My turn...HELP!!! Auditorium...low light

[Peter_AUS]

What about bracketing the shots.

[JSPhoto]

I gues I could, I haven't done it before, and I hadn't thought about it either. Which is one reason I posted here, knowing I wouldn't think of something...Thanks Peter!
I was thinking of doing it in RAW, which would leave me some room for error. Since it is supposed to be a choral thing there shouldn't be much moving around...but then they are kids

JS

[Peter_AUS]

Try bracketing before hand and then look at the RAW images of each of the bracketing and settings you used, this will help decide if bracketing will help in this situation. RAW is good but sometimes other things are better. I just thought that it seemed to be most pro photographers (not all and not everyone here either), seem to bracket photos especially in specific event type photography. I know using the histogram as a visual aid is recommended as well.

[JSPhoto]

Yeah, I think though that I get a bit complacent since I shoot the same things at the same the same locations all the time , then get an odd job like this one that kind of throws my usual shooting out of whack
Now where did I put that darn manual?

JS

[paulnj]

WIDE OPEN ., HIGH ISO, RAW+JPEG, TRIPOD..... cross your fingers!

I had to shoot a similiar sceen last wednesday.... the only thing that saved the day was opening up the shadows in CS2 ;)

[photophorous]

This may be obvious, but can you go to the auditorium in advance and test things out; the bracketing, lenses, ISO? Can you get someone to go with you to be a model on the stage? That's all I can think of to add.

Good luck! Let us know how it turns out.

Paul

[JSPhoto]

This may be obvious, but can you go to the auditorium in advance and test things out; the bracketing, lenses, ISO? Can you get someone to go with you to be a model on the stage? That's all I can think of to add.

Good luck! Let us know how it turns out.

Paul

Hey Paul...uh ho...two Pauls!

I'd like to go early but they didn't give enough warning...typical since they knew this LAST week! I guess they figured the staffer would do it, not me, but it will be me as he's off tomorrow night....cool, I get three jobs in 2 1/2 hours! As for a model, nope, no luck there either, and I don't know anyone at that school. The other schools there I know people, the one next door and the one across the street...go figure.

JS

[masdog]

Are you sure you're not a staff photographer yet, JS? It sure sounds like it.

[Peter_AUS]

masdog, I noticed you have an Epson Stylus Photo R1800 printer. What paper have you found works best for portraiture shots, sizes 6 x 4, 8 x 10, A3/+.

[masdog]

Peter,

I haven't tried printing those sizes yet. I just got the printer just over a week ago, and I haven't finished playing with it yet. I was mainly printing 11x14 sized images since that is what my school's athletic department wants.

I've been using Epson's Heavyweight Matte Paper since I'm not a big fan of glossy. I like the paper, but until I get my laptop screen calibrated (another $100 some bucks that I don't have just yet), I can't be sure that my prints match what is on my screen.

[Peter_AUS]

You are about at a similar stage that I am with as well. I have been using some glossy paper from Mediastreet.com with surprising results, but I would like to try the Matte paper as well. I have read the Lustre paper is good as well, hence why I am asking. The Epson specialty paper isn't cheap here in Australia. Neither are the inks but I have been surprised about how little ink (apparently) the printer uses so far, have printed about 5 A4 size prints with glossy. Will be interesting to see the different thoughts we both have of the printer.

[JSPhoto]

Are you sure you're not a staff photographer yet, JS? It sure sounds like it.

LOL, Well you never know...the other guy is looking elsewhere, maybe they are going to use this to see if I can do more than "just" sports and with the way they have been working me since August you never know what they are up to.

JS

[JSPhoto]

WIDE OPEN ., HIGH ISO, RAW+JPEG, TRIPOD..... cross your fingers!

I had to shoot a similiar sceen last wednesday.... the only thing that saved the day was opening up the shadows in CS2 ;)

Thanks Paul. A bit different than shooting birds eh? This is going to be really odd for me, and I know the folks at the school will expect the staff photog, I hope no one faints when I walk in

JS

[paulnj]

I was invited to a thank you dinner for volunteers(I am a unpaid hawk migration volunteer, though I charge to document it). I got a call 2 hours before arriving "BRING YOUR CAMERA TOO".

I get there and blast a few images here and there of people( and my images projected 12 feet wide on a screen.... cool). OUT OF NOWHERE I hear the speaker say" OK everyone, our photographer Paul is going to climb this ladder and get a group image"

OMG!!! There I am in a dark building at night with a 1D/28-70 F2.8 and a 550EX. I needed 80 feet of focus, so even ISO 3200 wasn't giving me fast enough without flash!!! FLASH AS MAIN , ISO 800, F8, 1/20TH

This is just a quick "adjust shadows 25" resized tiny at low res of a soon to be recycled image to show you what I mean. The original is very dark for the back half due to light fall off!

