Sfrgttk

Random body shuffle every night—can we still function?

Would it be easier to apply for a UK visa if there is a host family to sponsor for you in going there?

Antipodal Land Area Calculation

Do I really need to have a message in a novel to appeal to readers?

Is it possible to give , in economics, an example of a relation ( set of ordered pairs) that is not a function?

What does it mean that physics no longer uses mechanical models to describe phenomena?

Co-worker has annoying ringtone

Maximum summed subsequences with non-adjacent items

Why is it faster to reheat something than it is to cook it?

Project Euler #1 in C++

What initially awakened the Balrog?

If Windows 7 doesn't support WSL, then what is "Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications"?

What does Turing mean by this statement?

A term for a woman complaining about things/begging in a cute/childish way

What happened to Thoros of Myr's flaming sword?

Why is there Net Work Done on a Pressure/Volume Cycle?

Most bit efficient text communication method?

How many time has Arya actually used Needle?

How to pronounce 伝統色

Why weren't discrete x86 CPUs ever used in game hardware?

Has negative voting ever been officially implemented in elections, or seriously proposed, or even studied?

Why do early math courses focus on the cross sections of a cone and not on other 3D objects?

What is this round thing on the pantry door in The Shining

Is it fair for a professor to grade us on the possession of past papers?

How can I best take pictures of a moving speaker in a dark room with accent lights?

.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__bot-mid-leaderboard:empty{ margin-bottom:0;
}

1

I’m taking pictures this Sunday at my church of the youth pastor preaching and in the youth room is a semi-lit type of room with a lot of accent colour lights. He’s going to be moving and I want to get shots to freeze the action so I know I need a high shutter speed but this is where I’m stuck:

I’ll be standing about 10-15 feet from the stage so I’m not sure what aperture to use and I want to have that nice bokeh background but I want to make sure he’s totally in focus(I have a 50mm prime 1.8 lens) and I’m not sure what ISO to use to avoid a lot of noise. I have Lightroom to bump up any pictures

I’m looking for past experiences and what you guys did to overcome some issues you ran into.

exposure

share|improve this question

edited 4 hours ago

mattdm

123k40359656

asked 5 hours ago

NateNate

62

New contributor

Nate is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  How dark is 'semi-lit'? Will you have any chance to get in there beforehand & check the camera will even focus in that light?
  
  – Tetsujin
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I will yes. By semi lit I meant main lights are off and the mood lights are filling in the dark, kind of hard to explain
  
  – Nate
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

1

I’m taking pictures this Sunday at my church of the youth pastor preaching and in the youth room is a semi-lit type of room with a lot of accent colour lights. He’s going to be moving and I want to get shots to freeze the action so I know I need a high shutter speed but this is where I’m stuck:

I’ll be standing about 10-15 feet from the stage so I’m not sure what aperture to use and I want to have that nice bokeh background but I want to make sure he’s totally in focus(I have a 50mm prime 1.8 lens) and I’m not sure what ISO to use to avoid a lot of noise. I have Lightroom to bump up any pictures

I’m looking for past experiences and what you guys did to overcome some issues you ran into.

exposure

share|improve this question

edited 4 hours ago

mattdm

123k40359656

asked 5 hours ago

NateNate

62

New contributor

Nate is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  How dark is 'semi-lit'? Will you have any chance to get in there beforehand & check the camera will even focus in that light?
  
  – Tetsujin
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I will yes. By semi lit I meant main lights are off and the mood lights are filling in the dark, kind of hard to explain
  
  – Nate
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

I’m taking pictures this Sunday at my church of the youth pastor preaching and in the youth room is a semi-lit type of room with a lot of accent colour lights. He’s going to be moving and I want to get shots to freeze the action so I know I need a high shutter speed but this is where I’m stuck:

I’ll be standing about 10-15 feet from the stage so I’m not sure what aperture to use and I want to have that nice bokeh background but I want to make sure he’s totally in focus(I have a 50mm prime 1.8 lens) and I’m not sure what ISO to use to avoid a lot of noise. I have Lightroom to bump up any pictures

I’m looking for past experiences and what you guys did to overcome some issues you ran into.

exposure

share|improve this question

edited 4 hours ago

mattdm

123k40359656

asked 5 hours ago

NateNate

62

New contributor

Nate is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

share|improve this question

edited 4 hours ago

mattdm

123k40359656

asked 5 hours ago

NateNate

62

New contributor

Nate is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

share|improve this question

edited 4 hours ago

mattdm

123k40359656

asked 5 hours ago

NateNate

62

New contributor

Nate is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

edited 4 hours ago

mattdm

123k40359656

edited 4 hours ago

mattdm

123k40359656

asked 5 hours ago

NateNate

62

New contributor

Nate is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

asked 5 hours ago

NateNate

62

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

2

Bumping up pictures in post will introduce more noise than bumping up ISO in camera. Do not be afraid of high ISOs if there is no way to avoid them.

