Shooting in low light

I will going to see cirque du sol.. in orlando F.

First... i will be using my 70-300 with my 20d
second.. camera settings??

sugg??

Haven't done much of this, so i need helph

And im not sure if we are allowed to photograph.

thanks

First, check with the venue to make sure cameras are allowed. If you can bring your camera in you'll probably need to turn your flash off. Shoot in Av mode, most likely wide open. Adjust your iso until you get usable handheld shutter speeds. With your lens you'll probably have to shoot at 1600 or 3200 iso and even then you may be struggling to get usable shutter speeds.

Is that the Canon 70-300? An aperture of f/4-5.6 is going to be really tough for low light photography. I think crn3371 is right on. If you can bring a camera (which I really doubt for this particular venue), you may want to look at renting a 70-200 f/2.8L (IS would probably be a good idea as well). ISO 3200 on a 20d is going to be all but worthless, and I'm thinking that's what you're going to need with the 70-300.

IslandCrow wrote in post #9688694
ISO 3200 on a 20d is going to be all but worthless,

I'm glad my customers don't feel that way.

I've pushed 20D images to ISO6400 (underexposed 3200 by a stop and then pushed in RAW conversion).

Do newer cameras handle it better? Yeah, but that doesn't mean the 20D is "worthless" at ISO3200.


I would also be careful with Av mode, theatrical lighting can really mess with automatic exposure. You may want to shoot in manual and chimp out the best settings.

According to the Cirque du Soleil website, all types of cameras and photography are prohibited. So, leave your camera in the hotel.

Link

In general for stuff like that, I would agree that f/5.6 and ISO 3200 will not work - I would expect that your shutter speeds will be way too slow. At disney world they let you shoot the shows, and f/2.8 on my 5d @ 3200 was barely good enough (i.e. I could push it a little on the 5d). I used to have a 20d, and 3200 was an emergecny ISO at best.

timbop wrote in post #9692035
I used to have a 20d, and 3200 was an emergecny ISO at best.

You guys must be awfully picky...

Here is one from my venerable 20D taken at ISO3200.

mbellot wrote in post #9695226
You guys must be awfully picky...

They are.

I must admit, mbellot, I wouldn't have guessed that was was taken with ISO3200 . .not on a 20D anyway. Not great image quality, but definitely usable, and at least as good as anything I've taken at that ISO with my 40D. I will humbly retract my previous statement

IslandCrow wrote in post #9696883
I must admit, mbellot, I wouldn't have guessed that was was taken with ISO3200 . .not on a 20D anyway. Not great image quality, but definitely usable, and at least as good as anything I've taken at that ISO with my 40D. I will humbly retract my previous statement

Thanks , but I'm curious what you find "not great" about the image quality?

My only nit is the motion blur in her foot (shutter was 1/125 because of the lighting), otherwise the photo is about as sharp as you can hope for at the bleeding edge ISOs (IMHO).

crn3371 wrote in post #9688895
According to the Cirque du Soleil website, all types of cameras and photography are prohibited. So, leave your camera in the hotel.

Link

I've been to that. I might suggest staying in the hotel and playing with the camera - but that's just me. It wasn't as bad as getting dragged to CATS though. I still have nightmares about that.

Yes, I have many 20d shots at iso 3200 that look good at web size. I have better iso3200 shots from my 5d and 7d that look good at larger than 800x500.

The real point is that an f/5.6 lens ain't gonna get it done, as it would require pushing 1 to 2 stops beyond 3200

timbop wrote in post #9697109
Yes, I have many 20d shots at iso 3200 that look good at web size. I have better iso3200 shots from my 5d and 7d that look good at larger than 800x500.

The real point is that an f/5.6 lens ain't gonna get it done, as it would require pushing 1 to 2 stops beyond 3200

I don't dispute that, the shot above was taken with a 70-200/2.8 IS.

I also won't argue that newer cameras perform better. My 1DMkIII stomps my 20D. ISO6400 looks as good or better than ISO1600 on the 20D, and the 14 bit RAW files handle both pushing and pulling much better.

My problem was with the assertion that ISO3200 on a 20D was "all but worthless".

Not that shot in particular, but I have sold dance shots from the 20D @ ISO3200 in prints all the way up to 24" x 36", which is a good bit larger than web size.

You can't use a camera of any kind inside the tent, not just no flash photography, absolutely nothing.

Just leave it in the bag and enjoy the show, well worth it. There are lots of interesting things around there that you can photograph, just not the performance.

mamabravo wrote in post #9686744
I will going to see cirque du sol.. in orlando F.

First... i will be using my 70-300 with my 20d
second.. camera settings??

sugg??

Haven't done much of this, so i need helph

And im not sure if we are allowed to photograph.

thanks

crn3371 wrote in post #9688895
According to the Cirque du Soleil website, all types of cameras and photography are prohibited. So, leave your camera in the hotel.

Link

Saw them in Greenville, SC this past summer, and they were very serious about this, siting safety issues to the performers as the reason.