BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

HOW TO SHOOT PICTURES AT A CIRCUS

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July 19, 2005

It takes a certain amount of light to properly expose a piece of film. If you don't use a flash (for additional light - though that works up to only a few yards) or have a "faster" lens (that is, one with a wider aperture - a lower f-stop number) then a darker venue will yield grainy shots.

Now, if you know you will be in a dark place taking pictures, then you would buy "faster" film - that is, film with a higher ISO (or ASA, for the old timers) number. ISO numbers are proportional - it takes 1/2 as much light to properly expose ISO200 film as it does to properly expose ISO100 film. And you can buy film today with speeds of ISO800 or even ISO1600.

So, for one thing, using faster film might help you. Be aware, however, that as a rule, faster film has higher grain than slower film - that's why landscape photographers who want to capture every spec of detail use the slowest film they can muster - even when it means using a tripod and a slow shutter speed to expose the film properly.

So use some faster film, it might help. I say this because if you were not selecting fast film for use in your Rebel (i.e. - if you've been using Kodacolor 100, say) then the odds are the film was very badly underexposed. No doubt the photo lab's equipment tried to bring up any image it could (there's a lot of automation in those machines, even the ones at drugstores) by overdeveloping the film and/or underexposing the paper when making a print. Either way, those attempts tend to create a much grainier photo (which is, naturally, better than no photo at all). the point is that if you use fast film, even though it will be grainier than slow film on a bright day, it will be finer grained than slow film developed to reverse the effects of bad underexposure.

Hope that helps,
BobF

PS: perhaps next time you can type in lower case letters - in the etiquette of the Internet your question is tantamount to yelling...

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July 19, 2005

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July 19, 2005

Her sequined leotard was probably somewhat multicolored, but no doubt the low light and consequent high speed setting required on the camera led to electronic noise, which is sort of like grain in film.

Don't feel bad - this is a situation where you simply have few controls. When pros shoot sporting events in large stadiums and arenas, they have banks of powerful strobes wired in the rafters and triggered with a radio transmitter attached to their cameras. From the audience you can't even see the flashes (remenber, they are 1/1000th of a second or less in duration) but the film or CCD is exposed at exactly the right moment and gets the benfit of the light.

For the average attendee, this is, simply put, impossible. Your shot is not bad, considering. WHen you see all those people in a stadium (or the circus) taking photos from their seats and their little flashes are popping off, you can look on with the bemused knowledge that they too are doing nothing insofar as exposing their film or chips.

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July 19, 2005

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July 20, 2005

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July 20, 2005

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July 20, 2005