Theatre Shooting

[ajdanan2]

Hello,

I am new to the photography world. I have a canon rebel xs and xt. I was asked to take pictures at a pageant this weekend. If i cant use flash, what are the best settings for my cameras. I have the stock 18-55 mm and a wide angle 17-85mm. Please help a newbie out! Thank you

[andrewc]

So much depends on the lighting provided by the theatre.

If you can't use flash you're going to have to use high iso, wide aperture and slow shutter speeds and expect to bin a lot. Holding your camera steady to minimise camera shake is vital. A lens with IS helps as well. You could shoot in RAW and use its flexibility to shoot under exposed and to compensate in post processing.

[ajdanan2]

Okay, thank you very much. Ya, there's going to be a lot of lighting on stage because it's a pageant that I'll be shooting. But thank you for the advice.

[nicksan]

17-85mm would be the preferred lens, though at the long end it's slow at f5.6. Provided there's enough light, you should be fine. You may need to bump up the ISO to keep the shutter speeds at acceptable levels. Good luck!

Hello,

I am new to the photography world. I have a canon rebel xs and xt. I was asked to take pictures at a pageant this weekend. If i cant use flash, what are the best settings for my cameras. I have the stock 18-55 mm and a wide angle 17-85mm. Please help a newbie out! Thank you

[Madgwick]

Bring them both, Experiment and Bracket shots EARLY in the night, and see which is working out better, overall the 17-85 should take a much better picture and 5.6 still isn't to light demanding granted your Iso will have to be a bit higher and that will dirty up the pictures, see if you can get your hands on a 50 f/1.8 its dirt cheap and really helpful in dark places, I usually shoot bands at dark clubs and the 50mm lets me shoot iso 100 in pretty overly dark areas wide open, bands love seeing pics without noise in em :D