Low level light + hyperactive kids
So my youth group has asked me to be the 'official photographer' for the youth group, which i have no problem doing for them. I enjoy photography and enjoy taking pics of the night. But there's a problem with the lighting. The youth group is of a Friday night and usually takes place under a house with fluro lights… Which is where i run into a problem. The kids do a lot of running around so i want to set a high shutter speed but can't cause of the lights in the building… I have tried using a flash but the subject is sometimes 1m away for one photo and 5m away for the next so i constantly have to fiddle with flash strength settings to avoid over and under exposure. Another problem with the flash is the subject is in focus and clear but i can see an aura around them from the longish exposure and the flash firing. I'm looking at getting a proper flash gun but until then is there anything i can do. It is hard as a photographer to accommodate low level light and kids running around at the same time. Can anyone give me any tips on how to get better photos thanks.
I use a nikon d5000 usually with a 18-55mm lens f-stop usually set to 5.6. Iso usually set to 800 and the flash set to 1/8 or 1/16.
An aperture of f/5.6 is way too slow for low light with no flash. If you want to avoid the flash, which you should in that lighting situation, you will need a lens with a much wider aperture. I soul suggest that you pick up a 50mm f/1.8 lens. Shooting such a lens at f/2 would get your shutter speed up around 3 full stops faster.
You need to increase the lighting.
* two 750 watt lamps, bounced off the ceiling to provide good even light or
* using a dedicated flash like the Nikon SB700 and flash diffusion filter like one Gary Fong makes. Set you shutter speed to 1/200th second at a little higher ISO (like 400) if you intend use bounce flash off the celling
It seems that you have yet to attend a basic photo class. " Iso usually set to 800 and the flash set to 1/8 or 1/16" was my first clue. Taking a class would be a good start.
Like mentioned, I would use the SB700 (or SB600) 1/200th @ f/8, letting the bounce, fill the area with light.
Try setting the flash to second curtain if you haven't already, it may help to remove the blur or at least move it behind the subject. If that doesn't help try playing with the iso. Lower iso = less 'aura' but more powerful flash. Try bouncing the flash off the ceiling if it's white, that will spread the light and reduce your how often you have to adjust.
A higher iso could also help as you may have enough light to go without the flash, but probably not.worth a try though.
You can do all the things above but at the end of the day the best option would be to buy a faster lens.go for the 50mm 1.8 primes. Should be cheap, superb image quality, and allow faster shutter speeds even without higher power lighting or flash.