Club low light / hard to focus

[Marcus Benjamin]

I have been working with a Entertainment company and shooting some of their events but i keep running into the same problems; mainly only half the shots come out and a third of those are blurry. I am using a canon 550EX speedlite and a 20D. My two primary lenses are a 28-105mm 1:3.5-4.5
This lens is often too slow and in a club setting doesn't work well for me. so i normally fall back to my 50mm 1:1.8 much faster in low light conditions yet at 50mm i have trouble framing especially in the dark... which brings me to the focusing challenge its near impossible.

Any advice or lenses your can recommend would be most helpful. I want provide much better quality shots and i cant seem to get it done with my current setup.

[Asher Kelman]

I have been working with a Entertainment company and shooting some of their events but i keep running into the same problems; mainly only half the shots come out and a third of those are blurry. I am using a canon 550EX speedlite and a 20D. My two primary lenses are a 28-105mm 1:3.5-4.5
This lens is often too slow and in a club setting doesn't work well for me. so i normally fall back to my 50mm 1:1.8 much faster in low light conditions yet at 50mm i have trouble framing especially in the dark... which brings me to the focusing challenge its near impossible.

Any advice or lenses your can recommend would be most helpful. I want provide much better quality shots and i cant seem to get it done with my current setup.
Marcus,

I tried very hard with low light in clubs. The problem is threefold.

First there is a high dynamic range: bright lights on one part of the face, bad shadows and darkness. Best is a wider open lens and the 50 1.8 is a great start but you have to get closer. Next, the focus simply is not too good in very low light. Third the ISO sensitivity is limited.

If you are serious rent a newer design XSi and see if it can grab focus for you. The new 7D will grab focus in low light, give a good picture. For extreme dynamic range, you can slightly under-expose at a lower ISO than you might otherwise choose and then recover from the RAW. That tames the blowout of the highlights. For my work, the 5DII can do very well in these circumstances, but the 7D is cheaper and has a whole new and more advanced focus system.

Sell your grandmother and move the that!

Asher

[Will Thompson]

#1- Use a 85 f1.2, 50 f1.4, 35 f1.4 or 24 f1.4.

#2- Use the center Auto Focus point only.

#3- Only use the flash when forced to.

#4- When using flash turn off the AF assist light. ( it only slows down everything)

#5- When using flash shoot in TV or manual mode to keep the shutter speed up. (with safety shift off in TV mode)

#6- Try to keep your shutter speed over 1/60 to 1/125 even when using flash

#7- Learn to focus on a high contrast point on your subject such as the edge of a black necktie against a white shirt.

#8- When budget allows buy a "USED" 1D series for the brighter viewfinder and better low light AF.


You can pick up a used 1D for around $500. Make sure it is a late production unit so there will not be a hardware banding problem, You can check this by the firmware version since only late hardware can use the latest firmware.

[Marcus Benjamin]

Thanks ... Great advice i was thinking about going to the 7d but i am really doing the club shoot to get more cheap models so i really wanted the next camera i purchase to be a full frame... im working with a ent company now and they have agreed to get me the 28-70mm f2.8 and i plan purchasing a bracket and a 580ex speedlight. so that should help a bit ... though im still weary about the focus.

[fahim mohammed]

Can you use a tripod and manual focus?

[beth anthony]

ditto the manual focus but you can still use the camera handheld. in fact, try prefocusing and just shoot with that all night, i can usually shoot an entire reception without touching the manual focus ring (with the exception of the close ups for the cake/food).

[Daniel Buck]

particularly on wider lenses (28 is my favorite) in dim situations I manually focus, usually by pre-focusing at 2 meters ont he lens scale (or closer, or farther away depending on what I'm shooting) that usually does pretty good. Manually focusing is much easier with a big viewfinder and a split-circle focusing screen. If it were on a camera with a small viewfinder and no nice focusing screen, I'd just pre-focus by using the scale.

[Marcus Benjamin]

The problem is that its a club and as i am working them more and more the clubs are benifiting from having very decent pictures for marketing purposes... so a Tripot is out and even with the apture open wide manual focus is out...

I have just been dealing and so far i am getting more thant positive feed back... request for shows, models, ect... even cont a small contract in the works for one club/promotion company. However i dont have the slightest idea how much to charge ... I need to figure this out pronto...

wanted to post in the proffessional section but i guess i dont rate... Yet ;-P

[Asher Kelman]

The problem is that its a club and as i am working them more and more the clubs are benifiting from having very decent pictures for marketing purposes... so a Tripot is out and even with the apture open wide manual focus is out...

