High ISO ... let's lose the noise

[DonSchap]

Good luck and be flexible

[e_dawg]

I'm not Don, but if i may, I'd like to offer a suggestion or two:

I'd think the closer you can get, the shorter your focal length can be, and the slower your shutter speed has to be to combat camera shake. As well, with variable aperture lenses, you can use a faster aperture setting at shorter focal lengths. Slower shutter speed + larger aperture... obviously, allows you to use lower ISO.

Of course, you'll need to keep your shutter speed high enough to freeze the action of the performers, but at least you don't have to keep the shutter speed even higher to prevent camera shake with a telephoto lens.

[DonSchap]

One problem with stage lighting is pockets of light. Normally, the stage is not uniformly lit ... many directed spots will dominate the shot, causing either overexposure ... or something gets missed. So Multi-segment or center-weighted metering modes could be problematic.

You might entertain the idea of something similar to an HDR attempt, setting your bracketing to "continuous" and using the camera to grab three nearly simultaneous exposures. You could then have broadened your imaging f-full f/stops for every image, even if you don't eventually produce an HDR for it. Just pick from the exposures that deliver a best shot, both in lighting and movement.

Bracketing maybe be the savior in this instance. Just something I considered, as I thought about your question. Again, you don't have to go as far as +/- 2 EV ... maybe +/- 0.7EV would be just fine. It will depend completely on the lighting. I would go with SPOT metering, so the subject is at least correctly exposed.

Here's a snap of the settings ...

[e_dawg]

... but Don, what happens if the performers move while you're bracketing? Does the camera just take one shot and spit out three files from the one image with different levels of sensor gain applied?

[seanhoxx]

Hey Don and dawg, just got back home, took care of the real dogs etc. and had to jump on here quick. I used the 70-200 2.8 from 70mm up to a few at 135mm mostly at 85mm. This was at a fairly large church and the satge was pretty well lighted and somewhat uniformly. I was about 30 feet from closest performers and maybe like 75 - 80 feet at a diagonal for a few of the long shots. Overall I say WOW! yes there is noise, I will post during the day Sunday. I used a few shutter speeds but mostly 100 or 125, I didn't trust my hands to go any lower. Performers were all in black that didn't help hiding the noise LOL. A good setting to store and then do a bit of fine tuning at the time of shooting. I also thought about taking the UV filter off? maybe will next time indoors. Do you guys think it makes any difference that I do NOT have the V4 update installed?

[seanhoxx]

Some other info. I used single shot advance for the drive, single shot AF, wide AF area, center weighted metering. i will look inot braceting, that may be the answer for basketball with the light cycles.

[seanhoxx]

here we go, right out of the camera rezised for here only no crop no PP at all.
1st. pic. 90mm 1/125 sec. f/2.8 - 2nd. pic. 135mm 1/125 sec. f/2.8
3rd. pic. 100mm 1/125 sec. f/2.8 - 4th. 70mm 1/100 sec. f2.8
All other settings as i noted in earlier post and from Don's example. AF single advance, center weighted metering, Af wide area, hand held.

[seanhoxx]

yea I know the pipe organ isn't level! I have a copy of elements and light room but havent started playing with it yet. i know thats something I shouldn't have to fix in P.P. I need to level out! In this set:
1st. 105mm 1/100 f/2.8 - 2nd. 135mm 1/100 f/2.8
3rd. 150mm 1/100 f/2.8 - 4th. 140mm 1/100 f/2.8

[seanhoxx]

not sure how that happened, or didn't happen.

[dr4gon]

Lightroom has this cool leveler function. Simply use it like a stretchable leveler and draw a flat line (like on a crooked horizon) and it will fix it for you perfectly! (Just found it today, LOL)

They look excellent though. The lighting seems pretty good except for the bagpiper, he coudl use some fill flash/fill light in PP.