SHADOWS OPEN and ORIGINAL JPEG(no raw conversions here)

The EDITED images are quite nice at full res considering the gear ;)

[JSPhoto]

Yup, they got you eh! Ouch! Looks like you came out OK though. I think I'll sneak through this OK, I'll probably try a couple shots with each lens and see what I get. It is one time I wish I had a 1.4 or 1.8 wide angle lens though....hmmm, maybe I'll rent one tomorrow from Roberts downtown.

JS

[Speed]

Yup, they got you eh! Ouch! Looks like you came out OK though. I think I'll sneak through this OK, I'll probably try a couple shots with each lens and see what I get. It is one time I wish I had a 1.4 or 1.8 wide angle lens though....hmmm, maybe I'll rent one tomorrow from Roberts downtown.

JS

I love my 50mm f1.4. I'd love to have an 85mm f1.4 as well.

Renting a faster lens may be the way to go...

[JSPhoto]

Yeah, I'd just buy a 50mm but certain people need to pay me first....waiting on around a grand they owe.....and waiting...... I'll probably get both checks Saturday after the bank closes

JS

[Sebastian]

You're press, they should let you use flash. But if they don't, relax, auditoriums are not bad. And they're singing, so slow shutter speeds will work, unlike sports. You will be fine with the IS. My only concern would be white balance, as some auditoriums have terrible quality of light. My suggestion is leave it on auto white balance and do any cleanup in post. If they have 60hz lamps nothing you can do will guarantee the right colors anyways.

[JSPhoto]

You're press, they should let you use flash. But if they don't, relax, auditoriums are not bad. And they're singing, so slow shutter speeds will work, unlike sports. You will be fine with the IS. My only concern would be white balance, as some auditoriums have terrible quality of light. My suggestion is leave it on auto white balance and do any cleanup in post. If they have 60hz lamps nothing you can do will guarantee the right colors anyways.

Thanks Sebastian....my hope is that since it is a newer school the lighting will be descent. And a thought just occured to see of the staff shooter has shot there and whether he will give me any settings he used...I doubt it though, he thinks I'm after his job.

JS

[Sebastian]

You should be fine especially since it's a newer school. Don't bother getting his settings, just go and treat it like any other situation. I have comfortably shot inside dim auditoriums with 1/50 and up speeds at ISO 400 and up. The IS helps you stay steady, but won't stop any subject blur.

[masdog]

I was invited to a thank you dinner for volunteers(I am a unpaid hawk migration volunteer, though I charge to document it). I got a call 2 hours before arriving "BRING YOUR CAMERA TOO".

Usually when someone says that to me on short notice, I tend to "forget" my camera or an important accessory (battery, memory card) at home. I had to do that with my Fraternity a couple of times because they couldn't pay me and, despite knowing about events weeks (or months) in advance, they wouldn't think to have anyone document it until the night before. And this was after I told them that I would refuse to do any photography for them unless I had two weeks notice.

I suppose its different when you're a paying member of an organization that wants you to work the event as well as photograph it.

[paulnj]

Well , I can't refuse ANY work from them! If I do... I don't get any more jobs(atleast that's my fear)

Imagine getting called to DOCUMENT a bird and make $$ , that's what I do mostly. It takes me 5 minutes to get there and 15 to shoot. I bill 2 HOURS!

[JSPhoto]

Well I want to thank everyone for their help with this today! I got there and to my surprise it wasn't an auditorium after all, but a gym and they had all the lights on!
When I walked in though I thought to myself "glad I didn't listen to the staff photog!". His advice was take my 19-35mm and my 70-200, but I also took the 28-300 (it was already on the camera anyway). The way things were set up I had to use the 28-300! They wanted some crowd shots as well as the kids so in order to do it I had to go with both ends of the 28-300 and it was more than bright enough to use it too. I couldn't get around the front of the kids without being in everyones way so I had to to do some snipping in order to get what I needed.

Heres a couple from the job. As you can see in the bottom shot it's not laid out well for photos and moving around. No matter where I'd go I would get in someones way. In this case the assistant principle (perfect for me...I spent a lot of time in the principles office as a kid!)

Thanks again!
JS

[paulnj]

Not too shaby

HMMMM .... I think I will go to the sports shooter forum(for the first time.... SHHHH) and see your sports images too ;)

[JSPhoto]

LOL, thanks Paul, I just wonder what the paper will think! These were all shot with a 28-300....I think it did rather well considering the conditions.

JS