Help with low light settings!

[adnilele]

Hey all, I am going to be chaperoning the Junior Prom tonight, and I want to bring my Cannon Rebel, but I dont have much experience using it. I was hoping some one out there could give me a quick run down on the appropriate settings that would work in a low light environment.

If not, I will just play around with it and see what happens!

Thanks!

 

[mabas9395]

What lenses do you have to go with it?

 

[Frantasmic]

Set your white balance to whatever the available light will be. If it is an especially low-light event (only spots on the band or something) and you don't have a lens that goes f2.8 or below, you may be out of luck getting anything decent unless you pose all your pictures (i.e., get kids to stand absolutely still for 3-5 seconds).

If you do have a good lens 50mm f1.8 or 85mm f1.8 or equivalent, then you should be able to get decent shots at about 1/50 at f2.0.

You will definitely want full manual.

However, since you state you don't use it much, it sounds like you are looking more for scene type modes and you will get mixed results with any of those depending on how dark it will be.

 

[adnilele]

What lenses do you have to go with it?

I have the two that came with it....the 18-55mm and the 55-250mm.

Set your white balance to whatever the available light will be. If it is an especially low-light event (only spots on the band or something) and you don't have a lens that goes f2.8 or below, you may be out of luck getting anything decent unless you pose all your pictures (i.e., get kids to stand absolutely still for 3-5 seconds).

If you do have a good lens 50mm f1.8 or 85mm f1.8 or equivalent, then you should be able to get decent shots at about 1/50 at f2.0.

You will definitely want full manual.

However, since you state you don't use it much, it sounds like you are looking more for scene type modes and you will get mixed results with any of those depending on how dark it will be.

You're right, I dont use it often, but I want to start using it all the time, in place of my Sony P&S, so I figured this would as good a place as any! I am going to bring both of the lenses I have and play around with them tonight, but you definitely gave me somewhere to start from! Thanks

 

[MICKEY88]

I would shoot raw and worry about white balance in post processing

 

[JimbobJimbo]

With just the kit lenses you will definitely have to use the highest ISO. Also try to only shoot on the wide end to keep the aperture as wide open as possible for the lens. Ex. shooting at 55mm on the 18-55 would give you an aperture of f5.6, but shooting at 55mm on the 55-250 would give you an aperture of f4.0.

 

[bob100]

I have the two that came with it....the 18-55mm and the 55-250mm.

hopefully you have the 18-55IS - use higher ISO levels (1600), watch your shutter speed and use the flash !

 

[pjacobi]

I have the two that came with it....the 18-55mm and the 55-250mm.

Use the 18-55 lens, in the 40-55 range with the pop-up flash. This will produce photos with horrible red-eye and dark shaddows, about the same quality as a P/S camera.

If you want better quality photos, you need an external flash unit.


-Paul

 

[photo_chick]

A lot of advice here. The only bit I disagree with really is that you need to be in full manual mode. I'd choose Tv myself in that type of situation, choosing the minimum shutter speed i need then letting the camera choose the rest. But that is with my camera and my lenses.

As said by others, you really don't have a fast enough lens to get decent shots at a dance without a flash. You may get lucky and be able to keep the 18-55 wide and get a few shots, but I would not count on it with most of the Rebels. The Rebel T1i and T2i have higher ISO settings (6400 can do a lot but will not perform miracles) and you would stand a better chance, but there are a lot of ifs in that and a big part of your chances for success depends on your skill level.

If you are using the flash then I would suggest just putting it in P mode and bumping the ISO up as necessary.

I would shoot RAW. Not just for the ability to change the white balance later, but you can also adjust RAW shots more than you can jpegs. This means if you get an underexposed shot you have a better chance of saving it.