bytethis
Senior Member
Gallery: Latest Photos
Registered: Aug 2004
Location: Port Melbourne, Victoria, Aust
Posts: 1188
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G'day
Hi Chuck.
Welcome to Byte.
Glad you're enjoying the D70...I use one also and think it's brilliant.
Your thread was pointed out to me by a good friend in that I may be able to offer some advice in regards low light shooting.
I shoot a lot at night, often in controlled light situations i.e. where there's not any constantly changing ambient light, but I also shoot changing light situations such as for my fireworks shots, and my recent series shooting the floating platforms for the Commonwealth Games here in Melbourne (those are in my gallery) These would be similar in a sense to your concert/band shots, where the light is pretty much a mixed bag.
I've also shot in almost no light with some success...
However the simple basics of photography is that movement and image are recorded with ambient light.
How to make successful images with next to no light? Well I have a few suggestions that I've utilised that I hope may help you also.
Firstly you have to decide whether you wish to capture your images crisply and sharply with plenty of detail, or whether you wish to portray mood and emotion and maybe capture some of the moment with evidence of blur.
It certainly is possible to extract good light when reasonably exposed images are captured...more on that in a sec.
To capture sharp images (i.e. freezing band members or instruments etc) in the absence of strong enough light, first option is shoot Aperture Priority. Shoot the smallest aperture you can...e.g. 3.5 or smaller...first thing this does is open up the iris of the lens to its largest, maximising the light that enters your lens and sensor...this also gives the benefit of having the brains of the cam select the correct shutter speed for the given situation, and the more light, the faster the shutter speed.
Next option (and this can be used simultaneously with Aperture Priority) is bump up the ISO or sensor light sensitivity to about 800, or maybe even 1000. Now, this gives exactly the same response as whacking in similar rated film in a film SLR camera, in that the increased sensitivity will use the available light more efficiently. Beware tho, doing this increases the chance of noise and/or artefacts - random coloured pixels in your images, which in band shots may be an attractive option, making them look more grungy or moody - especially in B&W conversions (hopefully they're not a country & western band lol) but increased noise is not usually a desirable effect. depending on what software you use, noise reduction may have to be employed...Please note too, that if you switch noise reduction on in the D70 (which activates on captures longer than 1 sec) then be prepared that for as long as the shutter was opened, the write to card and processing time will be the same. So if you shoot an image (with NR on) that is say 2 seconds, the process and write to card time is also 2 seconds, therefore your cam is unavailable for 4 seconds total.
Also I note you are using a decent Nikon flash...A clever part of the D70 is it ability to have the on board flash act as a commander and speak to the flash even if it's not mounted on your D70 - pop the D70 on full auto mode and then you can also access the commander mode - this option will let you fill your subject with light remote from the camera, with the flash being held or mounted on a tripod. The onboard flash measures require light levels and sends info back to the remote flash. Great for filling nearby subjects with light.
Btw I highly recommend a tripod/monopod for your camera shots also, and with the cam remotely fired via the infra red (if possible)
Other options exist too, in that you could 'up' the Exposure Level which in essence 'tricks' the cam into thinking and behaving as though there's more light...often times tho this is less controllable and delicate an option than adjusting Aperture and ISO. Also software is your friend lol Depending very much on what you use, you will be able to extract heaps of detail when post processing your images, particularly if you shoot in RAW (which again, I highly recommend) So an image that appears too dark or contrasty, may actually be able to be saved when adjusting shadows and highlights/light levels in processing software. In the case you shoot JPG only, your cam will react faster, but the images will be less 'adjustable' and be more prone to artefacts.
Also you asked about using the burst or continuous mode. You can certainly do this, but be aware that when shooting longer exposure, as you'd expect at night, that the cam may not always respond to shooting 3 long (or more) exposures subsequently due to processing required to write them to card and whether or not you've switched NR on. The SB600 I believe, is compatible with continuous shooting.
There's heaps more things to investigate, like Bracketing and methods of post processing in software...but hopefully you can have a play with some of the ideas I've suggested. Hope they help some.
I'm happy for you to browse through my gallery and shoot me a pm or email to ask 'how I did that' or can elaborate more on what I've suggested etc.
Love to see the results.
Good luck.
Graham
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May 8th, 2006 05:09 PM
