Questions re indoor shots

The Black Oil · 25-01-2015 2:45pm #1

Hey,

A colleague of mine is giving a talk next month. I might be there, or might not - depending on what the boss thinks. Anyway, I've been to the place before, albeit without a camera. I don't know if it's the exact same lecture hall, but the one I was in before was fairly standard. Fluorescent tubes for lighting, not a massive hall by any means...maybe 10-12 rows of seats. Trying to avoid being intrusive if I'm there. Maybe a few shots of her speaking, using her hands, though not too animated. :P She'll probably be off the right behind a podium with a screen for Powerpoint in the centre.

What do I need to keep in mind on the photography side? :cool:

Paulw · 25-01-2015 5:54pm

White balance is the first thing I can think of. Then the angle you will be shooting at to your subject.

Bump up the ISO if light is poor and open up the aperture.

TheQuietFella · 26-01-2015 1:05am

Does the camera allow you to shoot RAW images & do you have the software to process them?

CabanSail · 26-01-2015 2:47am

Are you planning om shooting with available light or will you be using flash?

What sort of equipment do you have?

OldGoat · 26-01-2015 12:55pm

If you have to shoot longer shutter times (hand held) then wait till she is being asked questions. At that point she will be standing more still* then if she is animatedly speaking.

*
...standing stiller...
...standing more still...
Grammer fails me.

The Black Oil · 26-01-2015 10:34pm

Camera's an old Nikon D50. I've no flashgun...yet. Kit lens or 50mm. It can do RAW, have access to Photoshop CS4 through work.

Good points all, thanks.

peckerhead · 27-01-2015 10:13am

The 50mm would be your better option if you're shooting by available light, because its max aperture of f1.8 (I'm guessing) gives you two full stops over the (presumably) f3.5 kit zoom. In other words, whereas with the 50mm and a high ISO setting you could very likely get away with a handheld shot at say, 1/30 of a second with the lens wide open, with the f3.5 zoom you'd have to use 1/8th, inevitably incurring movement blur/camera shake if you use the upper end of the zoom range. Even if you're a bit too far back from the speaker, it's better to have to crop down from a sharp shot than to have filled the frame, but with everything a bit blurred.

Your built-in flash (with the kit lens) will cover you for the likes of group shots of four or five people, standing up to 2-3 metres away. Any further away than that and it won't be much use to you.

If you plan to combine shots taken with flash and available light — particularly if they'll be displayed side by side — you'll need to adjust the white balance (and possibly saturation) so that the difference isn't too marked. Shooting in RAW is definitely a good idea, especially if you're pushing the ISO and therefore likely to want to do a bit of noise reduction.*

*NeatImage is very handy for batch processing this...

The Black Oil · 12-02-2015 2:09pm

I took about 15 shots. In the end I got 3-4 that I was happy with. I can't post them here as they're for work. I took a few practice shots in my office before hand as the lighting conditions were similar to the lecture hall. That was a useful exercise. In the hall itself the lighting was on above the seats - the spotlights were off above the podium and the projector screen.

I bought a speed light (sb700) and watched a few tutorials on Youtube since I last posted. I had a few blurry shots, which I expected, tbh. The shots I'm happy with aren't perfect. The positive points are that the subject is clear, the light isn't under or overwhelming. In some of the blurry ones, there's a small corner of the projector screen in the left hand side of the image and slide from the projector is pretty clear. In the ones with the sharper subject, the person is lit appropriately, but the slide is a little drowned out. Not too bothered as the slide's contents are not important.

I'd choose a different angle next time. Yesterday was a very, very long day, so I can't remember exactly what I did on the camera's settings.

Fairly sure I bounced the light off the ceiling anyway. Still plenty to learn and more RTFM to do. :P

Might have another one to do in 2 weeks time.

ETA - taking shots during the Q&A was out as she was in a different part of the hall for that.

The Black Oil · 13-02-2015 10:21am

Knew I was forgetting something...

I noticed that sometimes the flash pre-fired a few times. As in, some mini-flashes before the main one. Is this the light finalising its settings, or what?

OldGoat · 13-02-2015 10:44am

It could pre flash when it's metering TTL, or it could pre-flash in an attempt to reduce red-eye if you have that set on your camera.

The Black Oil · 21-02-2015 2:43pm

I was at an event last night and someone was taking shots from the back of the room, with a built in flash. Maybe 10 rows x 5 seats in each. I think trying to get those giving presentations, and on auto, I'd say. Not sure I'd like to see how the pics turned out. Is that what happens when you start to get into photography, your brain becomes critical of others you see?

Says he who knows very little.

CabanSail · 21-02-2015 10:44pm

Similar experience yesterday. Went to have a look at the new mega hardware store in town. One of the staff members was wandering around being the "photographer" with an entry level Canon DSLR. She framed up a shot, with the rear screen, and then the in-built flash popped up. A sure sign of someone shooting in "point and shoot I'm a noob mode"

The Black Oil · 24-02-2015 10:03pm

Do y'all have much call to use the incandescent or fluorescent compensation filters?

