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Low light group shots

Posted: Fri May 04, 2012 9:57 am
by mvanrheenen
Hi all,

Last week I went with a group of musicians to shoot their performance at outside at night on the streets. I took my a580 and CZ16-80 but had a hard time taking photo's because of the low shutter speeds. I'd like to do this more often, but find my skills to be lacking for these situations. Also the CZ16-80 is pretty slow for these kinds of photography.

Can someone help me with pointers to pay attention to? Maybe offer some advice on gear if needed?

Thanks in advanced.

Mark

Re: Low light group shots

Posted: Fri May 04, 2012 4:38 pm
by Dusty
Fast primes, a monopod and high ISO settings are what you need.

I always got backstage passes when Night Ranger came to town as a cousin was in the band. That's what I did then (film) and that's what the pros there did also.

You can't get great (technically perfect) shots because they move around a lot, the lighting is bad and often multiple different temps, plus you need to use high ISO and deal with noise.

Now, maybe if you by one of the new ISO 250,000 see-in-the-dark wundercams, that may help, too, but you're always limited by today's available tech.

And just because you can't get technically perfect great shots, doesn't mean you can't get shots that are really good, albeit noisy or show motion. After all, if they just wanted good shots of themselves on stage, they'd do it in the studio!

Dusty

Re: Low light group shots

Posted: Fri May 04, 2012 6:00 pm
by mvanrheenen
True words Dusty, thank you for that.

Some shot I took were me clamping a tree or a lamppost and shooting ISO 6400. It worked, but getting rid of the noise in PP also got the detail out of the images. That I did not like.

The monopod I have, the prime I don't. Will look into it, thanks.

Mark

Re: Low light group shots

Posted: Fri May 04, 2012 6:00 pm
by mvanrheenen
True words Dusty, thank you for that.

Some shot I took were me clamping a tree or a lamppost and shooting ISO 6400. It worked, but getting rid of the noise in PP also got the detail out of the images. That I did not like.

The monopod I have, the prime I don't. Will look into it, thanks.

Mark