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Messages - shadowsatnight

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1
EOS Bodies / Re: Patent: Noise & Aliasing Reduction for Small Pixels
« on: January 20, 2013, 10:58:25 AM »
If the 7d2 is gonna be announced soon, i guess this is aimed at the high megapickle full frame?

2
EOS Bodies / Re: Canon EOS 7D Mark II Information [CR1]
« on: November 30, 2012, 10:51:50 AM »
Noise performance similar to the 1D X, with more pixels.  That'd be impressive on a smaller sensor.

3
EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Can someone help me with low light settings
« on: October 07, 2012, 01:22:54 PM »
What's the decor like in the places you shoot?  My usual haunts have black wall hangings, with UV reactive designs painted on them and I've found them to be pretty variable in terms of the bounce i can get.

Happily, i can do more or less what i like with the night club photography, as i got in to it as something to stop me dancing for 8 hours straight :-)

4
EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Can someone help me with low light settings
« on: October 07, 2012, 08:05:49 AM »
Do y'all use on camera flash?  I've always preferred off camera, but most others i see tend to be using it on camera.  One of the reasons i got to using full manual was a set of cheap radio triggers :-)

5
EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Can someone help me with low light settings
« on: October 06, 2012, 07:17:25 PM »
Wouldn't you want faster shutter speeds than these for handheld shooting? Not only for your own tiny movements holding the camera, but also the fact as pointed out -- these people are often crocked and moving  as well?

As mentioned, the flash freezes motion in the foreground, so you can set the shutter speed to more or less what you like.  I find 1 or 2 seconds works quite well if people're glowsticking, for instance as you get them frozen but a nice glow trail where they've moved.

As long as no-one from Melbourne steals my tips (and my business :P ) then here's how I shoot.

My equipment: T2i, 15-85mm lens, 580 exII (with stofen or Bounce card depending on venue)
this setup is fine for clubs, honestly, only full-frame could look better

Full Manual.
Shutter: 1/10
Aperture: f/4.0 (but set larger for big groups)
ISO: anywhere between ISO 200-800 (big groups sometimes 1600)
Flash either on ETTL, but I mostly shoot manual flash 1/8 or 1/4, second curtain flash

obviously it depends on the venue, but these are the settings i use in most of the clubs,bars and pubs i work in/have worked in.

Sometimes exposures need to be fixed up in lightroom from using the flash on manual, but yeah, thats an easy job.

more or less what i used to run (7D rather than 550D, but same sensor).  Towards the end of last season i started using the Sigma 20mm f/1.8 instead though, as i found it let the camera pull focus out of the near dark.  Still take the actual pictures around f/4 though.

Looking forward to trying the 5d3 out for halloween though - i figure some near flashless shots will really pull out the fluorescent in people's outfits :-)

Also, i'm impressed at how together the people in your photos look... guess you must party in classier places than i do!

-Evie


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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Can someone help me with low light settings
« on: October 06, 2012, 06:38:50 AM »
Thanks Timothy_Bruce... I forgot to mention, I am using a Stofen defuser, and have +2/3 EC dialled in... no FEC though.
I'd just like a way to shoot f4, without downgrading to an f4 lens... maybe I should look at the 17-40mm L for this reason?  :S

I'd stick with the fastest lens you can, as it'll help with the auto focus.

7
EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Can someone help me with low light settings
« on: October 06, 2012, 05:13:29 AM »
Hi,

I'm not entirely sure what kind of shot you're aiming for from your description - night exposure with flash?  Are any of these (think it requires a facebook login, but that's where people seem to want the nightclub photos over here...) the kind of thing you're after:

https://www.facebook.com/evie.firth/photos_albums
The early shots are from when i first picked up a camera, so please don't judge too harshly.  I'm very much still learning :-)

What flash mode are you using?  Is ETTL trying to do clever things?  I guess at 4000iso, the flash will be set to pretty low power?
I generally shoot full manual so that i get what _i_ want.

Thanks
-Evie

8
I've only just had my 50 1.4 back from repair, so not tried it with the 5d3 yet.  On the 7D, i found that i could get keepers wide open, but they were difficult in situations outside my control.  Stopping it down a bit is easier :-)

In my (limited) experience, it's the drummer's arms that're the first thing to go, then guitar arms and such.

9
Heyas,

1)
I'd defiantly bring the ear plugs :-)

Can i ask what you're going to use the 28mm f/2.8 IS for?  It's no faster than the 24-70 so i guess it's sharper?  Or are you bringing it for the IS?  I'm not sure how helpful IS is at a concert, as the musicians i've shot have tended to move around a lot - at least arms and such if nothing else?

I'd be tempted to bring the 70-200 anyways.  Mostly because i love it.  But, more seriously, it's another option and i like to keep them open to me.  How high is the stage likely to be?  I know you said it's small, but if it's something like a lorry trailer it'll still be pretty high - in which case i'd take some shots from further back to get a different perspective.

I'd probably take the 70-200 instead of the 28 and the 100, but as i said, i may be biased.

