Advice needed on indoor photography

[panasonic]

Hello,

I've been asked to take some photos of a horse riding tournament, which will be taking place indoors and outdoors. The outdoor shots don't worry me but the indoor ones do. It would be great to get a few shots of the horses in action, but I'm not allowed to use a flash. The lighting isn't particularly strong, and it is generally on the dark side indoors anyway, made worse by bad weather (hopefully the sun will shine!). Anyone got any good general advice to enable some good quality indoor shots? Thanks.

[Citizensmith]

Wide appeture is king. Use, rent or buy lenses with f/2.8 at least and f/1.8 or better if possible. The 70-200 F/2.8 L IS would be an acceptable choice but something like the 50 f/1.4, or 85 f/1.8 would also be good choices. It really depends on how far you are from your subjects.

Secondly. high ISO is your friend. Accept the fact that you will be shooting at ISO 1600 or 3200 and will have to deal with noise. Fortunately there is excellent software out there that can help clean it up. I like Imagenomic's Noiseware and it even has a freebie version.

If you can visit the place earlier you could figure out what the light levels are like and how close you will be to your subject. It'll let you be prepared for what lenses to try and get hold of.

[Curtis N]

It would help if you gave us some clue about what camera & lenses you have available.

[rlhphotos]

Definitely a fast 2.8 or 2.8 down to 1.2 lens would be nice for the indoor shots...But more info one what you have already would be nice.

[panasonic]

Thanks for the help. I'll be using an EOS 350. I'll be standing approx. 6 m away from where the action takes place and will have light coming in from behind and in front of me, not direct sunlight though. I suppose I could also lighten up with Photoshop afterwards, but I would like to try and avoid this as I'll be there for most of the day and there will a lot of photos.

Good idea with going along a bit earlier to test the location.

[liza]

If you're going to be that close, consider the 85mm 1.8. It's a great lens for low light situations, as is the 100mm f/2.

[panasonic]

Thanks for the advice Liza. I've just had a look at your gallery and you have some amazing photos.

[liza]

Thank you. Using a prime vs. a zoom takes a bit of getting used to, but the clarity of the images is well worth it to me.