American Indian Pow Wow

[Milehighguy]

A group of Ute and Sioux tribes put on a small pow wow at the Denver Art Musuem. The lighting was difficult in that the majority of events were in the shadows of two tall buildings with extremely bright light on either side. If you have advice on shooting in conditions like this with lots of motion of subject am looking forward to your advice.

1 = Nikon D3300 @ 82mm (123mm FFE) 1/200s, f/11, iso 800.


2 Nikon D3300 @ 170mm (255mm FFE) 1/80s, f/8, iso 400


3 = Nikon D3300 @ 55mm (82mm FFE) 1/400s, f/11, iso 400.


4 = Nikon D3300 @ 130mm (195mm FFE) 1/100s, f/9, iso400.


Lens = Nikon 55-200mm F4-5.6

[Shadowman]

Nice shots, short of using fill-flash, bump up the ISO or position yourself with light source behind you.

[Milehighguy]

Thanks for the response and suggestion. Yes, in a couple of spots fill-flash would have worked ... need to keep that in mind. I took about 160 shots and you are seeing a few of the better results. I was in and out of blinding light and fairly dark shadows ... either shooting into one or the other or across them. Some have far too much overexposure with too much underexposed at the same time. Keeping the white balance was tricky in this environment, too. I went to have a learning experience and it was certainly that, but worthwhile for both the learning and a few good shots. Appreciate your ideas.

[Geoff F]

As John mentioned, a bit of flash can help where suitable; but in a lot of cases like this it becomes too obtrusive and can cause as many problems as it solves unless you go to high speed flash. Even that has limitations.

Otherwise, just shoot for the highlights and try to recover shadow detail with some selective brightness adjustment during editing. You should be able to shoot with Iso 400 without problems but I would be wary of going above 800.

With some of these shots you do have instances of either motion blur or too shallow a focus depth. Unfortunately, whatever you do will create a risk of other issues developing. With this sort of scene I would either shoot in aperture priority or shutter priority depending on the individual scene but always keeping an eye on the other setting.

[Dave Humphries]

Roger,

I have separated and numbered your images and also added the EXIF data so people can help you more easily.

Appreciate it if you could do this next time, TIA.

Dave

[Milehighguy]

Dave ... thanks for doing this and reminding me to do it. Best regards.

[Milehighguy]

Geoff ... in this situation, it would have been too obtrusive and perhaps the distance would have made flash ineffective. Because of shooting in RAW, the lighting adjustments have been helpful. I was trying for a shallow depth of field in some of my pictures to reduce the amount of busy background and bring out the subject ... a part of my experimentation. Joel Sartore, my favorite photographer and photographic teacher (videos) suggests using this technique ... it's not that easy. I'd tried some with aperture priority, too, at which i need more practice and review of results. Thanks for your comments and interest ... best regards.

[Milehighguy]

Geoff ... here are some examples of my attempts at shallower depth of field to highlight subjects or provide a sense of motion coupled with ap speed. A couple worked and some were so-so. I see the pictures initially shown in this post series are not in the best focus, which is a result of my trying some of these things and perhaps teaches me to stick with experimenting with one technique rather than going between a few.

1= Nikon 3300, 1/250, f/6.3, ISO 800, 200mm (film: 300mm),
2 = Nikon 3300, 1/60, f/8, ISO 400, 140mm (film: 210mm)
3 = Nikon 3300, 1/400, f/6.3, ISO 800, 110mm (film: 165mm)
4 = Nikon 3300, 1/80, f/8, ISO 400, 92mm (film: 138mm)

[Geoff F]

Apart from the second image these are perfectly acceptable.

With that second image, your shutter speed was probably too slow for the subject action but I also wonder if your camera focused on the background instead of the intended subject.

[Milehighguy]

Thanks Geoff ... regards, Roger M.

[pnodrog]

Roger have a look at the Auto ISO feature of your camera. If I was shooting in the conditions you struck I would probably have my camera on A (aperture priority) and auto ISO on but limited to say 1600.

Now days with improved ISO performance I almost prefer shooting in shade rather than harsh bright sunshine.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Roger,

It looks like you may have been manually 'riding' the ISO (going between 400 and 800) as conditions dictated.

Geoff ... here are some examples of my attempts at shallower depth of field to highlight subjects or provide a sense of motion coupled with ap speed. A couple worked and some were so-so.

This is because you shot at f/6.3 and f/8 in these latest four and while that's wider than the f/9 to f/11 mostly used in the first set, I think with this lens (at those focal lengths), you needed to open up completely; e.g. to f/5.6 at 200mm or whatever it allowed if using a wider angle (anywhere from f/4 up, depending on focal length).

I see the pictures initially shown in this post series are not in the best focus, which is a result of my trying some of these things ~

Geoff has already noted that the 1/60s in #2 was insufficient for the movement of the paraders.
I think in the fourth, you didn't pan with the foreground subject (in burgundy) and clicked just as he stepped out of the focus point, so it re-focused on the people behind - in fact I wondered if you didn't pan deliberately because there were people in the background (e.g. family) you wanted to capture watching the parade.

Going back to aperture choice; you may have read or been told that shooting a lens wide open is a bad idea because they'll be softer than if stopped down by one stop or more - and while that's true, there are times when the alternative, as we see here, is worse - i.e. you'd be better served using a faster shutter speed to freeze the action - at least until you later (in your photographic endeavours) choose to capture specific movements as blur for artistic reasons.

Another thing I'd recommend is don't be limited by 800 iso, I'll regularly go to 2000, or more, when I feel that's the right choice. Personally, I think Nikon sensors (well, the ones I have) behave better (in terms of noise) up to 'round numbers'; 1000, 2000, 3000, etc. rather than the historic steps of 800, 1600, 3200, etc.

That said, I do now use Auto-ISO myself when not shooting fully manual - it took me a while to get used to the idea, but noise is easier to fix in PP than movement blur or camera shake due to using too low a shutter speed.

~ and perhaps teaches me to stick with experimenting with one technique rather than going between a few.

Finally I know how easy it is to get carried away experimenting - at the time, you think you'll remember later, but I find that's often not the case!

There's a lot to learn with this photography lark, but you're doing fine, keep at it - and do stick around here (CiC), it will help you, as it has (and still does) me, enormously - they are great bunch of people here.

Cheers, Dave

[madcrow]

Roger, second lot of images are better. Overall you captured the atmosphere very well.

[Stagecoach]

Good set Roger.

As for the lighting there's nothing you can do about it but modern metering can handle it well. If I had taken similar shots at the event I would have opened up wider, max or one stop up to try and isolate the subjects from the backgrounds.

As already mentioned, Auto ISO can really be a help in these situations.

[Milehighguy]

Paul ... thanks. I really need to work on my ApPriorty capability. This is one of the things firmly coming out of this exercise and the helpful feedback, such as this. I need to see if I can put a limit on my ISO via my Nikon 3300. Regards.

[Milehighguy]

Wow! I really appreciate the thoughtful, detailed response from you, Dave. This goes for others as well of course, and accordingly, I need to take some time with your detail, the other responses and work through settings and results of associated shots.

[Milehighguy]

Thanks for your comments.