dim lighting photography

[louise]

Hello!
i have been asked to take some photos at a theatre production this week. i have a canon 400D. i have found the flash often over exposes or gives a harsh light.
could anyone suggest a good setting using the manual setting for this- suggest iso, ft and shutter speed? (without a tripod)

thank you in advance

[JamieWillmott]

Hi,

When you mention the flash are you meaning the internal flash or do you have an external unit?

Unfortunately, there isn't a magical manual setting that can be suggested to work for your situation. It depends on what light levels you are shooting in and what lenses you will be using. Your camera will do a better job of working out the exposure settings for your given situation.

I would suggest trying the aperture priority setting (Av) and selecting the widest aperture you can for your lens (smallest number). See what shutterspeed you get and then adjust the ISO until you get something you can hand hold without getting camera shake.

As a guideline, try to get the shutter speed faster than the focal length of the lens you are using. If you are using a 100mm lens, try to be shooting at faster than 1/100s. For digital, which is more susceptible to camera shake, it is suggested that even the crop factor of your sensor be taken into account. For your 100mm lens you could be aiming for a shutter speed of better than 1/160s.

The problem with a higher ISO is that you will get more noise in your images. You can remove some of it with a tool like neatimage or noise ninja, but you will also lose image detail.

Is there any reason why you don't want to use a tripod?

What lenses will you be using?

Do you have an external flash and does the venue allow flash photography?

[louise]

thanks for your advice, i will definately try some of that out.

i've got a 18-200 mm. i have not got a tripod but might be able to find something to lean on.
there is some lighting in the venue to my memory, but a flash might ruin the atmosphere there.

thank you

[photographyxfactor]

For this type of photography you need to set your camera at a higher ISO. When the ISO is set to high you get more noise to your pictures. Some digital cameras cut out noise better than others. Sometimes I like noise in my pictures. It can give a nice mood to the photograph.

It also requires a slow shutter speed. When the shutter is open for a long time it allows more light to get onto the camera's sensor. When your shutter is open you a long time you need to make sure you use a tripod and a cable release so that your camera is as still as possible when you take the picture. If the camera moves around it will make your picture blurry.

[GaryDean]

This is coming from someone who since doing a bit of video work on my 5D has learned to hate the slightest bit of grain and refuses to use a higher ISO than 200 it's amazing how much buzz a high ISO can cause on videos in poor light), but any external light source (if they'll let you use it) would be helpful. Without knowing how dark the room is but taking a wild guess being a theatre I'd say any lens with an f-stop of 1.8 or less would suffice.

And to back up what Jamie said, if you're not using flash use a tripod. Using a tripod doesn't mean being immobile, get a small one, set your shot up, shoot it, and move again.