Open Mic at my Rez

[10102668]

this is a so called open mic performance at my residence, and I consider it as a warm up to shoot for a semiformal ballroom
later here. However, I found the lighting part very difficult, if I don't use Flash, with widest aperture and Iso 1600, it gives me noisy and sometimes even blured image, but If i use flash, everything loses the night atmosphere. so I convert all the colors to a single tone, can Anyone suggest anything to do I'd be very grateful.

The pictures I took and be found at http://www.yhwphoto.com/projects/openmic/index.html
all with iso 1600 F4 and occasional flash

[Steve Parr]

If you're shooting without stage lighting, you're in a difficult position. Incandescent and/flourescent lighting isn't exactly the best for performance photography.

That said, You shouldn't be getting a lot of noise if you're shooting at ISO 1600; not with the 20D. What shutter speeds were you working with, and what lens (or lenses) were you using? You should've been in good shape, light-wise, with the 50mm f/1.8.

I like the mood of the photos, though. Moving away from color, I think, was a real good choice...

[taygull]

I would rent a faster lens for the weekend. You also will need to get a monopod or tripod. You are going to have to keep your shutter speed = to your zoom mm.

I would also suggest shooting in AV or TV mode and using fill flash, dial it down between one and 2 stops and that will not make it so hot. You will get a bunch of pics that have nice light but not the harsh shadows. This is what I'm working on.

Also check your White Balance or shoot in RAW and use Rawshooters. I've heard everyone talk about how difficult RAW is and I disagree. Rawshooter Essentials 2006 is free and very easy to use. The only problem I see is you will need more memory cards.

I will almost always shoot raw now, you don't have to worry about white balance and you can even miss your exposure by a couple of stops and fix it very easy.

Try it..go RAW.

[10102668]

Originally Posted by taygull

I would rent a faster lens for the weekend. You also will need to get a monopod or tripod. You are going to have to keep your shutter speed = to your zoom mm.

I would also suggest shooting in AV or TV mode and using fill flash, dial it down between one and 2 stops and that will not make it so hot. You will get a bunch of pics that have nice light but not the harsh shadows. This is what I'm working on.

Also check your White Balance or shoot in RAW and use Rawshooters. I've heard everyone talk about how difficult RAW is and I disagree. Rawshooter Essentials 2006 is free and very easy to use. The only problem I see is you will need more memory cards.

I will almost always shoot raw now, you don't have to worry about white balance and you can even miss your exposure by a couple of stops and fix it very easy.

Try it..go RAW.

Go RAW is ideal, but it also needs a lot of time to correct things, and That doesn't seem very interesting when shooting lots of photos tho.what do u mean by fill flash?

[taygull]

If your in AV mode you don't get the full power of your flash (that is how I understand it), it will add some flash to your main subject. You can push the flash button on the top right of your camera and dial the flash up or down several stops.

Play with it tonight and I think you will see what I'm talking about.

[jlacoy82]

Originally Posted by 10102668

Go RAW is ideal, but it also needs a lot of time to correct things, and That doesn't seem very interesting when shooting lots of photos tho.what do u mean by fill flash?

So you'd rather take 200 photos and have 25 of them actually useable right off the camera, instead of taking 200 photos and maybe having 100 useable with a little time post processing them?

[René Damkot]

Iso 1600 and f/2 should get fast enough shuttertimes. F/4 with IS might also be doable depending on subject movement. About the flash: You could adjust the colour of your flash too the 'colour' of your ambient. For tungsten that would mean a dighlight -> tungsten filter on the flash ('orange') for fluorescant that would mean a 'green' filter. Some testing with colored gels will find the right one. That way you can set your camera to the 'correct' WB and still use (fill)flash occasionaly.
Fill flash means the flash is not the main lightsource, but only used to 'fill in' shadows (or light a backlit subject, in which case it also freezes motion)