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Low light help.
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I have just been given permission to access a now disused hospital building in my area which has been closed for many years but is still in good shape and has most of it fixtures and fittings intact. There is some good light entering the building I’m told, but there would be a few long corridors with low light. My intention is to record the interior of this building and put the photos on exhibit at some stage. I am looking for some advice here, I need to buy a new camera for this job as i only have a point and shoot compact camera, so my intention is to buy either a, canon 40D or 50D for this shoot, and I’m hoping which ever one i choose will be right for me. My big concern is not the camera, but which lens to buy for this kinda shoot, considering that most of the light will be natural light and coming through the windows, so obviously some sort of wide-angle lens for low-ish interiors. If i could get away with it, i would buy some of the kits that are now on offer from most canon retailers. All help would be appreciated.
I can’t speak for Canon as I am a Nikon user but the kit lens that came with my nikon, 18-55mm 3.5-4.6, has worked fine for me in Low light situations. The most important piece of kit you will need will be a tripod. The photo below was shot on this lens with the camera on a wall for support and as you can see the detail in the shot with the kit lens is perfect (IMHO)
Well it depends if you have access to the hospital you can use a tripod a do a small long exposure to capture that small light around, I would say you can buy a 50mm F1.8 anyway its a cheap lens and great quality also the F1.8 is a good addiction to it.
If you want a F2.8 than you can go to a 24-70 F2.8.Iris wrote:
Is the canon 24-70 F2.8 compatible with the 40D/50D camera?
Yes, the EF lenses all work on the 20/30/40/50D and the 300/350/400/450/500/1000D — cameras with crop sensors
But the kit lenses for these and others with the lebel EF-S don’t work on the 1D or 5D series with the full frame sensors. [even if the 1D is slightly cropped, whereas the 1Ds isn’t]
I think you should consider a good quality tripod and make sure you familiarise yourself with the time release function on the camera( to avoid shake when you depress the shoot button). I cannot emphasise this piece of advice enough.
If your shot’s are of interiors you should consider a wide angle zoom such as 18-55, 24-70 etc. The wide angle will allow you to take in broader scenes in small spaces – consider toilet cubicles etc
A telephoto lens of 200- 300 mm will give the added bonus of shallow depth of field which might give some cool results on the long corridor shots, allowing the isolation of specific details – like an X-ray sign at a corridor intersection
The lower f-stop value means you can get more light into your image in a shorter time. If your shutter speed goes below 1/15th of a second then camera shake becomes an issue with short lenses. With a longer lens the shutter speed needs to be quicker to eliminate that shake. generally lenses with lower f stops are more expensive and better quality – as long as you are comparing like with like.
If you use slower shutter speeds you can get nice light saturation and tone in your images
Hope this helps
Sean
Another thing to bear in mind here and its not equipment but your capture technique. As mentioned a
tripod is essential but I think you should also consider HDR photography for this project. If you are
going to have corridors with light coming in through windows you will have a large range within your
scene i.e. shadows and highlights and that is where HDR comes in to its own.
Won’t go in to the detail here as there have been other postings on this matter and there are loads
of tutorials on the web but you should consider it.Martin.
Cheers lads for the advice on lenses and techniques, i really like the HDR method mentioned by MARTINKINGPHOTOS, but i only have photoshop 7 and i just read a article on HDR, and it was talking about using HDR in photoshop CS2, but don’t have that. Is there anywhere i can hire out lenses for a few days as i will be on a budget for this photo-shoot and cant afford to spend €1000 on a 24-70mm lens just yet, or to buy CS2.
Iris,
In terms of doing HDR on your project, equipment and/or software is not an issue, other than
a tripod, which will be needed. Bracket 3 shots 1 is an even exposure, 1 is a stop or two under
exposed and 1 is a stop or two over exposed.
You can then use software from photomatix to merge the 3 images and get the best of each of the exposures. You can download
a fully functional free version of the photomatix software from http://www.hdrsoft.com . There are also tutorials, galleries etc at this site.
The free version puts a watermark of “photomatix” in to your image but at least you can try it and see the effects without incurring
any cost.
If you like what you see you can register your copy of the software for about €60 (if memory serves me right) which will remove
the watermark.
It’s probably safe to say that a lot of people would prefer photomatix to photoshop for HDR work.
The image you produce from photomatix can then be brought in to photoshop (even version 7 which I still use myself) and you can
do further processing there.
Hope this helps and maybe you will post some work from your project here.
Martin.Cheers Martin, i will have a look at photomatix. I am waiting for the official all clear from the relevant authorities so i can enter the building, but its just a matter of time, RED TAPE and all that official stuff. Another thing is i haven’t purchased the camera yet to do the project, I’m looking to get a Canon 40D/50D with the kit lens, 17-85mm. I know it not the ideal lens for the job but finance is an issue, and if i could rent some it would be better. I will have to start a new thread an see if there is any for rent. There seems to be good deals on this site and there is no delivery charge. http://www.simplyelectronics.net/index.php I will be exhibiting these photos in my local town, so i will let you know when it is.
There seems to be good deals on this site and there is no delivery charge. http://www.simplyelectronics.net/index.php
https://www.photographyireland.net/viewtopic.php?t=24823&highlight=simplyelectronics
Iris –
If finance is an issue, the 40D/50D is probably overkill for the camera body. Consider a used 450D or the new 1000D. Image quality will be very close or identical to the 40/50D – all you pay for with those cameras is enhanced usability, durability and some features.Then get yourself the 17-85mm EF-S lens and possibly the Sigma 10-20mm DX to give yourself ultra wide-angle coverage. Large aperture lenses won’t be really necessary for this shoot. You’ll probably be using small apertures anyway to achieve depth of field.
*edit* There’s a 17-85mm being sold right now on the ‘for sale’ forum: https://photographyireland.net/viewtopic.php?t=29021
The most important piece of kit is the tripod. Have a look at my recent article on choosing a tripod for guidance. Without a good tripod, you’re wasting your time – especially if you want to do HDR imagery. A cable release is also a good idea to ensure there’s no camera shake when you make the images.
That kit will let you get any photographs you want. The only thing you sacrifice is a bit of image quality (due to the fact that you’re not using pro-grade lenses). This isn’t terribly important – it’s the composition and use of light that makes a photograph – expensive lenses just give you that last 5% of quality, and that mainly in a large print.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
PeterThanks peter for the very useful information. I don’t currently own a DSLR camera, so whatever camera i buy now for this shoot will be the camera i hope to be using for the next few years, hence why i was going to buy the 40D/50D, but as you say they only have extra features. so would you still recommend the 450D. The tripod i have is a Velbon VEB-3CC given to me many years ago, along with a Pentax ME super which i still have but haven’t used for along time. The tripod seems sturdy enough. I am very grateful of all the info and help. when i get to do this shoot i might come back to ya for some more info, an i will consider buying a sigma 10-20mm lens as well as a kit lens 17-85mm, but as pointed out by nfl-fan i dont think i will be using simplyelectronics.
nfl-fan wrote:
There seems to be good deals on this site and there is no delivery charge. http://www.simplyelectronics.net/index.php
https://www.photographyireland.net/viewtopic.php?t=24823&highlight=simplyelectronics
Thanks for the warning nfl-fan, i nearly ordered from them.
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