quick question on indoor shooting

[iPhoto17]

i talked to my general manager at my job about shooting pics in the bowling alley for the huge 80 inch tv picture display. (good waste of a huge flat screen tv if all your gonna do is show pics if you ask me, i wouldnt mind hooking up my ps3 to it if i got the chance). but anyway

today is gonna be a full house during a league, with roughly 150 people, the area is fairly bright, some dark spots, so what ISO and other settings would be good for this?

and also on friday and saturday nights we do cosmic bowling where all the lights are turned off and the black lights turn on, i do have a tripod if i decide to bring in my camera during cosmic bowling, and ill probably bring it in tonight just incase.

if this helps, im using a nikon d3000 with 18-55mm lense and tripod

 

[Big Mike]

so what ISO and other settings would be good for this?

Depends on the specific light levels and what you are trying achieve with the photo.

If you are shooting without flash, getting shutter speeds high enough to freeze movement and avoid blur may be your biggest concern...so you may need to raise the ISO to get faster shutter speeds.
This is also true if you are using flash, but the flash may help to freeze the subject and you can use the shutter speed and ISO to raise or lower the amount of ambient (background) exposure. In some cases you may want to leave the background darker to focus the attention on the subject. But in this situation, you probably want to have a well balanced background exposure to show the atmosphere of the place.

 

[iPhoto17]

so what ISO and other settings would be good for this?

Depends on the specific light levels and what you are trying achieve with the photo.

If you are shooting without flash, getting shutter speeds high enough to freeze movement and avoid blur may be your biggest concern...so you may need to raise the ISO to get faster shutter speeds.
This is also true if you are using flash, but the flash may help to freeze the subject and you can use the shutter speed and ISO to raise or lower the amount of ambient (background) exposure. In some cases you may want to leave the background darker to focus the attention on the subject. But in this situation, you probably want to have a well balanced background exposure to show the atmosphere of the place.

thats the only catch, im not allowed to use the flash during league play, so a higher ISO would let more light in while using faster shutter speeds? ill try 400 at first and if that doesnt work ill raise it

 

[bigtwinky]

Thankfully bowling aren't the fastest moving sport. However, if you still need decent speeds to freeze them while they are moving.

If you can't get slow enough shutter speeds, then aim to take pictures of them at specific times where the motion is less... like just before they are going down the lane, focused on the pins (you'll have to be out of the way and somewhat far, not sure your lens has the reach for this) or better yet, right at the end of their follow through, where they hold a position for a half second or so.

Another option to look into if you have slower shutter speeds is panning, where you are moving the camera at the same speed as the subject to keep them sharp but the rest is motion blurred.

I'd think a shutter of 1/125 is the lowest when they are moving, 1/60 might work for pre or follow through shots. I could be a bit low though, maybe 1/250.

You probably don't want to go too high with the iso (although do so if you dont have a choice) as the D3000 might not be the best at high ISO. I know my XSI sucks at 1600 and is just passable at 800. The highest usable ISO for me is 400.