How to take good photo of a LaserTag Game?

I recently purchased a 70D believing it's all around family camera.
I'm having trouble to capture my sons birthday party at LaserTag game.
Will it be possible to capture the action in the dark without flash?
Want to capture the effect of the LED lights on the pads and the light while they are shooting?

unfortunately I failed.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …45859410@N04/11​145492265/

With very very little light shutter speeds are going to have to be slower and wider apertures.

exif shows ISO at only 6400 - don't be shy, give it full welly & see how you go...

Thanks, I set the ISO to auto while I was in M mode. Perhaps, I should set the iOS as well. But is their an example of a successful quality photo I can learn from?

Here is another one .

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …45859410@N04/11​145543046/

WC4Glam wrote in post #16492012
Thanks, I set the ISO to auto while I was in M mode.

I agree with joeseph. Set the ISO manually, otherwise some programming geek at Canon is guestimating your exposure which has little chance of being consistent.

You have a good start in these. Using a base exposure similar to what you have here so that the leds aren't blown out, I'd take the 580EX with a deep blue or red gel & bounce just a little light off the ceiling or a wall at the side.

It's still going to be really dark. Maybe too dark. You may end up blowing out all the glowing stuff before you capture the shadow detail. Consider using a flash. Bounce it if you can. But set the flash exposure compensation to whatever the negative max is on your gear. -3 I think.

kfreels wrote in post #16496174
It's still going to be really dark. Maybe too dark. You may end up blowing out all the glowing stuff before you capture the shadow detail. Consider using a flash. Bounce it if you can. But set the flash exposure compensation to whatever the negative max is on your gear.

This, a combination of High ISO, and a very low power flash -3 or -2 FEC perhaps would help. Although I am speaking of a bounced external flash, the built in flash on the camera would pretty much be bad light from the wrong angle.

Many thanks for the contributes. I will try it next time. Btw, what is FEC?

Flash Exposure Compensation.

It works similar to the exposure compensation dial in Av or Tv mode to adjust the automatic exposure values when the camera is being tricked. It is used with automatic metered flash units (All of Canon's modern flashes) to give you some control while letting the camera and flash crunch all the numbers for you.

Without setting it the camera will most likely assume you are still way under exposed, and pump more light out. Rather than getting deep but clear shadows over the whole scene it will instead attempt to bring everything up to a 'proper' exposure.

WC4Glam wrote in post #16500071
Many thanks for the contributes. I will try it next time. Btw, what is FEC?

Flash exposure compensation. When using a flash with your camera in auto modes you have two ways of compensating for metering bias. Exposure compensation OE EC will adjust the exposure of the ambient light (the background or the parts of the scene not lit by the flash). FEC allows you to control the brightness of the flash. so by dialing in minus FEC we mean lowering the power of the flash to the point of lifting the shadows but not to the point of obliterating the led or lasers.

The flash wants to expose the scene properly. You want the scene to be dark - just not so dark that you can't make out any detail. So FEC will let you dial down the flash. Each stop cuts the amount of light from the flash in half. So -3 FEC would be 1/8 the light it would normally put out.

What you are shooting isn't simple auto material. It takes experience and/or experiment to get it right and you need to be able to pre-visualize what you want the result to look like and be ready to tell your camera what you want it to do. So have some fun with it. It will be a terrific learning experience. Post your results.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #16495053
Using a base exposure similar to what you have here so that the leds aren't blown out, I'd take the 580EX with a deep blue or red gel & bounce just a little light off the ceiling or a wall at the side.

Good advice here, this is exactly what I would do...

Would a hazer be an option? A little fog could help show the beams of light.

How dark this is? What is the level of the ambient light here? Like in bar? I would push the ISO as high as possible without too much noise. With my 1dmarkIII, I would stick to 1600. With a newer body, maybe 3200. Now, you are sill underexposed somewhat. Now, I would set my flash to manual mode and dialing down the power from 1/8 to 1/16. I would use a short lens because this would decrease your shooting distance and your flash could work more effective that way. You are basically underexposed by may be 2 stops+ under the ambient light. Your flash, even though the power is low, will freeze actions. Set the shutter speed around 125s to 200s. F4 or F5.6 for more DOF. I would also gel the flash to a warmer color here. Now, if the ambient light is pitch black... I say put your camera away. Your state of the art camera can't see in the dark....