Indoor Assembly Photography | Need Help | Bad lighting conditions

[AngelosPhotography]

Recently, I've been the photographer for an assembly, but the problem is the fact that all the freaking lights inside the room are extremely low while there's only one spotlight on the speaker. Now, when setting my shutter speed, I realized it's around 1/10, which could cause a bit blurred motions. This means I need to raise my ISO, but doing that causes my photo to have more grainy effects.

My leader wants sharp, clear images of the speaker and the audience, but then again, I can't get images of the audience when the lights are very low.

I only have a built-in flash from my DSLR and no external flashes.

Is there any way to have better lighting at such event?

Equipment
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Nikon D3100 + 55-200mm Telephoto Lens

 

[gsgary]

Only by setting up studio lighting, tell your leader he wants too much from your equipment

 

[TCampbell]

This sounds like typical event photography (concerts, plays, etc.)

Spot-meter the speaker's face and set your exposure for that. A single bright spotlight on the speaker will mean that they get strong/dark shadows. The shots would look better if the shadows were filled in a bit with some supplemental lighting but they'd have to provide that... that's probably not something you'll be able to do unless the venue corrects their lighting to be friendly to photography. By metering off the speaker's face you'll likely find that the exposure comes up considerably (their face is probably MUCH brighter than the background in a dimly lit room. In fact... if you take the exposure the camera suggests, you'll find that it's trying to increase the exposure to provide some detail in the blackness (which is not what you want) at the cost of over-exposing the speaker.

In theory you could also use flash, but it would require specialty flashes. For example, take a look at the "2H" reflector on this page Battery Portable Systems -Battery Portable Reflectors (these are Norman battery powered portable flashes. I used these back when I did weddings a few decades ago.) Since you can swap the reflector on the flash head, you can use a reflector which is much better at controlling the spread of the beam. By concentrating the beam, you can provide adequate lighting at much greater distances than would be possible with a normal flash (and the light source itself doesn't necessarily have to be "brighter" if you can focus the beam more tightly.) BTW, these flashes are not cheap.

A faster lens would do wonders for your shutter speed. You're basically stuck at f/5.6. An f/2.8 zoom would would let you quadruple your shutter speed (f/2.8 collects four times as much light as f/5.6).

If shooting the audience, then stand at the front, but off to the side of the speaker. Shoot across the room so that you get the speaker (properly exposed) and the stage lighting will reflect and give a glow to the faces of audience members in the first handful of rows. But if you want them to be "sharp" you'll need a smaller aperture to increase the depth-of-field. This WILL increase your exposure time (sorry... these are rules of physics -- your leader doesn't get a vote in this.) That means you'll be forced to use a tripod. Anyone moving while you're taking the shot will still be blurred.

 

[AngelosPhotography]

Thanks for the help, guys. My leader is not familiar with photography, just a producer that's capable of leading a large group. Though, for the sharp images on an audience, I believe it is difficult since the exposure time will be longer, which causes blurred motions

 

[dhris]

Lighting at these kinds of venues are static--they don't really change. I'd shoot in manual, starting around ISO1600, f/4, 1/160. I'd take a test shot of the speaker, zoom in on the shot, and assess the exposure. If it's good, I'd write down (or remember) those settings and just come back to them. Don't hesitate to go even wider open with aperture (e.g. f/2.5) if your lens does it for especially the shots of the speaker.

 

[TCampbell]

Thanks for the help, guys. My leader is not familiar with photography, just a producer that's capable of leading a large group. Though, for the sharp images on an audience, I believe it is difficult since the exposure time will be longer, which causes blurred motions

I suspect it's not as you as you may think. Venue lighting typically is bad. BUT... because of the dominant black backgrounds, cameras usually want to over-expose by at least 1 full stop... sometimes even a little more (maybe 1-1/3rd stop).

That means your metering indicating 1/10th of a second exposure might actually be 1/20th or even slightly faster. If you can get your hands on a lens with a better focal ratio (e.g. an f/2.8 zoom) then you'll get two more stops beyond that. So now you're up to maybe 1/80th. At that point a lens with image stabilization actually would be able to get the shot without a tripod OR if you use a tripod then you wouldn't have to worry about subject movement causing blur (not unless they were moving pretty quickly.)

But this means you'll need a faster lens. A 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom is a "bread n butter" lens for most event photographers. They're not cheap though. You'll also need a tripod. You wont always need it, but it'll be one of those things that need to be available to you when you do need it.

 

[bratkinson]

TCampbell is right on. A faster lens it 90% of the solution. The rest is an external flash and a monopod and/or tripod. About a year ago, I made the same 'discovery' as you the first time I did photography at church during our Christmas pageant with an f3.5-5.6 lens. So-so lighting on the stage area and dim everywhere else.

"Moving up" to f2.8 and faster lenses and using a flash (only when deemed not overly distractive) and a monopod made the difference of shooting at 1/20th and slower and shooting in the neighborhood of 1/125th...stopped motion blur most of the time. A steady hand and lenses with stabilization are also required.

 

[enzodm]

This means I need to raise my ISO, but doing that causes my photo to have more grainy effects.

... follow the above hints, however do not worry much about increasing ISO: better grainy than blurred, and you may always slightly reduce noise in pp.

ISO1600:

 

[Sw1tchFX]

For the stage stuff, that's no biggie, just spot meter where the light is.

For the audience during the performance, that's probably not going to happen. I have a tough time getting away with that on a D4 at ISO 25,600 and f/2.8..

 

[AngelosPhotography]

Thanks guys. Is there any lenses around the price of $200 to $1,500 that's telephoto with a f-stop such as f2.8? I researched and found a Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8, but it's a macro lens I'm looking for telephoto.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Just get the tamron. It's not a real macro.

 

[supraman215]

You could always rent a lens for the day for cheap.

 

[Derrel]

For the stage stuff, that's no biggie, just spot meter where the light is.

For the audience during the performance, that's probably not going to happen. I have a tough time getting away with that on a D4 at ISO 25,600 and f/2.8..

I once had to shoot a professor giving a lecture in front of a big crowd of about 250 people in a HUGE lecture hall...I used ISO 400 TRi-X film pushed just one f/stop to 800, and three Vivitar 285 HV flashes. I aimed one flash straight up at the ceiling, and two flashes were set up with optical slaves and zoomed to TELE and fired at the walls of the hall from 2/3 of the way back from the front podium. Using a wide-angle lens I was able to get most of the entire room lighted pretty well at f/4.5 or so using both 24mm and 28mm lenses. I got some "podium shots" from the back using both my 135/2.8 and my old Vivitar 200mm f/3.5 lens.

You do not "need" expensive flashes like the Norman 200- or 400-series pack-and-head flash units...three smaller speedlights will light up a big room and audience if fired from "a ways back", so that there is not too much light fall-off.