For decent background separation. use the widest aperture that you can.

If he does not move too much (i.e. wildly gesticulating), 1/250s should be more than enough.

Also: It is your decision entirely, but do not be afraid of motion blur - while having arms blurred out of existence might be a bad thing, having a slight blur might give a more dynamic look.

share|improve this answer

answered 5 hours ago

floliloflolilo

5,57811839

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Thanks for that! That’s really great to know! My only concern with a wide aperture is not totally disconnecting him from the background. Like parts of him appearing slightly blurry, I’ve seen people recommend an aperture of 2.8 but I guess it’ll come down to playing with it. Thanks!
  
  – Nate
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @Nate You can get a decent feeling for the effect of apertures even by shooting inanimate objects - it was one of the first things I did when getting a cam, and I did it mostly by shooting plants. And if you want it on paper: There are apps and web sites to calculate the DOF - just look for "DOF calculator". :-)
  
  – flolilo
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

1

If you can get in there beforehand & do some tests, that will benefit greatly.

You need to check for several things...

• that the camera can even find focus in low light, especially if your subject is not going to be specifically lit.




• that your mood lighting is not going to have to be sacrificed [either by burning it right out or adding additional subject lighting] in order to get your subject bright enough.




• that you can balance high ISO against this in such a way as your darker areas are not going to be awash with noise.




• do some colour tests, preferably using a volunteer for skin-tones, if not also a grey card held by the volunteer, so you can set your white balance beforehand; otherwise the mood lighting might adversely influence your tones - differently for every shot.




• if you can achieve all the above, then test different focussing & light sensor modes on your camera, if available. You may end up using AF-continuous [or sport] mode to follow your subject whilst in motion, spot-metering so your subject is prioritised over anything else - or you may even end up on manual or aperture-preferred, to save the camera from making wildly different decisions per shot.

share|improve this answer

answered 4 hours ago

TetsujinTetsujin

8,19821948

add a comment | 

Your Answer

StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "61"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});

function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});


}
});

Nate is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.

draft saved

draft discarded

Sign up or log in

StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});

Sign up using Google

Sign up using Facebook

Sign up using Email and Password

Post as a guest

Name

Email

Required, but never shown

StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fphoto.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f106692%2fhow-can-i-best-take-pictures-of-a-moving-speaker-in-a-dark-room-with-accent-ligh%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest

Name

Email

Required, but never shown

2

Bumping up pictures in post will introduce more noise than bumping up ISO in camera. Do not be afraid of high ISOs if there is no way to avoid them.

For decent background separation. use the widest aperture that you can.

If he does not move too much (i.e. wildly gesticulating), 1/250s should be more than enough.

Also: It is your decision entirely, but do not be afraid of motion blur - while having arms blurred out of existence might be a bad thing, having a slight blur might give a more dynamic look.

share|improve this answer

answered 5 hours ago

floliloflolilo

5,57811839

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Thanks for that! That’s really great to know! My only concern with a wide aperture is not totally disconnecting him from the background. Like parts of him appearing slightly blurry, I’ve seen people recommend an aperture of 2.8 but I guess it’ll come down to playing with it. Thanks!
  
  – Nate
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @Nate You can get a decent feeling for the effect of apertures even by shooting inanimate objects - it was one of the first things I did when getting a cam, and I did it mostly by shooting plants. And if you want it on paper: There are apps and web sites to calculate the DOF - just look for "DOF calculator". :-)
  
  – flolilo
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

2

Bumping up pictures in post will introduce more noise than bumping up ISO in camera. Do not be afraid of high ISOs if there is no way to avoid them.

For decent background separation. use the widest aperture that you can.

If he does not move too much (i.e. wildly gesticulating), 1/250s should be more than enough.

Also: It is your decision entirely, but do not be afraid of motion blur - while having arms blurred out of existence might be a bad thing, having a slight blur might give a more dynamic look.

share|improve this answer

answered 5 hours ago

floliloflolilo

5,57811839

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Thanks for that! That’s really great to know! My only concern with a wide aperture is not totally disconnecting him from the background. Like parts of him appearing slightly blurry, I’ve seen people recommend an aperture of 2.8 but I guess it’ll come down to playing with it. Thanks!
  
