Hi all, Hoping someone might be able to help, I know some of you do photography. I am looking for the best lens for low light shooting in situations where flash is not permitted. To add another issue, its often shooting motion. Specifically what I mean is moving dark rides. Usually flash is prohibited in the rides and you are in a moving/bumpy cart or boat, so I realize this is a tall order. I've gotten decent results with My Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, but sometimes the aperture takes too long and I get blur. Does anyone know if jumping up to the 50 mm f/1.4 would make a difference? (its about a $300 price difference, so if its negligible, Its probably not worth it for me as an amateur) What are some other options for shooting in dark, moving spaces with no flash? or am I just dreaming?
Wow. I am no camera expert and this is a complicated question. But I think the only way to get clearer pics in the dark (with no flash) is to increase the film exposure time, which would cause blurring issues. As you mentioned. Darkness and motion might be too much to overcome.
I don't know anything about digital photography, but I don't think a lens will make any difference with regards to light levels. When using film you want a higher film speed for lower light situations. Where you might usually use 200 or 400 speed film in everyday use, you might go with a 3000 speed film shooting in dark situations (this is what I used when taking concert photos). The trade off is higher speed film is grainy. I know you can simulate film speed on most digital cameras - so give that a try.
Missy, I have a Master's in Photography, which by no means makes me a super expert, but I can say with some fair confidence that the lens change will not make any substantial difference. Not to say that a better quality lens doesn't make a difference, because it does. However, when shooting in low light, plus action, and desiring no blur, you need to access higher film speeds to get sharper images. Of course, going to faster speeds will manifest images with more grain. If you are shooting digital, you would be using simulated speeds/metering, but the result is the same. The quality of your digital camera is actually what will make the biggest difference here and can be quite a costly price to pay. Better cameras render finer grain at higher speeds. if you're using a film camera, the quality of the film and the camera body-both come into play. Anyway, perhaps that helps and I Hope you're having fun with you your photo shoots!
Thank you. I think I found a solution to my problems. I should have mentioned that there is a flaw (in my opinon) on the Canon Rebel Xti. The "flash off" option appears on the mode dial, and not as a button on the body of the camera. What happens when you select "Flash Off" is that the camera goes into auto mode, so I can't select a higher ISO (it auto selects). Realizing how completely stupid that is, I think i found a workaround. I'm going to try a hot shoe cover to diable the pop up flash, while still allowing me to use manual shooting modes & increase the ISO. I think this will help, my issue was that I could not change any settings while my flash was off because the stupid people at Canon didn't think to put a manual mode button on the camera for this!
a few extra things I want to contribute... First, just overall in general for the lens, adding the extra wider f stop (f 1.4 vs. 1. will marginally help you because the increased size of the aperture may allow you to maybe increase your shutter speed 1 level, which might help with blur, but only slightly depending on how dark it is. If its too dark, it probably wont make any difference. I personally dont think thats worth the upgrade though. Secondly, I also have an XTi, so maybe I can help with your settings...(sorry if I overexplain, I just want to be clear) If you look at the wheel on top of the camera....everything from the Green Box on down are "automatic" and you cant set things like shutter speed or ISO. The modes above, like "P, TV, AV, etc" let you change everything, shutter speed, picture quality, and flash. In these modes, the flash defaults to "off" if the flash isnt popped up...the camera will try and do everything with the flash off. If you want flash, you push the flash button on the side and the flash pops up, and then the camera will use it. Anyways, the point is that I dont think you should have to "disable" the flash in the manual modes, it should do it by default. Along with setting a high ISO, I would also recommend playing with the AV and TV modes to help control the blurring. If you use Av mode and set to the widest aperature, this should help the camera pick the fastest shutter speed possible for a good exposure...the downside to this is that the fastest shutter speed might still be really slow. If you use Tv mode and set to something around 1/60, which is about the average shutter speed to shoot a clean picture without blurring, that might help, but the downside is that if its too dark, your picture will just be dark. You'd have to experiment with the shutter speed one though, there are a lot of factors like lens length, how much you're moving, etc. sorry if I rambled...
no you completely did not ramble! in fact you SOLVED MY PROBLEM!!! I never ever ever noticed that flash button there. OMG. YOU ARE THE BEST! Thanks man, you saved me from doing the dumb hot-shoe protector work around! I wonder if it will ever auto fire while in TV or AV Mode though. I'll have to try it in a dark room at home as to avoid embarrassment in a show or something just to be sure.
Glad to help The flash shouldnt ever go by itself on any of the manual modes (A-DEP, M, AV, TV, P). Even if there was some sort of glitch or bug, the flash usually would just pop up first and not fire so you'd most likely have a chance to push it back in. If you want me to describe the Tv/Av modes more, just let me know...I can ramble about cameras for a while...but mostly I would recommend just going into a dark room and trying the settings out and seeing what happens
