Need setting advice for Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS to shoot dance recital

I am newbie to DSLR Photography. I will be shooting my daughter's dance recital. No flash photography is allowed and I will be quite far back in the audience, so I will be using a telephoto lens. All I have is a Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS lens. My DSLR is Canon EOS Rebel T2i / 550D. What are your recommended settings to shoot a dance recital with my equipments I mentioned above? I appreciate any response. Thanks.

Hate to say it, but you'll have a hard time unless the stage is lit extremely well. f/5.6 is pretty slow, especially for indoors. With your lens, you'll want to shoot it wide open at 5.6, and then crank up the ISO to 3200 or so. You're aiming to get a shutter speed in the 1/250th range.

My advice would be this. If this dance recital is extremely important to you, rent a 70-200 2.8 IS for the recital. 2.8 is 2 stops faster than 5.6 and would make a huge difference for you.

I agree with TaDa, I own that lens and you will have a tough time getting the shutter speed fast enough to avoid motion blur in a dark theater.

Best think to do is to jack up the ISO as high as you can and try to shoot at least 1/250. Brace yourself well or bring a monopod as well as the IS is good, but you will need a bit more stabilization.

Good luck

duane0524 wrote in post #9955603
Brace yourself well or bring a monopod as well as the IS is good, but you will need a bit more stabilization.

Shooting at 1/250 at a focal length of no more than 250mm with IS on, I don't think I'd bother with the monopod.

But my guess is that at these settings at f/5.6, even with an ISO of 3200, the pictures will all be underexposed by at least one stop. You can try fixing this later in Photoshop, but the images will be noisy. Or you can compensate by slowing down the shutter speed, but then you'll see motion blur for your moving subject (and you might need the monopod).

Sadly, there is a reason why people are willing to spend more money on faster lenses.

JHutter wrote in post #9955678
Shooting at 1/250 at a focal length of no more than 250mm with IS on, I don't think I'd bother with the monopod.

Maybe not, but based on my real world experience, he will need solid support and i doubt he will get it up to 1/250.

Thank you all for the prompt response. Based on last year's recital, the stage is well lit but the audience area is dark. I have a monopod and I plan to use it for added stability. Yeah, I will eventually buy more expensive lenses (with a lot of convincing to my wife ) . I am also interested to hear from people who have the same setup as mine and share your experience and settings you used. Thanks.

mannygscd wrote in post #9955533
I am newbie to DSLR Photography. I will be shooting my daughter's dance recital. No flash photography is allowed and I will be quite far back in the audience, so I will be using a telephoto lens. All I have is a Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS lens. My DSLR is Canon EOS Rebel T2i / 550D. What are your recommended settings to shoot a dance recital with my equipments I mentioned above? I appreciate any response. Thanks.

I shoot my daughter's dance recital with a 135 2.0 and get wonderful results at that focal length. However, most of my shots are at 2.0-2.8. If your daughter is moving fast, you will have to go faster than the suggested 250 shutter speed for really sharp shots. For leaps and spins, I'm usually at 500.

Another option if cost is an issue, the 85 1.8 works extremely well if you can get a bit closer.

The lighting where you are is irrelevant. Only light that matters is that that's falling on your subject.

Use spot metering, crank your ISO to get a 1/250th of a second setting. Worst case, under expose by a stop and fix it in post.

The t2i is actually one of the better cameras for using high ISO, so I think you will be fine. Just bump the ISO until you can get 1/400 using spot or partial metering measured right on your child. If you can stay at ISO 3200 or 1600, you will get better pictures, but 6400 and 12800 are very usable on the T2i if you don't print huge. The 55-250 is a stop faster at the wide end, so try to get there earlier and get a better seat so you don't have to be stuck in the f5.6 range from 150-250mm.