What settings should I try this morning?

[bigrob]

Hi

I've mainly been taking pics of my kids playing sport.

Well this morning my son is in a play at school. The kids will be under stage lighting.

I'll be at the back of the hall (about 50 ft away) using my 20D with a 70-200 2.8 IS.

Please help.

What settings should I try?

Should I shoot RAW & JPEG (never shot RAW before but just bought Photoshop).

It starts in 1.5 hrs.

Thanks

[Maureen Souza]

I would up the ISO to about 1600 and try the aperture at around 4 or decrease the shutter speed to 1/40. You might have to play around with it a bit...are you using any flash?
Good luck!

[bigrob]

Hi Maureen

Thanks for that.

I have a 580Ex but didn't think it would be effective at that range.

[chris.bailey]

The advantage of Raw would be the ability to adjust White Balance as it is likely to be a bit odd under stage lighting.

I doubt flash would be effective so up the ISO to 1600 as Maureen says though I would want a bit more than 1/40th at 200mm and would rather go to ISO 3200 , IS mode 1.

[1goodshot]

Why not shoot raw with a large jpeg? that way you have the raws to play with.

[Marshall]

Here in the U.K.we are no longer allowed to photograph even ones own kids in school activities,& it has recently got to the stage that police have stopped people shooting in the street, in case there is a minor within shot ,much on this topic recently in U.K. mag. 'Amateur Photographer'. Political correctness ref.paedophilia gone mad !

[mr.photoguy]

Here in the U.K.we are no longer allowed to photograph even ones own kids in school activities,& it has recently got to the stage that police have stopped people shooting in the street, in case there is a minor within shot ,much on this topic recently in U.K. mag. 'Amateur Photographer'. Political correctness ref.paedophilia gone mad !
Then I take it because of Law, he can't photograph is kid at the show.

[bigrob]

My kids' school is ok about us videoing & taking photos in school plays.

Any I shot RAW and large jpegs.

They are pretty atrococius but at least I have made a start and hopefully as I learn more I can get better.

Here are 2 pics which I have resized from the jpegs.

Please be brutal !!!!

[Dubsta]

How far back were you?

[bigrob]

I would guess 50 feet.

[mr.photoguy]

If you shot them in Raw, you can open up the exposure a little bit more.(assuming you haven't already) what was your iso, the images are so clean.

[bigrob]

I haven't touched the RAW images. ISO 1600

[Andy_T]

Bigrob,

you should certainly try using your 580 EX on these images.
At 1600, it will add quite something to the lighting.

Best regards,
Andy

[bigrob]

Would the 580 reach that far?

I'll take a proper measurement next week of the distance for next time.

[robertwgross]

Theoretically, your 580EX flash has a guide number of 58 meters @ISO 100, so if you used the lens wide open at f/2.8, that will give a range of about 20 meters @ISO 100, or 80 meters @ISO 1600. However, you might not want to count on every photon of that.

---Bob Gross---

[bigrob]

Thanks for that Bob - I'll give it a go next time and see what happens.

[PhotosGuy]

give a range of about 20 meters @ISO 100, or 80 meters @ISO 1600 Are you sure Bob?
Light falls off in direct proportion to an f-stop number. If you call 20 meters 22 meters instead just to make the calculation easier, then
22 meters @ISO 100
32 meters @ISO 200
45 meters @ISO 400
60 meters @ISO 1600

Rob, looks like you have an excellent example of "Murphy's Law" there, "Any subject will always be in the darkest part of the environment". Still, once you get used to working with RAW & PS, those pics are easily fixed.
I'm not sure that I'd recommend using a flash in those pics as it would destroy the feeling that the TD tried to achieve with his lighting.
What I would suggest is that you use a tripod next time so the pics wouldn't look as soft. That will make life a bit easier when you do go into PS to adjust them.

[Mitch]

From 50 ft away, I would suggest f2.8, ISO 800, full manual flash power (1/1) or f2.8, ISO 1600 at flash power (1/2).

[robertwgross]

Are you sure Bob?
Light falls off in direct proportion to an f-stop number. If you call 20 meters 22 meters instead just to make the calculation easier, then
22 meters @ISO 100
32 meters @ISO 200
45 meters @ISO 400
60 meters @ISO 1600


I'm not certain where you got your numbers.

(The manual says) The 580EX flash has a guide number of 58 meters @ISO 100 @105mm flash coverage, so if you used the lens wide open at f/2.8, that will give a range of about 20.9 meters @ISO 100, or about 83.6 meters @ISO 1600.

---Bob Gross---

[bigrob]

Thanks for all your help guys.

This was the first time I have shot RAW & JPEG, & I have no idea yet how to use Photoshop.

When I get time between ferrying the kids around and doing the housework I'll need to sit down and make a start & see if I can make the photos printable for the 2 friends.

First friend was Jesus' mum and second friend Mary's mum. So you can see I keep exalted company !!!!

[PhotosGuy]

I'm not certain where you got your numbers.

Bob, I'm not arguing against what the book says, just that the "Rule of Inverse Squares" indicates that, using your example of "about 20 meters @ISO 100", then 60 meters might be closer to the true amount of light yeilded, rather than the 80 meters that that the book indicates. We both know that "the book" would never be overly optimistic, right? ;-)

[Tom W]

Can the flash be focused with a snout or otherwise?

Also, make sure that the venue is OK with flash photography - some aren't as it can be distracting.

[robertwgross]

Bob, I'm not arguing against what the book says, just that the "Rule of Inverse Squares" indicates that, using your example of "about 20 meters @ISO 100", then 60 meters might be closer to the true amount of light yeilded, rather than the 80 meters that that the book indicates. We both know that "the book" would never be overly optimistic, right? ;-)

I still don't know where you are getting your numbers. I've shown mine.

---Bob Gross---

[PhotosGuy]

I'm not sure what the problem is? The inverse square law says that light falls off as the square of the distance from the source. F-stops are based on squares, too, so using f-stops as a measurement of distance is just a convenient way of keeping track of where the falloff = 2X when you move a light. Does that help?

[bigrob]

Can the flash be focused with a snout or otherwise?

Also, make sure that the venue is OK with flash photography - some aren't as it can be distracting.

There were other parents using flash at the Xmas play, but I will double check first - thanks.