Shooting without a flash in dim areas

[ginger71]

I recently attended a wedding reception where the light was quite dim. The professional photographer was shooting the bride and groom dancing and was not using a flash. What kind of lens do you think she was using?

[Tito87]

Originally Posted by ginger71

I recently attended a wedding reception where the light was quite dim. The professional photographer was shooting the bride and groom dancing and was not using a flash. What kind of lens do you think she was using?

Probably, a very fast lens. I'd also say that he might have been using a high ISO number.

[dlambert]

... and very possibly, a full-frame camera, too.

[scootermcq]

Originally Posted by ginger71

I recently attended a wedding reception where the light was quite dim. The professional photographer was shooting the bride and groom dancing and was not using a flash. What kind of lens do you think she was using?

I don't know, but I really wanna see the pictures when you hear they are posted.


I say that, because this is ISO1600 half a stop above 2.8 and only 1/13th of a second.

I know of no way to get a decent shutter speed to not get motion blur, unless they are shooting ISO 6400

[3bayjunkie]

if it was a Nikon D3x it could easily pull of 3200 with minimal noise and possible 6400 with noise reduction in post.

This is a test with the D3s. i set the ISO of the picture to 6400 and selected the D3s as the camera. it still has useable iso at 100% crop. if they were using a D3x with the doubled MP im sure would be even more useable.

[arlon]

Originally Posted by 3bayjunkie

if it was a Nikon D3x it could easily pull of 3200 with minimal noise and possible 6400 with noise reduction in post.

This is a test with the D3s. i set the ISO of the picture to 6400 and selected the D3s as the camera. it still has useable iso at 100% crop. if they were using a D3x with the doubled MP im sure would be even more useable.

I don't have a D3X but do have a D700 (should be the same as the D3S) and it's high ISO performance coupled with an F1.4 lens is pretty amazing. I'm sure I'll be laughing at the D700 in a few more years after several generations of newer digital cameras leaves it's low light performance in dust..

I'm still hoping for that D700x or something similar.. (-:}

No substitute at this time for fast glass and big (physically) pixels when it comes to getting off decent shots in low light.

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by ginger71

I recently attended a wedding reception where the light was quite dim. The professional photographer was shooting the bride and groom dancing and was not using a flash. What kind of lens do you think she was using?

Of course, you don't know how good the shots were coming out without flash...they very well could be trash. Fast glass is helpful if you can live with the very thin DOF, but it's no substitute for flash/lights in these scenarios. I don't understand her not using flash..it's almost always allowed at the reception. One has to wonder....??

[kirbinster]

I'll go to ISO 6400 (and even slightly higher) with my D700 and a fast lens and get very good shots with just a little bit of noise reduction applied. Full frame really rocks.

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by ginger71

I recently attended a wedding reception where the light was quite dim. The professional photographer was shooting the bride and groom dancing and was not using a flash. What kind of lens do you think she was using?

depends, it could have easily been an amateur who was portraying to being a quality professional photographer... but let’s assume she's great, then it would had to be a very fast lens with a very wide aperture, such as 1.2, 1.4, 1.8, or even a 2.8 which normally be best if you're using a 24-70mm 2.8 L lens when shooting portraits and not restricted with 1.2 to 1.8's because they're generally smaller focal length lenses.