Help help Indoor photography! what do I do?

[Oracledalphin]

I really want to pics of my sister in her ballet this evening but I don't know if the pics will stick. I'm using a Canon 35mm manual with a 50mm lens, Help!
Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase!

 

[thebeginning]

There isnt much advice we can give, really. You're going to be working with the lighting you have, since you cant bring a flash or anything, and in a dark place like that you're going to want a fast lens (your 50mm most likely is fast), say f1.8 aperture. I would suggest getting some fast film, at least 400 speed. if you are close to the stage, it's going to be brighter, and you'll get more light there. otherwise you'll want at least 800 speed film, but then you'll have to deal with grain, which isnt always bad. at ISO 800, the grain wont be overwhelming. What is the widest aperture of your 50mm lens?

 

[Oracledalphin]

the lagest apature is 1.8 and should I push the camera speed to 400 for 400 film
Where can I buy 800 film???????????????? NVR heard of it

 

[thebeginning]

you can buy up to 6400 speed film at some places. do you have a photo equipment shop near your house or on the way? you can buy 800 speed film there that is nice. otherwise, wal mart and walgreens and places like that have decent film sometimes, but most of their nice film is 400 speed. I would suggest buying a couple 400 speed films (i suggest kodak ULTRACOLOR for color) and a couple 800 speed films (i dont know of many good 800 speed films, i dont use them, but i'm pretty sure they have them there). and I've never tried pushing film, you'll have to ask someone else about that. just keep your lens at the 1.8 aperture unless the place is much brighter than you thought. if a tripod would be out of the question, just rest the camera on a chair or something in front of you to help stabilize it when you shoot. Try to get shutter speeds of over 1/60th of a second at least. Something like 1/250th or so would be much better though, since ballets can go pretty quickly.

 

[Oracledalphin]

thanx your a doll (or dude w/ever don't ask don't tell) I really apreciate the help! Hey maybe if they come out I'll post them

Oh! one of the scenes is completely black except for glowing sea animities ( sp?) how long should I keep the ap open ? Plaza lights was 3-4maybe5 seconds I don't know? should I even try?:er:

 

[thebeginning]

hah, i'm a guy. for the black scene, you can do some interesting blur stuff, as you wont be able to get a sharp photo with such a dark scene. Just keep it on aperture priority mode or whatever (i think it would the A or P setting) so that it automatically picks the best shutter speed for you. yeah if they turn out post them!

 

[steve817]

I shot my daughters with fuji press film ISO 800 pushed to 1600 using a 75-300 F/4.5-5.6 it wasn't too bad at all.

 

[thebeginning]

how do you 'push' film? i've always wondered that.

 

[steve817]

That's easy when using 800 film, I set my camera for ISO 1600. The trouble alot of people will have is finding a lab to do push processing. I had one locally. Anyway I took it in and told them to push it to 1600 and they took care of the rest.