HOME | GALLERY | WORKSHOPS | ASK GARRY! | BOOKS

Garry Black Photography

Question:

I am a beginner and I need to know how to shot indoors with very low light and no flash. It is an indoor concert. Only lighting is stage. Need to know what speed film and any thing else you can tell me. Fast!

Answer:

For most indoor events you'll want a bare minimum shutter speed of 1/125 of a second. Although you might be able to get away with a 1/60 it depends if you are using a long lens (the longer the lens the faster the shutter speed should be), it also depends upon how fast your subjects are moving.

The film speed depends on the lighting conditions, if they are typical to other theaters then you will need at least 1000 ISO film. The other variable is how fast is your lens? A lens with an F-Stop of 2.0 using 200 ISO film will give you the same shutter speed as an F2.8 lens with 500 ISO and a F4 lens with 1000 ISO film. Obviously you will want to use your fastest lens, let me know what it is and I will try to suggest a film for you to use. Also let me know about the concert, what kind is it? The lighting will be different for the various styles of music. (Classical, Country, Rock, Rap etc.)

Follow up Question:

First of all I would like to thank you for your quick response to my question. I'm not sure I can give you the correct information on the lens speed. I don't have the owners manual with me, but I tried to look up the specs on the Minolta web site (I was given a Minolta Maxxum si 404 for x-mas). The information that I found was under Metering Range. It was EV 1-20, f/1.4 lens and EV -1 to 18 (at ISO 100 in ambient light.

If this is not what you needed thats ok. I sure do appreciate you help. It seems I'm am trying to pack in too much information on this subject with my limited knowledge. But I will be taking pictures any way (nothing ventured nothing gained). By the way the Concert is Rock (Eddie Money).

Thanks again,

Answer:

The following advice should help you in taking shots at the concert. The EV range that you gave me is the camera meter's capability to read the light. I'll assume that you got a wide angle zoom lens with the camera (probably something like 28mm - 80mm).

First of all get the fastest speed film that you possibly can, the following films are consumer films so they should be easy to find. (as opposed to professional films which are only handled by the larger camera stores) Fuji Superia 800 or Superia X-TRA 800 or Kodak KODAK MAX Zoom 800 or KODAK ROYAL GOLD 1000.

As for the settings on your camera, go to the "Subject Program Selection" you should use the "Sports Action" mode, as this will favoring fast shutter speeds. Or the Shutter Priority (S mode): Which will also give you a fast shutter speed.

The only other advice that I can think of is; to use the spot meter, if when you look through the viewfinder the stage area takes up only a small percentage of the total picture. Or if the lighting they are using only really highlights Eddie Money and not his band.

If anything isn't clear in the instructions above let me know. Hope your shots turn out!