2) If there's enough light for the musicians to see their instruments, i'd be surprised if you can't get focus.  Generally, if i have trouble finding focus (i shoot around the floor in nightclubs at lot) my first response is to go for a fast prime.  As i understand it, the more light going in the front of the camera, the easier time the focus system has.  I've never had much luck with manual focus when it's dark enough for auto focus to fail - i tend not to be able to see too well either.

3) That's generally been my approach - though i favour focus + recompose as an approach generally.

4 + 5 - don't know.  curious what people say :-)

Enjoy the concert.
-Evie

10
Lenses / Re: Angle of view calculations
« on: October 05, 2012, 02:46:28 PM »
to get a guy who's 6' tall in to the frame at a distance of 30 yards (90'):
tan(theta) = opposite/adjacent
so, your lens will need to have a viewing angle of at least tan^-1(opposite/adjacent) for the guy to be in shot.
That's 2* tan^-1(3/90)  <- you're calculating the angle to see half of his height and then doubling the result
or ~3.8 degrees.

the 300mm prime lens has angles of view:
horizontal: 6deg50
vertical:4deg35
diagonal:8deg15
on a full frame sensor.

On a full frame, that means that you could either shoot portrait, with a viewing angle of 6deg50, and be fine or shoot landscape with a viewing angle of 4deg35 and be fine.

The sensor in the 7d has a crop factor of approximately 1.6, so:
portrait would give a viewing angle of 6deg50/1.6, or ~4.27 degrees, which would be fine.
landscape would give a viewing angle of 4deg35/1.6, or ~2.86 degrees, which would crop him at about the knees :-)

Or, in the more general case:

angle of view = 2 * tan^-1(sensor dimension/ 2 * focal length)
7D sensor height in landscape = 14.9mm
7D sensor height in portrait = 22.3mm

to get someone in shot,
angle of view >= angle subtended.

where
angle subtended = 2* tan^-1 (0.5 * their height/how far away they are)

so we solve:
2 * tan^-1(sensor dimension/ 2 * focal length) = 2 * tan^-1(3/distance to subject in feet)

simplifying both sides
sensor dimension/(2 * focal length) = 3/distance to subject in feet
sensor dimension / (3/distance to subject in feet) = 2 * focal length
(sensor dimension * distance got subject in feet) / 3 = 2 * focal length
(sensor dimension * distance to subject in feet) / 6 = focal length

plugging some numbers in:
at 30 yards (90 feet) in portrait orientation (22.3mm):
focal length = (22.3 * 90)/6
focal length = 334mm
so anything shorter than 334mm will be fine.

at 30 yards in landscape orientation:
focal length = (14.9*90)/6
focal length = 224mm
so anything shorter than 224mm will be fine.

Which, happily, agrees with what i said to start with.  though, no doubt, i'll have screwed up the math somewhere along the lines!

TLDR version:  Using zooms is easier :-)

-Evie

11
Canon General / Re: Why you should take your camera to family Weddings
« on: October 03, 2012, 03:13:06 PM »
I just recently finished shooting my first wedding with my 5d3 and I had 3 CF cards and thank God the camera has that second slot for an SD as well, despite changing cards before each separate event (pre, ceremony, etc) I still ran over during the ceremony and the 5D3 automatically switched over the the SD card otherwise I would have missed the bride and groom walking out as the ceremony concluded!!

What size cards were you using?

12
Canon General / Re: Why you should take your camera to family Weddings
« on: October 02, 2012, 05:03:53 PM »
Congratulations on getting the shots :-)

Genuine question though, from someone who's never been to a wedding, let alone photo'd one - how on earth do you fill up your cards before the bride's coming down the aisle?  I thought that happened fairly near the start?

13
Lenses / Re: Canon EF 28-135 / EF-S 17-85 / EF-S 15-85
« on: October 02, 2012, 04:58:37 PM »
+1 on the 15-85 being a nice lens - we still use it as our standard zoom on the 7D.  That said, given my time again i'd probably go for the 17-55 f/2.8 (even more expensive! :-/) as, while it doesn't have such a great range, it's handy for activating the second f/2.8 cross type on the 50D's central focus point and general lower light focus/use.

Are you aware of the creep on the 15-85 though?  Ours has started to get pretty bad after a year from new, but a chunk of that's been with the lens hanging downwards from the body on a strap, so possibly not the best care regime.

-Evie

14
Of the options you've given, i'd go for the 5d3 with the 1.4* TC:
The iso performance of the 5d3 will let you get away with more with the TC on than the 7d will.
If you have the TC, you can always choose not to use it.  If you don't have it, then you don't have the choice.

While muddying the waters probably isn't that helpful (sorry!); Have you considered getting the 2* instead?  Unless they're making y'all watch the play in the dark, i'd expect that the 5d3's iso performance would be fine and it would give you the option of tighter shots, should you want them.  Plus, at the end of the day, you'd then have that greater reach available whenever you wanted it.

I assume that you have the 5d3, 7d and 70-200 already?

-Evie

15
EOS Bodies / Re: Adorama is Taking Pre-Orders for EOS 6D
« on: September 16, 2012, 03:03:30 PM »
This is the closest we got to a confirmation of the 6D's existence. Now we only have to see what the camera looks like next :-)

I guess it's also confirmation of a new sensor - 20.2 isn't anything current, is it?

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