  – Nate
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @Nate You can get a decent feeling for the effect of apertures even by shooting inanimate objects - it was one of the first things I did when getting a cam, and I did it mostly by shooting plants. And if you want it on paper: There are apps and web sites to calculate the DOF - just look for "DOF calculator". :-)
  
  – flolilo
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

Bumping up pictures in post will introduce more noise than bumping up ISO in camera. Do not be afraid of high ISOs if there is no way to avoid them.

For decent background separation. use the widest aperture that you can.

If he does not move too much (i.e. wildly gesticulating), 1/250s should be more than enough.

Also: It is your decision entirely, but do not be afraid of motion blur - while having arms blurred out of existence might be a bad thing, having a slight blur might give a more dynamic look.

share|improve this answer

answered 5 hours ago

floliloflolilo

5,57811839

share|improve this answer

answered 5 hours ago

floliloflolilo

5,57811839

answered 5 hours ago

floliloflolilo

5,57811839

answered 5 hours ago

floliloflolilo

5,57811839

1

If you can get in there beforehand & do some tests, that will benefit greatly.

You need to check for several things...

• that the camera can even find focus in low light, especially if your subject is not going to be specifically lit.




• that your mood lighting is not going to have to be sacrificed [either by burning it right out or adding additional subject lighting] in order to get your subject bright enough.




• that you can balance high ISO against this in such a way as your darker areas are not going to be awash with noise.




• do some colour tests, preferably using a volunteer for skin-tones, if not also a grey card held by the volunteer, so you can set your white balance beforehand; otherwise the mood lighting might adversely influence your tones - differently for every shot.




• if you can achieve all the above, then test different focussing & light sensor modes on your camera, if available. You may end up using AF-continuous [or sport] mode to follow your subject whilst in motion, spot-metering so your subject is prioritised over anything else - or you may even end up on manual or aperture-preferred, to save the camera from making wildly different decisions per shot.

share|improve this answer

answered 4 hours ago

TetsujinTetsujin

8,19821948

add a comment | 

1

If you can get in there beforehand & do some tests, that will benefit greatly.

You need to check for several things...

• that the camera can even find focus in low light, especially if your subject is not going to be specifically lit.




• that your mood lighting is not going to have to be sacrificed [either by burning it right out or adding additional subject lighting] in order to get your subject bright enough.




• that you can balance high ISO against this in such a way as your darker areas are not going to be awash with noise.




• do some colour tests, preferably using a volunteer for skin-tones, if not also a grey card held by the volunteer, so you can set your white balance beforehand; otherwise the mood lighting might adversely influence your tones - differently for every shot.




• if you can achieve all the above, then test different focussing & light sensor modes on your camera, if available. You may end up using AF-continuous [or sport] mode to follow your subject whilst in motion, spot-metering so your subject is prioritised over anything else - or you may even end up on manual or aperture-preferred, to save the camera from making wildly different decisions per shot.

share|improve this answer

answered 4 hours ago

TetsujinTetsujin

8,19821948

add a comment | 

If you can get in there beforehand & do some tests, that will benefit greatly.

You need to check for several things...

• that the camera can even find focus in low light, especially if your subject is not going to be specifically lit.




• that your mood lighting is not going to have to be sacrificed [either by burning it right out or adding additional subject lighting] in order to get your subject bright enough.




• that you can balance high ISO against this in such a way as your darker areas are not going to be awash with noise.




• do some colour tests, preferably using a volunteer for skin-tones, if not also a grey card held by the volunteer, so you can set your white balance beforehand; otherwise the mood lighting might adversely influence your tones - differently for every shot.




• if you can achieve all the above, then test different focussing & light sensor modes on your camera, if available. You may end up using AF-continuous [or sport] mode to follow your subject whilst in motion, spot-metering so your subject is prioritised over anything else - or you may even end up on manual or aperture-preferred, to save the camera from making wildly different decisions per shot.

share|improve this answer

answered 4 hours ago

TetsujinTetsujin

8,19821948

share|improve this answer

answered 4 hours ago

TetsujinTetsujin

8,19821948

answered 4 hours ago

TetsujinTetsujin

8,19821948

answered 4 hours ago

TetsujinTetsujin

8,19821948