Shooting in the dark - I mean dark

Hello - Hope this is the right section for this topic..

Ok, A venue I normally shoot has moved to a location where the "low lit" environment has become just outright dark. The only lighting is the DJ's multi-color and all-white strobes flashing at the ceiling. For the club, this is perfect - but for me with my t3i and kit lens 18-55mm and my yn-565ex, this has become thee most frustrating place to shoot and capture good atmosphere type pictures (partying, dancing, drinking, etc). Why is it so dark? They like it that way, it's a chill environment and they don't care what problems the photographer has shooting in it LOL

Since I was having no luck at all I got a little creative. I whipped out the iPhone, turned on the light (using flashlight app) and was able to get enough light (sometimes) to get some decent shots. But even then was it tough to get the those shots. I don't shoot in live mode so I didn't fall into that problem or poor focus issues - it was all about the lighting.

So my question is - would any lens help me in such a shooting environment? I could imagine my kit lens could never do the job, but what kind of a lens (zoom) would?

i'm a beginner at photography as well... but i think prime lenses can help with the low light.

I use a small flashlight with a red filter to help with focus

SMP_Homer wrote in post #15358928
I use a small flashlight with a red filter to help with focus

This is what I do also when i'm using my slow lenses.

Thanks guys. Are you mounting it to the camera somehow? Also it's weird to shine a constant light in someone's face. I know because I got the looks of confusion as I whipped out my iPhone to use its light in the same flashlight manner. It's a bit of an aggressive light. Borderline annoying.. Lol.

Well, the best you can do is use a 17-5x f/2.8 zoom with stabilization, crank up the ISO and drag the shutter. Use the flash in second curtain sync if it has that feature. The focus assist beam can be used when the flash is on the hotshoe.

i have a manual focus assist on my camera, so i can easily have light to focus.

but i need a few enhancements, as nobody like a directional light on their eyes.

i mean, i think its good, as besides focus, it helps them to close the pupils, or they will look like a cat in the dark

i think i will make a "flood" flashlight together with a RF trigger, so it will turn on when focusing, and will briefly turn off during the exposure itself, affecting almost nothing on the scene itself

something like i did earlier, but for fixing on a tripod.

@Frugivore I thought about the focus assist beam and if it could be used with a mounted flash. That might solve most my problems. Need to figure out how on an t3i. Per your lens recommendation, that's what I was thinking.

@malow Good points and that sounds perfect! Let us know how you enhance that light soft box

The Yungnuo yn-622 ETTL flash triggers have a beam built into them that assists with focusing in the dark. I found it to be quite helpful and makes the camera find the focus point really fast. They are about 100 bucks for a pair.

you can also use a flash on a bracket attached to a wireless trigger, the AF assist will still fire in one shot. Assuming you are use a transmitter already in the hot shoe.

butterfly2937 wrote in post #15360150
you can also use a flash on a bracket attached to a wireless trigger, the AF assist will still fire in one shot. Assuming you are use a transmitter already in the hot shoe.

To my understanding, the beam pattern is optimized when the speedlite is in the hotshoe, so that the lines intersect the AF sensor line pairs. Does it work well when the flash is on a bracket also?

clickfinish wrote in post #15358897
Hello - Hope this is the right section for this topic..

Ok, A venue I normally shoot has moved to a location where the "low lit" environment has become just outright dark. The only lighting is the DJ's multi-color and all-white strobes flashing at the ceiling. For the club, this is perfect - but for me with my t3i and kit lens 18-55mm and my yn-565ex, this has become thee most frustrating place to shoot and capture good atmosphere type pictures (partying, dancing, drinking, etc). Why is it so dark? They like it that way, it's a chill environment and they don't care what problems the photographer has shooting in it LOL

Since I was having no luck at all I got a little creative. I whipped out the iPhone, turned on the light (using flashlight app) and was able to get enough light (sometimes) to get some decent shots. But even then was it tough to get the those shots. I don't shoot in live mode so I didn't fall into that problem or poor focus issues - it was all about the lighting.

So my question is - would any lens help me in such a shooting environment? I could imagine my kit lens could never do the job, but what kind of a lens (zoom) would?

Looking at the specs for the YN-565EX flash you've got, it supposedly has a focus assist beam. Do you have it turned on?

Just that by itself should let you shoot successfully in low-light without having to get a new lens.

Once you try shooting w/ the flash off camera, triggers like the YN-622 (which Ratjack suggested) have an AF-assist built in which will address your problem.

frugivore wrote in post #15360187
To my understanding, the beam pattern is optimized when the speedlite is in the hotshoe, so that the lines intersect the AF sensor line pairs. Does it work well when the flash is on a bracket also?

I think AF assist light is just a light,
as long as the light can illuminate the subject and camera can read the contrast
so camera can easily focus lock, I don't think it would be a problem

CMIIW

The "pattern" coincides with the location of the AF points on the camera, this makes it most effective for helping lock focus thats all.

2.8 is pretty slow, you could try a 24L or 35L and get much more light in, the issue then is actually getting a group of people in focus. I always bounce my flash up, and if the venue is a regular thing i might even just straight up install a flash in the ceiling and use a radio sync.

I've been meaning to try something like a ABR800 with a couple of the modeling lights taken out with a minivag for this exact type of shooting but its a pretty massive rig....

You already have AF assist. Set the camera to "One shot" AF and it should work fine.
Another lens isn't going to help much: You'll need to stop down to about f/4 for DoF anyway.

Sonds like there is absolutely no lighting (since an iPhone provides more light), so even the usual "high ISO, slow shutter" won't help much, if at all.

Additional problem with a slower shutterspeed might be that you catch the clubs strobe, probably overexposing the image, or giving you double images.

Here's what I'd do: Use a high ISO (easier on the flash anyway): at least ISO 1600. Aperture about f/4 for DoF. Shutterspeed as low as you can go without catching the strobes too often (1/15 or so?) and add a second flash, off camera using radio triggers.

Example in a somewhat better lit environment:

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