You'll miss a few, but overall it should (depending on light, clearly) be enough to get what you're looking for, my concern is that your Rebel may not be quite up to the task of shooting @ 3200, although I haven't much experience with your model of Rebel, so I'm sure you know better than I. |
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02/10/2011 03:55:54 PM · #10 |
Originally posted by coryboehne:
my concern is that your Rebel may not be quite up to the task of shooting @ 3200, although I haven't much experience with your model of Rebel, so I'm sure you know better than I. |
It only goes up to 1600, I believe.
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02/10/2011 04:11:22 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by Yo_Spiff:
Originally posted by coryboehne:
my concern is that your Rebel may not be quite up to the task of shooting @ 3200, although I haven't much experience with your model of Rebel, so I'm sure you know better than I. |
It only goes up to 1600, I believe. |
Well, I guess a 50 1.2 is kinda a solution for that....
Message edited by author 2011-02-10 16:11:40. |
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02/10/2011 04:13:51 PM · #12 |
Yes it only goes to 1600 and at that ISO photos are horrible. They are so grainy that there is almost no fixing them. I made that mistake in a previous challenge photo and I had a really tough time making it presentable.
400 ISO is as far up as I usually go. |
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02/10/2011 09:29:22 PM · #13 |
Originally posted by sjhuls:
Yes it only goes to 1600 and at that ISO photos are horrible. They are so grainy that there is almost no fixing them. I made that mistake in a previous challenge photo and I had a really tough time making it presentable.
400 ISO is as far up as I usually go. |
Unless your definition of poor lighting is much more optimistic than mine, you'll either have to go a lot higher than 400 or you'll have to use lighting. That's pretty much all there is to it. |
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02/10/2011 10:00:56 PM · #14 |
Originally posted by sjhuls:
Yes it only goes to 1600 and at that ISO photos are horrible. They are so grainy that there is almost no fixing them. I made that mistake in a previous challenge photo and I had a really tough time making it presentable.
400 ISO is as far up as I usually go. |
I like the grainy portraits at 1600 ISO especially in B&W with a lot of tones.
Message edited by author 2011-02-10 22:01:37. |
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02/10/2011 10:10:21 PM · #15 |
They may have some extra microphone boom stands that you can use to put your remote flash units on using rubber bands. Flashes from other cameras may cause it to fire a lot though, keeping it depleted when you need it to fire. It would also cause their photos to be strangely overexposed. The diffuser and flash on your camera is a very good idea. It would help a lot if you can use a cord to a remote with diffuser, and keep it above your camera by some method for the shoot, sort of like using a flash bracket for wedding shooting. If you use only the stage lighting, and it is not going to be changed during the shoot, be sure to set a custom white balance for it.
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