low light best practices

rhinodog15

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I am asked to shoot quite a few dance recitals, pageants, and other events that rely on the dreaded stage lighting. I use a Nikon D3300 and D3400 most often with 300mm Nikkor lens. I am seeing either very grainy photos or those that are way too dark to even consider keeping. I don't know if the cameras/lenses I use can't perform like I expect or my camera settings are not set correctly. I would love recommendation for a camera/ lens that will give me clear photos even on the darker parts of the stage.
 
Post a sample image.
 
You are limited by 4 things:
1. widest aperture setting available for your lens (wider is better)
2. low-light abilities of your sensor
3. amount of light available at the venue
4. ability to use flash or other supplemental lighting.

Your present situation (to me) probably breaks down like this:

1. Doubt you get lower than f/4 on your existing lens. Do you have an f/1.8 or f/1.4 nikkor 50mm you could shoot as an experiment to see how it does in comparison?
2. Your nikon body camera is not best-in-the-biz, but it is pretty good.
3. You can't control this, and it sounds like the light is simply not good.
4. Cannot see a flash being allowed at a recital, so even tho it would fix your problem, it is probably not an option.
 
anytime there's movement your Shutter Speed is also a limiting factor. Of course the higher the Shutter Speed required the more it moves up your ISO, which then may start involving grain or noise (or whatever ppl want to call it).
along, as mentioned above, the available light and aperture of the camera.

But we would have to see examples with EXIF to know if you could have improved on your images with settings, etc.
Low Light - One reason I went to a Full Frame sensor camera.
 
If you can get close enough- 85mm f/1.8 should be nice.
 
How much of your money can we spend?
However, with a good solid understanding of how to use your camera gear to best advantage you should be able to produce acceptable images with what you have.
In other words, you would upgrade your photography knowledge and skill rather than relying on changing/upgrading whatever camera gear you have.

If you can't use flash you're likely going to need to upgrade your lens(s).
Zoom lenses that will gather more light because they have a wide maximum aperture (a 'fast' lens) aren't inexpensive.

If you can zoom with your feet you might get by with a telephoto prime lens in the 85 to 135 mm range.
Your D3x00 bodies (and D5x00) are 'compact' Nikons and do not have Nikon's AF motor and screw-drive system in them like the D7xoo and up bodies do.
So you can only use older, generally much less expensive, Nikon AF-D lenses on your D3xoo bodies if you manually focus the lens.
However, your D3x00 bodies have a feature called Rangefinder that aid manual focusing.
In fact that motor and screw-drive is the only part of the AF system you're missing. as you manually focus both your D3x00s will turn on the In Focus indicator when you have achieved focus by manually turn the focus ring of a AF-D lens.

I have a pristine Nikon AF 80-200 mm f/2.8D push/pull to zoom lens w/Nikon lens hood I would sell for $350 including shipping in the US.
 
Last edited:
Post a sample image.
Not sure why but each time I try to upload a picture, I get an error message that says "Security error occurred. Please press back, refresh the page and try again."
I've done this 8 times from 3 different computers using 5 different pictures.
 
You are limited by 4 things:
1. widest aperture setting available for your lens (wider is better)
2. low-light abilities of your sensor
3. amount of light available at the venue
4. ability to use flash or other supplemental lighting.

Your present situation (to me) probably breaks down like this:

1. Doubt you get lower than f/4 on your existing lens. Do you have an f/1.8 or f/1.4 nikkor 50mm you could shoot as an experiment to see how it does in comparison?
2. Your nikon body camera is not best-in-the-biz, but it is pretty good.
3. You can't control this, and it sounds like the light is simply not good.
4. Cannot see a flash being allowed at a recital, so even tho it would fix your problem, it is probably not an option.

Thank you for your response. Good to know the body is pretty good. I do have a nikkor 50mm and it is not as grainy but I do have to manipulate the shadows in Lightroom to make the image darker and kill the grain. Not what I am looking for of course.
External lighting and flashes are not options.
I am certainly not expecting an image from the darker area to be as clear as if it were shot with nice lighting, but there has to be a better alternative to grainy faces.
 
I would love recommendation for a camera/ lens that will give me clear photos even on the darker parts of the stage.

easy:

D750 + 400mm f/2.8E
Help me out, what about this camera/lens combo
How much of your money can we spend?
However, with a good solid understanding of how to use your camera gear to best advantage you should be able to produce acceptable images with what you have.
In other words, you would upgrade your photography knowledge and skill rather than relying on changing/upgrading whatever camera gear you have.

If you can't use flash you're likely going to need to upgrade your lens(s).
Zoom lenses that will gather more light because they have a wide maximum aperture (a 'fast' lens) aren't inexpensive.

If you can zoom with your feet you might get by with a telephoto prime lens in the 85 to 135 mm range.
Your D3x00 bodies (and D5x00) are 'compact' Nikons and do not have Nikon's AF motor and screw-drive system in them like the D7xoo and up bodies do.
So you can only use older, generally much less expensive, Nikon AF-D lenses on your D3xoo bodies if you manually focus the lens.
However, your D3x00 bodies have a feature called Rangefinder that aid manual focusing.
In fact that motor and screw-drive is the only part of the AF system you're missing. as you manually focus both your D3x00s will turn on the In Focus indicator when you have achieved focus by manually turn the focus ring of a AF-D lens.

I have a pristine Nikon AF 80-200 mm f/2.8D push/pull to zoom lens w/Nikon lens hood I would sell for $350 including shipping in the US.
Thank you for your response Keith. Yes this lens is f/4.5-6.3. Looks like not a wide aperture variance there huh? I really would love to have auto focus with my zoom lens, so if I have to upgrade my camera/lens, I am willing to do so.
 
Not sure how much money you can throw at this issue...a new lens that has a fast maximum aperture, like the 50/1.8 AF-S G series, or the 85mm f/1.8 AF-S G-series might be helpful. Basically, you'd want to shoot in .NEF mode, and use wider apertures like f/1.8 or f/2 or f/2.2 in dark areas; from 30-50 feet away, you'll have enough depth of field to get plenty of the stage activity in-focus.

MANY times, with so-called stage lighting, flood- or spot-lighted people turn out wayyyyyy over-exposed, when the majority of the stage has a darker background. Light metering can be an issue; you mentioned needing to _darken_ images...that makes me think over-exposure might be an issue for you at times. If people are too bright, dial in Minus EC, or Minus Exposure Compensation. Or use manual mode, and meter carefully, and figure out the "right" exposure, and set that manually, then adjust the images later in post.
 
This is an exposure problem. In order to decrease the "graininess" of the image you have to get as much light as possible to the sensor. Right now your lens doesn't open wide enough so your camera is compensating by increasing the ISO value (sensitivity). Unfortunately your sensor can only go so far before it starts showing noise. Your option is to get a faster lens (lower f number) like the prime. If you are serious about shooting these scenarios, you have to spend some coin.
 

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