Need Help photographing at School

[Victor]

Here's the dilemma. I want to take pictures of my kid in the school auditorium. I usually get a seat pretty far back and have been trying to get telephoto shots. I'm using a Canon Powershot A40. I love the camera but can't figure out the right settings for this type of shot. Most people are familiar with the type of lighting in school auditoriums and I would appreciate any help I can get. Graduation is coming up soon. HELP! Please.

[Dave Dilks]

The simple, and perhaps only, answer is "Get closer." Indoor lighting is generally less than optimal; you compound that problem by shooting at telephoto because it restricts the camera to smaller apertures (therefore letting in even less light). My advice would be to get as close as possible and see if you can get acceptable pictures at wide angle without the flash. If that doesn't work, the next choice would be to move close enough so that your flash can provide the necessary illumination.

[John_Reed]

Originally Posted by Victor

Here's the dilemma. I want to take pictures of my kid in the school auditorium. I usually get a seat pretty far back and have been trying to get telephoto shots. I'm using a Canon Powershot A40. I love the camera but can't figure out the right settings for this type of shot. Most people are familiar with the type of lighting in school auditoriums and I would appreciate any help I can get. Graduation is coming up soon. HELP! Please.

This isn't an easy task. I shot some photos at a High School graduation ceremony in Buffalo last June with my FZ10, which has a fast f2.8 lens and a 432mm equivalent zoom reach. Despite that, it was still tough to get good shots, and frankly I didn't get very many good ones. Despite Dave's admonition to "get closer," it isn't always possible, and many others will be trying to do the same thing as you are. If you could rent or borrow a dSLR like a Canon dReb to EOS 20D, with a long lens attached, you could do well with high ISO shots. Otherwise, just be content with the photos they usually take with a pro photographer, set up right by the graduate when he/she receives the diploma. Good luck!

[Victor]

I should mention that the camera has a manual setting with which I can change DIN, Fstop, Shutter speed. I've started playing with these to see what effect these will have on low light situations.

[D70FAN]

Originally Posted by Victor

I should mention that the camera has a manual setting with which I can change DIN, Fstop, Shutter speed. I've started playing with these to see what effect these will have on low light situations.

That's a good way to learn, but as John mentioned, your camera just flat runs out of light, and if you push the ISO (DIN) to the max (400) then pictures start to get pretty grainy (noisy). You can fix some of that noise using Noise Ninja (software), and they might be OK.

The A40 is a nice little camera, but even its newer siblings would have trouble in this case. If you can get your hands on a descent dSLR, be it Canon (300D/20D) or Nikon (D70), your chances would improve considerably.