Low-light and other questions

[ForTheNguyen]

I'm having trouble on taking shots in low to no light. My shots come out blurry without flash. I don't want to always use flash.
I'll be shooting a lot of club type atmosphere so any tips would surely help!

Not my shots but I'm looking for something like this:

Also what type of lens is this?

 

[Big Mike]

Photography....Photo, meaning Light...Graphy, meaning to Draw. Photography is drawing with light. If you don't have enough light, you can't draw.

Your shots are blurry because the shutter speed to too slow (long). But if you used a faster shutter speed, you would likely end up with underexposed (dark) photos.

The larger your lens aperture, the faster the shutter speed you can get. So getting a lens with a larger maximum aperture (provided you can change the lens on your camera) will help (but maybe not solve) your problem.

The other option is to increase the ISO. This will add noise, but allow you to increase the shutter speed.

 

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

I would recommend getting a 50mm f/1.4 ( you failed to tell us what you are shooting with though ). Its a good focal length and is very fast ( works well in low light ) but you will still need to boost the ISO slightly and probably wouldn't want to go wide open ( maybe f/1.8 or f/2)

That last lens is most likely some sort of Fisheye lens, or possibly just a wide angle lens with really bad distortion? ( But I guess that sort of would make it an unofficial fisheye lens )

 

[ForTheNguyen]

Whoops sorry. I'm shooting with a D50 + kit lens. So to shoot better low light I should invest in a 50mm lens with a high f stop? Thanks. Which lens should I look into?

 

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

I am not familiar with Nikon whereas I shoot Canon, but I would think something like one of these would work well for you...The 35mm is a little wider, just a tad slower, but a lot cheaper. I know that traditionally the 50mm on a full framed sensor was a very popular focal length. So a 35mm with crop factor would put this roughly at 50mm. However, I used a 50mm 1.4 on a cropped sensor and loved it. If you are going to be in tight quarters though, the 35mm might be a better choice. I am sure some Nikon users can touch more on this than I can.

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G Autofocus Lens 2180 B&H Photo

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX Lens 2183 B&H Photo Video

 

[djacobox372]

Looking at your examples, only the first three are low light and the first two are using a flash, and the last a tripod.

If you want to shoot without a flash in dark environments you'll need a fast lens (1.8 or faster), and a camera with very good high-iso performance--preferably a full-frame camera.

One problem you'll struggle with when shooting in low lighting is nailing the focus, your DOF will be sickeningly small when using ultra-wide apertures. I typically use manual focus and shoot at high speed, focus bracketing as much as I can.

 

[Marc-Etienne]

Whoops sorry. I'm shooting with a D50 + kit lens. So to shoot better low light I should invest in a 50mm lens with a high f stop? Thanks. Which lens should I look into?

You are not looking for a lens with a high f stop, you are looking for a large aperture, so a small f stop. Others will be able to answer you about which lens is best, but I'm also looking for a good low-light Nikon lens. I found this lens that seems pretty interesting to my opinion.Nikon 50mm f/1.2 Lens AIS Lens DSLR Lenses Full Frame 12857 - Vistek Canada Product Detail

Pros will give you better suggestion. It's only the biggest aperture I found.

 

[vtf]

^^^^^^What they said.
I feel I should mention that posting someone elses pictures is not proper, you can provide a link to them but you don't have the rights to post them.

 

[Dominantly]

Learn to use flash if you're trying to up your game, both on and off camera.
Bounce it, diffuse, gel it...etc