What did i do wrong: Dance photos (indoor)

[siddr20]

Hi there,

Was at an event where they had dances and skits etc.

All my photos came out blury :(

Bit of background info: Was located in a hall so indoor and normal light bulb type lights up top. So in a way not much light at all unless you used flash.

I knew this was the case and i was hoping i could borrow a better flash unit, but i couldnt. So had to use standard flash with camera (40d).

I also brought along my 50mm f1.8 lens!!


Now i had most of my photos set at f1.8 in Av mode and played around with the ISO to bump up the shutter speed..

Also it sorta seemed fine in the lcd screen on the camera so i kept shooting.. For those shots that looked alright..

Anyways enough talking.. Btw i should point out all the photos outside with natural lighting (still enough light outside) came out perfect!!!!!

Also i i had the ISO all the way up to 1000 at some instance to bump up shutter speed..

Photos:

1.

Shutter speed: 0.100 s (1/10)
Apeture: f/1.8
ISO: 320

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y276/siddr20/1-2.jpg

2.

ISO: 800
f1.8

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y276/siddr20/2-1.jpg

3.


0.067 s (1/15)
ISO: 640
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y276/siddr20/3-1.jpg

[siddr20]

Now even the normal digi cams capture the dances without shake!!!

So upset hahah..

But my portrait type shots came out well :)

Just all these dance shots. So please help me out!!


Ps. i can upload more photos if you wish. But you get the idea right??

[harroz]

you need to keep your shutter speed above your zoom length. the best way to do this in a situation like yours would be to raise your IS0. you can shoot lower than this, but your subject needs to be still and so does your hand. A tripod helps too if you can use one.

also, be patient. Sometimes it takes a while for people to see, think and write ;-)

[egordon99]

Your shutter speeds were too slow to stop the subject motion. Note that the "rule of thumb" of 1/focal length (1)is only a rule of thumb and (2)ONLY stops camera shake.

No way you are going to get a sharp shot of someone dancing at 1/10s. End of story....

[Titus213]

Your problem was the camera mode you used. In those automated modes the camera is trying to get a proper exposure with ambient light. It can't measure the flash to give you proper settings. It will however use the flash and expose properly based on the settings, which it did. Your images are properly exposed.

Put your camera in manual mode - M - and select a shutter speed of 250 and the f-stop you want. Don't worry about the meter in the camera, the flash will add the light.

If you don't like those results put the camera in P mode and let it make all the decisions.

[form]

Either ghosting from flash and slow shutter speed, or just slow shutter speed - either way your shutter speed is too slow to freeze the motion.

When you use flash as the main light and there isn't enough ambient to fill in the gap, the shots will likely have lots of falloff and light won't be even. The solution is to get a faster lens or, if that's not possible, up your ISO. Alternately, make your own light with strobes/flashes.

[jblaschke]

Yes, setting the AV mode was probably the wrong choice. As others have said, the camera was working to get the correct exposure, not "stop the motion." P mode wouldn't help with this. You'd want to go either fully manual, setting aperture at 1.8 and shutter speed of 250, so just go with TV and a shutter speed of 250 (the camera will select the aperture, but with such dim lighting, it'd default at 1.8 because it couldn't go any lower). You'll want to shoot at 800 ISO. Flash will help out greatly, obviously, with a higher-quality flash allowing you to do bounces off the ceiling. But for just straight shooting, the pop-up flash will give you the illumination you need, if not the creative control.

[woodsie]

On board camera flash will be unlikely to be strong enough to get good results in this situation. An external flash will be a lot better.

When shooting a Canon camera (compact or SLR) in Av mode with flash it tries to balance the flash with ambient light, leading to longer exposures than you want for this sort of photography. My friend's new IXUS seems to be better with this. But both my 20D and S80 compact are shocking for this. If I am using flash I will shoot in either M (on the 20D) or Tv (on the s80) to give me more control over this.

[Walczak Photo]

As has been stated, the problem here was the shutter speed. Unless you are shooting a stationary object and using a tripod, 1/10 -1/15 of a second as all your shots are here is way too slow.

Given the comments here already, I would also add that since you said you're shooting with a 40D you have a much higher ISO range than you used here....use it. When you're shooting indoors, don't be afraid to use ISO 1600 or even ISO 3200...yea, you're going to get a little bit of "grain" but it's A LOT better than the motion blur you have here.

Also you have that big ol' bright view finder on that 40D...use it to review your shots and if/when you see the shots are coming out blurred like this, you know you need to try something else! Not trying to be rude here, but if I saw shots like this on the camera, I'd just delete them right away and reshoot. In my always and ever so humble opinion, shots like these aren't even worth the effort to transfer to the computer.

For shooting outdoor stuff under reasonably decent light, AV mode is fine...I probably use it more than anything else, but in situations such as this you need to pay attention to that shutter speed. I find a good rule of thumb for shooting anything handheld, at least with a 50mm lens, is to keep your shutter speed at least 1/60 of a second or higher. Where you have moving subjects like this, 1/120 of a second or higher would be even better. Then I would worry about the aperture...but in this case you're probably going to be shooting close to wide open anyways such as you were here (just watch that DOF really closely). Then if you're still not getting enough light, start bumping up the ISO...and bump it up as high as you need to (again grain is better than blur...and easier to fix in PP later too). Using flash will certainly give you more latitude in regards to all of this, but in any case that's the way I would approach this and then work from there.

Good Luck,
Jim

[siddr20]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the quick reply and taking your time to explain. I understood it was slow shutterspeed, but i was just trying to work out why it happened in AV mode. Well i guess i now know.. My first time taking photos of dance event this like so i guess i learnt my lesson.

Thank you once again for the help.

Hopefully next time my shots will be a lot better!!

Kind-Regards

[ironchef31]

2 more points to keep in mind:
Shooting at f1.8, you have a very shallow dof depending on how far you are away from the subject.
If the subject is constantly moving, you may aquire focus at one position and take the shot when the subject has moved out of focus.

[londonblue007]

Never be afraid to go to full manual and pick your settings yourself. You've got the screen on the back, so you know when it is looking right or wrong. Use the zoom capability when looking at your shots. Zoom in on the screen to see if things are crisp and in focus. If not, change settings and keep going. Eventually, it'll be second nature and you'll never want to shoot outside of M.

The nifty fifty should have been able to handle that situation without a problem in M, but not in Av as previously said. Good luck in the future.