I have just been dealing and so far i am getting more thant positive feed back... request for shows, models, ect... even cont a small contract in the works for one club/promotion company. However i dont have the slightest idea how much to charge ... I need to figure this out pronto...

wanted to post in the proffessional section but i guess i dont rate... Yet ;-P


Marcus,

Obviously use RAW!

STAGE: If it's the stage you are photographing, watch the heads of the singers and notice how the light gets better in some positions. what I do is stay still, don't move the camera but shoot until you have a good view of each one in the band and then combine them in photoshop. If you don't know how to do it,we'll help you. It's surprising how one can assemble a reasonable well lit group this way, even when they move!

CROWD: Next for shooting members in the club. Pick a working distance, say 4 feet. Likely you are fixed by the size of the crowd. Go into a corner and practice in manual getting the focus right for this distance. Leave it in manual focus. Now set the ISO to 800 and use f4.0 and see what you can get at 1/30 sec. Adjust the iso and speed until you get the peak of the histogram about 1/3 from the bright edge. You are under-exposing to the right!!!

This will allow you to recover the highlights and mid tones but the blacks (so what) will be noisy.

So with this setting, you now shoot everything at 3.5 to 5 feet. Check how they come out. Maybe you have to go to f 5.6 get get a better DOF.

Asher

[Johann van Rensburg]

By the sound of it, you would like to get the club shots without using flash if you can, or if you really have to use flash, set for rear curtain synch and still get a fair amount of ambient light to get the mood.

50mm 1.8 is just not good enough to start with.

I am about to do this: (based on a fair amount of experimenting in the past)

Get a 50mm.1.4
Shooting will be possible at ISO400 and F2.8

Make a plate that can screw to the bottom of my 20D with a special little adjustable bracket that will allow for holding a laser pointer. Wire out the switch to a push button (part of the custom grip)
The adjustment of the laser must allow for vertical and horizontal movement.

Then adjust prior to the shoot as follows:
Decide on approximate working distance
Set the laser dot to coincide with the center focus spot at the shooting distance

Now when shooting, press laser button, then focus, then release laser, then shoot
It will take a bit of practice, but the beauty is that it works in absolute pitch black conditions, with focus spot on every time.

For shots with action, don't release the laser, simply shoot using laser and A1 SERVO.
Remove the dot in PP if required.

Warning: avoid focusing on the eye as one would usually do - work around the chin or mouth area only.

If the place is smoke filled, then use the "release laser" before shoot method.

[Rachel Foster]

The only solution that has worked for me (keep in mind I'm not one of the more experienced shooters here) is the 5dII with the ISO kicked way up. I've used the 50mm 1.8 but I really don't like opening the aperture that wide.

[Marcus Benjamin]

I fixed a lot of my issues with trial and error i think i would be best if i showcase a few of my shots and one from my predecessor...

and I'm not sure but i bought my 20d old and used sometimes i think that has a lot to do with it.... and i have come to terms with using my flash and using its own second curtain getting some good shots.... as i said enough that they want to replace the house photographer with me.

http://www.impalasf.com/index_flash.html
That is the site and you can see some of the shots they had been getting


and these are what i am offering. same club mind you

http://nuflavaent.com/images/Clubpics/NewYearsEve2010/NewYears2010.html

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs272.ash1/19954_256090501423_608446423_4399499_8030039_n.jpg

http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs172.snc3/19954_256151226423_608446423_4400049_1667687_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs272.ash1/19954_256151186423_608446423_4400046_5832513_n.jpg



note this is just the crap shots that i have on my system at work...

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

By the sound of it, you would like to get the club shots without using flash if you can, or if you really have to use flash, set for rear curtain synch and still get a fair amount of ambient light to get the mood.

Hi Johann,

I agree, but would like to warn against using a laserpointer to assist focusing with people around. Canon flashes can project a (near infra-)red pattern to assist with focusing in dark situations. Depending on the flash one can also use that without triggering the flash. Alternatively there is the ST-E2 Speedlite Transmitter which is quite compact and can function as a focus assist light.

For available light, one can also use a wide aperture lens, and manual focus. It would help to change the focusingscreen to a bright, high precision, version made for wide aperture lenses.

Cheers,
Bart

[Asher Kelman]

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs272.ash1/19954_256090501423_608446423_4399499_8030039_n.jpg

http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs172.snc3/19954_256151226423_608446423_4400049_1667687_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs272.ash1/19954_256151186423_608446423_4400046_5832513_n.jpg



Marcus,

Have you thought of combine shors 1 and 3 to give the club effect and the girl?

Asher