Pat Dunne · 26-02-2015 1:50am

The Black Oil wrote: »

Do y'all have much call to use the incandescent or fluorescent compensation filters?

Use the settings everytime I do an in door shot. To the extent that I am now expert at identifying light fittings

CabanSail · 26-02-2015 2:17am

I leave my White Balance set on Flash for all shots and shoot RAW. This is one less thing I have to worry about when shooting that can be sorted in post production at the time of conversion.

The Black Oil · 02-03-2015 9:51pm

Slightly different situation this time. Similar room - another lecture hall, but the lighting was different - i.e. natural light coming into part of the hall, onto the speaker's face. I took a few shots without flash to get a sense of that. There was a nice glow on one side owing to the late afternoon natural light. However, half of her face was darker, as you can imagine. I don't think any of the lights were on in the hall. I forget, tbh. Anyway, with flash I had about 10-12 shots - probably 3-4 I was happy with in the end. Can't post here as they're for work.

There was a fun silhouette of her on the opposite wall at one point, which would have been fun to get, but I would have been a bit lost on capturing that.:P

Still a good few things to learn, no doubt.

The Black Oil · 29-06-2015 1:04pm

This is rather last minute. Through a work thing, we are meeting Michael D. Higgins. I've been asked to help with the photography situation.

Equipment is the same as before. Nikon D50. Kit lens or 50mm. sb700 speedlight. Not sure where in the Aras we're meeting him, I don't know what the building is like regards artificial or natural lighting. Group shots might be the hardest. You often get closed or half open eyes. I think one of his staff will take those, and I believe protocol allows me to take shots as he's shaking hands as he works the line. Similar to those on here. http://www.president.ie/en/media-library/photos/P6 50mm might preclude group shots.

No selfies goes without saying!

Erm, any suggestions? :eek:

The Black Oil · 08-07-2015 10:09pm

Thought I'd post some comments in the event anyone else is ever in the Áras.

Firstly, if you're there with a delegation or similar, follow whatever procedures are in place before hand. I believe the OPW may run the show on some days (weekends?), but it may have a different level of access. For official events take on board the protocols that are given at the briefing. You'll get a sense of these days are set up here. The briefing is done by a member of the Defence Forces who also gives a tour later on. The president will come through a particular door and so forth. It is generally expected that you not engage him conversation. This is protocol, timing and scheduling. He may mingle later on. Garda close protection officers will also be around...

From a photography point of view, speaking as an amateur on the lower end of that spectrum, it's a little challenging. If it's a large group you're working on the fly as regards following him along on the line. The objective is to be non-intrusive, which I was told I was. Phew!

The ceilings are very high and have gold trim. The last room we were in had green ish walls. Take spare batteries for your speedlight. I had some and even though I had not used my flash that much in the months prior to this, sure enough I got the battery warning. Good to know for the future. I did take a few test shots before he arrived in the room and I also tinkered a little with EV levels.

Group shots with chairs are tricky as there's a chance you won't be the only one snapping. That can make it difficult to get all eyes on your camera. Do not rely on the members of the army to take great pics. Do expect 'oh, you've a big camera, can you..?'

I threw my camera bag out of the way in the corner of the room before hand, checked with the ADC, that was fine.

Speeches. I was a little unsure what to do here and erred on the side of caution. I shot from the side then moved around the edge/back of the line to get to the other side of the room. I could have walked into the middle of the carpet as he was speaking, but didn't want to as I wasn't sure that was OK.

n00b!

Do take a break and have some water. Have something to eat before you go there. It can be stuffy and like me you may end up with a headache.

Enjoy the visit. The grounds are beautiful.

The Black Oil · 01-08-2015 12:39pm

I'll be taking a few more indoor shots next Feb at a conference, again probably in a lecture hall type setting. Time to get more practice in...

We had some shots taken for a newspaper for a work thing the other day. The chap had a D4, used direct flash. Not sure what lens.

I saw a clip of a Donald Trump press conference the other day and was wondering how that works when there's a clatter of photojournalists, i.e. timing the shots individually, yet keeping in mind each other's flashes are going off. How they do it so that the images aren't absorbing any excess(?) light from colleagues?

CabanSail · 03-08-2015 1:00am

The Black Oil wrote: »

I saw a clip of a Donald Trump press conference the other day

I feel very sorry for you having to endure that.

The Black Oil wrote: »

was wondering how that works when there's a clatter of photojournalists, i.e. timing the shots individually, yet keeping in mind each other's flashes are going off. How they do it so that the images aren't absorbing any excess(?) light from colleagues?

They take heaps of shots (too many). As the shutter is only open for such a short time they usually don't overlap but sometimes they do. When this happens that shot will probably be overexposed (appropriate for Mr Trump) and that shot will be rejected (yet another parallel)

Questions re indoor shots

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