Neon bowling birthday party

[MetroRuss]

Hi there,

I am hoping someone can recommend some settings to improve my photos from the last birthday party I took some photos at.
The setting is an indoor bowling alley with neon trim and black lights.
Here is a photo I took from a past party. I will be taking my son to another tomorrow afternoon and I hope to improve the photos with less noise from my iso being at 6400.
I will be using a sony A57 and an 18-55 kit lens 3.5-5.6 or Minolta 70-210 f4
Exif data is on the picture.
Thanks in advance for any tips.

 

[Ballistics]

You're pretty much at your limit with that equipment. I would highly suggest a speedlight.

 

[MetroRuss]

Thanks for your reply. Much appreciated

 

[cynicaster]

I went bowling with some friends and family back in February and brought my camera. Similar to what is shown in the image posted by the OP, it was a lights-out "rock and bowl" type deal, with the only available light coming from neons, the score keeping screens, and maybe a few disco balls they had hanging around the alley.

I had my 580EX-II on the camera, and back then I was still using my Canon T3. With similar kit, you can get some half decent snapshots to "save the memory" but they definitely will not be portfolio pics. The flash will light up the bowler and then die off going out down the lane, at which point the lighting transitions from flash to colored neon, which makes for a bit of a mess.

Below is an example of what I was able to get. Not bad for "saving a memory" but it's obvious that the gear I had on hand was bumping up against its rev limiter. I got this shot by pre-focusing on the foul line area, and snapping it as soon as my brother launched the ball down the lane. I went with max sync speed, but in retrospect it might have looked better if I had set the shutter at 1/(focal length) to bring the background up a few stops.

f/4
1/200
ISO 3200

 

[Derrel]

You're pretty much at your limit with that equipment. I would highly suggest a speedlight.

Wouldn't using a speedlight just bring in white light, and will tend to wash out the cool black light effect that is the essence of "neon bowling"?

 

[Ballistics]

You're pretty much at your limit with that equipment. I would highly suggest a speedlight.

Wouldn't using a speedlight just bring in white light, and will tend to wash out the cool black light effect that is the essence of "neon bowling"?

Depends on how you want it to look. You can balance the speedlight with the ambient light.



I used TTL here and dragged the shutter a bit. If I wanted the deep blue ambient light to be more prominent, I could have lowered the intensity of the flash.

 

[Dao]

I did something like that before for a friend's son birthday party. Hot shoe flash bounce off the ceiling for the subject and shutter dragging for the ambient.

 

[Nahin]

That's good work, showing pretty cool !!! But I think blue effect is too much in picture. That's not make your photo weird but it affects on eye. Long time not possible to see it. Other stuffs are appreciated.

 

[AaronLLockhart]

You're pretty much at your limit with that equipment. I would highly suggest a speedlight.

Wouldn't using a speedlight just bring in white light, and will tend to wash out the cool black light effect that is the essence of "neon bowling"?

Depends on how you want it to look. You can balance the speedlight with the ambient light.



I used TTL here and dragged the shutter a bit. If I wanted the deep blue ambient light to be more prominent, I could have lowered the intensity of the flash.

I've never seen someone look cooler holding a beer like that. You can tell that group gets S***t done.

 

[middy]

Aaron, That's a pretty good shot, my man. Is that the Dos Equis man?

 

[IslandShooter]

Some flash would help, but too much will take away the blue effect.

 

[Ballistics]

Aaron, That's a pretty good shot, my man. Is that the Dos Equis man?

That's my shot and it's probably Blue Point brewery beer