Best settings for indoor photos without a flash

[A Crafty Ape]

I've been attending a lot of open mic's in Salt Lake City and my friends have asked me to take pictures of them when they're up doing their sets.

My biggest problem is because they move a lot, playing instruments, I get a lot of blurry photos, every 1 good photo is 10 blurry ones.

I have a Canon EOS Rebel t3 and my question would be, under the manual setting, what would be the optimal settings to help me capture them better with clearer pictures?

Sorry if this is a super amateur question, this is my first "real" camera.

[RichardTaylor]

What lens(es) do you have?

Also you may find post #2 of this tutorial of help.

Classical concert photography

[autofocus]

What lens(es) do you have?

^^^This is key to answering your question. What you will need to have to pull this off is a fast lens (one that has a wide aperture setting...if you don't have one, you may want to consider the very inexpensive f/1.8 50mm), a camera that supports high ISO settings, an image stabilized lens could also be useful, but it only helps with hand holding at a slow shutter speed, which absolutely does nothing to help you with subject motion blur. However, with a slow shutter speed with an IS lens, timing your shots is important..try to catch that subject in motion when they briefly stop moving.

[A Crafty Ape]

I am using the lens that came with the camera, a EFS 18-55mm lens that has IS.

[RichardTaylor]

That lens will be too slow.

See this - it is about fast lenses.

Lenses #6 - Fast lenses

You will need a "fast" lens for those situations.
How far away are you from the subject and what is your budget ($US)?

[A Crafty Ape]

That lens will be too slow.

See this - it is about fast lenses.

Lenses #6 - Fast lenses

You will need a "fast" lens for those situations.
How far away are you from the subject and what is your budget ($US)?

Until college starts in January, my budget is nil, for the moment.

I've gotten some what I consider decent what my friends consider "great" shots, using the default "no flash" setting; I figured I could fine tune the camera under the M(anual) setting and make them better.

[RichardTaylor]

Ok - This is what I would do - using what ever metering mode you are comfortable with
.
(1) Shoot RAW - this will give you more control whn post processing, especially noise reduction.

(2) Maximum ISO

(3) Lens wide open.

(4) Take what ever shutter speed you can get so subject motion or camera motion is not a problem

(5) Use your histogram to check your exposure from time to time.

(6) if you have more light than you need then consider reducing your ISO.

Vince (autofocus) offers good advice.

[A Crafty Ape]

Ok - This is what I would do - using what ever metering mode you are comfortable with
.
(1) Shoot RAW - this will give you more control whn post processing, especially noise reduction.

(2) Maximum ISO

(3) Lens wide open.

(4) Take what ever shutter speed you can get so subject motion or camera motion is not a problem

(5) Use your histogram to check your exposure from time to time.

(6) if you have more light than you need then consider reducing your ISO.

Vince (autofocus) offers good advice.

When you say "Lens wide open" I know what you mean but translating that to the camera.. I get lost, do you mean a high aperture setting like F4.0 or ?

Apologies for being amateur.

[autofocus]

When you say "Lens wide open" I know what you mean but translating that to the camera.. I get lost, do you mean a high aperture setting like F4.0 or ?

Apologies for being amateur.

Yes. I believe on that lens at full zoom your widest aperture will probably be f/5.6..which is not too wide. Here's what you can try:
-Set camera mode to AV for aperture priority and zoom to the distance you want to be shooting. 18mm on that lens will offer the widest aperture..maybe it's f/3.5 (don't own it, so I can't be sure of that) This will require you to be a little closer to the subjects.
- Set your ISO to 800, this will give you some wiggle room to go up, or down on it. But depending on the ambient light conditions I would suspect you'll need to be at ISO 1600 in order to get a fast enough shutter speed
- Whatever ISO setting gives you a shutter speed of at least 1/60th or better yet 1/100th second stick with that ISO. (higher or lower ISO if necessary) Remember in AV mode, the camera will be selecting the shutter speed once you set the aperture and the ISO

[A Crafty Ape]

Yes. I believe on that lens at full zoom your widest aperture will probably be f/5.6..which is not too wide. Here's what you can try:
-Set camera mode to AV for aperture priority and zoom to the distance you want to be shooting. 18mm on that lens will offer the widest aperture..maybe it's f/3.5 (don't own it, so I can't be sure of that) This will require you to be a little closer to the subjects.
- Set your ISO to 800, this will give you some wiggle room to go up, or down on it. But depending on the ambient light conditions I would suspect you'll need to be at ISO 1600 in order to get a fast enough shutter speed
- Whatever ISO setting gives you a shutter speed of at least 1/60th or better yet 1/100th second stick with that ISO. (higher or lower ISO if necessary) Remember in AV mode, the camera will be selecting the shutter speed once you set the aperture and the ISO

In AV mode I can go up to F22 and down to 3.5 but I don't see a place where I can play with the shutter speed in AV mode.