Shooting in a dark environment tips?

Jeroen · January 29, 2006

I am about to visit a jazz session this afternoon. I expect the setting to be dark but not too crowdy and ofcourse I plan to bring my Canon 350D with a 18-55 lens. Unfortunately I don't own a lense with a longer range yet because the camera itself was over my budget allready for now...

I would prefer not to use my flash. I would hate to annoy the musicians and the listeners. Is it possible to make good photographs without using flash?

I plan to set the camera at 800 ISO, use a low F number, let the camera decide my shutterspeed, focus manually and hope for the best.

I hope you guys have some tips for me.

Thanks in advance,
Jeroen

Andy · January 29, 2006

Jeroen wrote:

I am about to visit a jazz session this afternoon. I expect the setting to be dark but not too crowdy and ofcourse I plan to bring my Canon 350D with a 18-55 lens. Unfortunately I don't own a lense with a longer range yet because the camera itself was over my budget allready for now...

I would prefer not to use my flash. I would hate to annoy the musicians and the listeners. Is it possible to make good photographs without using flash?

I plan to set the camera at 800 ISO, use a low F number, let the camera decide my shutterspeed, focus manually and hope for the best.

I hope you guys have some tips for me.

Thanks in advance,
Jeroen

Hi Jeroen,

You'll need ISO 1600. Wide open. Shoot RAW if you can. It'll be tough with that lens, my best "in the dark" concert type photos have been with my Canon 85mm f/1.8 lens (not terribly expensive, and a light-sucking vacuum!).

Good luck, have a great time!

Shay Stephens · January 29, 2006

And with Jazz, don't be afraid of noise! Incorporate it.

If you are not familiar with manual exposure, then I would suggest shutter priority and start with 1/30th of a second. Work the shutter speed (faster or slower) until you start getting good exposures (check the histogram).

Andy · January 29, 2006

Don't be afraid of movement, either

Same show, maybe 5 mins apart:

iso800, 4/10ths second exposure

iso 1600, 1/500th sec

rutt · January 29, 2006

Andy and Shay have given you great advice! You gotta love Andy's two shots.

After you do shoot these, you may be disappointed with what you got. Don't give up too easily. See this thread for a step-by-step explanation of what I did to save some shots I took in a very dark circumstance.

fraincs · January 29, 2006

I did it a week ago or so with the same equipment as you :

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=26296

wxwax · January 29, 2006

Excellent advice already in this thread. I too shoot in low light clubs without flash. Flash is an uglifier in those environments.

You're probably at the show by now, but just in case... Colored spots play weird games. Consider doing a custom white balance - or at least shooting a white card or grey card so you have a frame of reference in post. Just make sure you put the card in the light the performers will be sitting in.

Another issue to consider because of the weird lighting: Checking the histogram is great. But yours won't show you all three color channels. So you may be overexposed in red, but fine in green and blue. Your combined histo will show that you're OK, when in fact you're blowing out your shots. Be very careful. Compensate if you have a single color light on the performers, I'd suggest underexposing a bit to be safe.

Your shutter speed is your most important piece of info other than the histo. Get it as high as you can, so you know you have some crisp shots. Then you can play with bringing it down, to get some controlled motion blur. High ISO is fine. As Shay likes to say, embrace the noise.

Finally, when you get back, don't forget that a nice B&W conversion can save a shot that has horrid color. I've made B&W a regular part of my post-concert routine.

Jeroen · January 29, 2006

Thanks for the tips :-)
Unfortunately I was a little late asking my question since I only read Andy's reply before I left.

Here's the results of this afternoon, not too bad for a first attempt but I definitely will (and have to) go back and try again.
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=238004#post238004

Shooting in a dark environment tips?

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