Night Shots (How To)

[stigma]

I've been taking night shots of inanimate objects with shutter speeds of approx. 3 seconds and even longer sometimes. But I was wondering if there is a way to take night shots with a faster shutter speed? I'm wanting to take photos of people and I don't want them to have to sit COMPLETELY still for 4 seconds, which is impossible and will blur a bit. I'm also wanting to take rolling shots of cars at night too. I don't want to use flash, as there will be concerts here that I want to take pictures of that don't allow flash. Maybe there are lenses that permit me to do so?

Thanks!

 

[midget patrol]

Use a flash. That's really the only way to do it. Well, you could buy some super-fast glass, but that'll cost you a lot. You could also jack up the ISO on your camera, but that will introduce noise.

 

[stigma]

What do you mean by "super fast glass?" Low-light lenses?

 

[midget patrol]

Lenses that have a really low f/number. So, something like the 50mm 1.2 (canon only, i believe), 50mm 1.4, or 50mm 1.8 would be better. The 1.4 and 1.8 are pretty readily available and the 1.8 is usually under $100

 

[LaFoto]

(The 50mm f/1.4 is about 4 times as expensive as the f/1.8 here in Germany :roll: )

In concerts you will be offered stage lights.
That should give you more light than your AVERAGE night shot ... for those, with the regular lights given by a regular town, you might either have to use flash OR really "freeze" your models for a couple of seconds.

Rolling cars (getting light streaks) is not difficult and can only be achieved with long exposures ... but you might want to get SHARP pics of rolling cars? That's something for our experts on car photography here, I guess ... not for me...