Different Need

[White Dragon]

I am wondering if anyone has any advice on shooting dancers in low light without a flash. My wife and her friends bellydance and we are not permitted to use a flash to take shots of the shows but I either get really dark images 1/120 f4.5 or blurred images 1.5s f4.0

I have been looking at f2.8 and f1.4 lenses but will I be limited on the depth of field so much that only the front dancer will be in focus if I have a fixed lens? Am I looking at a $1000 lens in order to get an f2.8 zoom lens and will the f2.8 still reduce my focal length so much that I will not be able to get all the dancers on stage?
I am using a Pentax K-m dSLR right now.

Can anyone help?

[Rob Necciai]

I think that, in under those conditions, you're going to be forced to shooting at higher ISOs. How far up can you adjust your ISO and still get a usable image with your camera? Also, if you do shoot at a higher ISO, you'll want to perform Noise Reduction in Post Processing. Oh, and be sure to shoot in RAW (compressed RAW or non-compressed RAW on your camera). This will give you greater latitude in dealing with the noise and recovering details in the shadows in post processing.

As far as using a 2.8 lens under those conditions, it helps a little but you'll still have the shallow focus issues at larger apertures.

[wulf]

You probably won't be able to get all the dancers on the stage in focus but, then again, a single flash probably wouldn't light them all up anyway. Instead, look on a narrow depth of field as a virtue (since you'll need a wide aperture) and, as Rob suggests, bump up the ISO.

You could also suggest that the performances have better lighting

Wulf

[i speak in math]

$1000? One of the best f/2.8 zooms is the Tamrom 28-75mm f/2.8 and it can be had for pretty cheap. I picked mine up on Amazon for $270 but the price has gone up since then. In the low light, you might find you need to manually focus rather than rely on the auto focus (it might rack back and forth trying to find something of contrast to focus on). In that case, having a manual focus lens would not be a disadvantage to an auto focus lens. I picked up a smc 50mm f/1.4 for $60 on KEH.com. I rarely take it off my camera. You can get all kinds of great low light manual focus lenses over there for great deals. Even the BGN condition ones are great.

[Benji]

Make arrangements with the dance hall to rent the building for a couple hours, bring in flash units and schedule the girls at about 10 minute intervals.

Benji

[archersdad]

Originally Posted by i speak in math

$1000?

From the price and aperture, I would assume the OP is looking at a 2.8 70-200 IS. Why not try a cheaper lens first? The 50mm 1.8 usually goes for $100 brand new.

You could always try renting or borrowing a lens to see if it gets you what you want. It would suck to drop $1K on a lens and still not be where you want to be. I think your best bet would be to try to arrange to shoot a rehearsal. I doubt the dancers or anybody watching would mind a flash then. You could also likely convince whoever is in charge of lighting for the performance to turn up the lights enough to get some good shots.

[i speak in math]

Originally Posted by archersdad

From the price and aperture, I would assume the OP is looking at a 2.8 70-200 IS. Why not try a cheaper lens first? The 50mm 1.8 usually goes for $100 brand new.

Pentax doesn't have a 50mm f/1.8 -- there is an older smc f 50mm f/1.7 but it is hard to find and will probably be over $100. The newer smc fa 50mm f/1.4 is up to around $350 (from $250 around a year and half ago). And the Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 for pentax is only $770. But I do agree with you on the cheaper lens idea.

The K-m isn't known for its great ISO either. You can either get a faster lens, but lose depth of focus, or crank up the ISO, and cover your shots in noise.

[White Dragon]

The highest ISO I have is 3200 and it is still taking 1.5 to 3 seconds to shoot. I haven't done anything in RAW yet but want to learn. What do you suggest for an inexpensive program to process RAW files? As I am just starting out, I don't want to have to spend a fortune

[Rob Necciai]

Do you have the software that came with your camera? Not sure if this is up-to-date but the following link is to a PDF file describing the software to process Pentax RAW files:

http://www.pentaximaging.com/files/m...stD_PCConn.pdf

There may be some noise-reduction support within this software. However, there are other noise-reduction software tools out there that will work on Pentax RAW files. Some (maybe most) are relatively expensive.

[Cam Monroe]

Are you using a tripod?...or atleast a monopod?
That will remove part of the blur.

Your narrow DOF wide open, will be quite a bit wider at a distance.
So do invest in a 1.4-2.8 lens!