Lowlight Photography with and without flash

[ShaneS]

It is a very cluttered scene John. What are you trying to say with this shot?

I guess my question to you would be why leave the back of the person wearing the white t-shirt in the shot? I'm looking at a pretty severe panoramic crop in the light box that starts just to the left the turquoise shirt to the other side and down to the the butt (give or take) of the gal holding the camera and I think that is cool with all the heads in the background.

[Shadowman]

It is a very cluttered scene John. What are you trying to say with this shot?

I guess my question to you would be why leave the back of the person wearing the white t-shirt in the shot? I'm looking at a pretty severe panoramic crop in the light box that starts just to the left the turquoise shirt to the other side and down to the the butt (give or take) of the gal holding the camera and I think that is cool with all the heads in the background.

Hi Shane,

Thanks for commenting. Not trying to say anything with the shot really, just trying to capture a moving subject in low light; with or without flash. If I can get something meaningful during the exercise then that would be a bonus, for now just working out the technique.

[ShaneS]

I can relate John!

Unfortunately I cannot comment on the technical side as I'm having my own struggles with my pre sunrise/low light shots.

Keep on clicking and it will all come together...that is my personal hope and the only way to go IMHO.

[Shadowman]

I can relate John!

Unfortunately I cannot comment on the technical side as I'm having my own struggles with my pre sunrise/low light shots.

Keep on clicking and it will all come together...that is my personal hope and the only way to go IMHO.

Shane,

Here is another taken tonight, same scenario although I pushed the camera a bit to its limits.

f/1.8, ISO 4000, 1/500sec. No flash. Not trying to say anything just attempting a difficult capture.



Feel free to add your concerns with your sunsets to this thread and I'm sure someone can give some guidance. Sometimes you have to ignore the story and just try to get to the end of the journey.

[ShaneS]

You must be nailing the exposure John as every time I shot with that high of an ISO I get a ton of noise. I don't see any at this size...however I think that you have some blown highlights on the folks in the back just to the left of her head as I am seeing some rainbow rings.

[Shadowman]

You must be nailing the exposure John as every time I shot with that high of an ISO I get a ton of noise. I don't see any at this size...however I think that you have some blown highlights on the folks in the back just to the left of her head as I am seeing some rainbow rings.

Shane,

You've got a good eye. When I post-processed I only reduced the highlights enough to take care of the central figure.

[William W]

. . . for now just working out the technique.

The woman holding mobile phone at walking pace in direction transverse to the lens's axis:1/125s is OK, but 1/250s is "quite safe".

1/125s is 'quite safe' for walking pace moving directly toward the camera; and 1/60s is 'OK'.

The limbs are where you will likely see the most movement, but if you nail the head as reasonably sharp the picture usually stands scrutiny for most purposes.

You can time the shutter release to the extension point of the limbs, at that point (arms at the end of the swing and legs at full stride) there is a moment of minima movement.

Panning for (transverse) waking pace is quite difficult and usually does not achieve all that much, but I have found useful exceptions being for a tight head shot to tight half shot. 1/15s is a good starting point for the shutter speed, but it is usually best to have the background a good distance away.

Whilst it is good to have an idea of the limits of the shutter to address the speed and direction of various typical movement categories and then to use those limits as a guideline: it also important to practice the release of the shutter at the brief point in time that the Subject is still; or very close to still.

In this case, I think that it is usually always better to use Single Shot rather than to use multiple shutter releases; that's not advocating a 'purist' attitude, but the mathematics of it usually gives greater leverage to attaining a better result with a perfect one timed shot, than several shots when using the slower shutter speeds that we would typically be applying when using this low light shooting technique (i.e. Shutter Speeds in the range of about 1/8s to 1/100s).

Here is an example of that technique:



"Midnight Acrobat"
EOS 5D + EF135F/2
F/2 @ 1/100s @ ISO400 HH Manual Exposure

WW