D80: low light photography tips?

Hi: I have a D-80 with 18-135mm AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens and I would like some tips on how to best

shoot in low light conditions. Specifically, does anyone have experience shooting theatrical scenes without

a flash?

 

I've manually pushed the ISO to 1600 and set the noise reduction to max but I am getting very blurry

results, especially when there is fast stage movement (dancing, etc.).

 

Any insight/expertise would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks!

Your lens is not exactly what you need. Something in the area of the AF 85mm 1.4D (or AF 85mm f1.8D) or AF 105mm f2D DC-Nikkor lens(es) are going to give you a much better chance of action and no-flash photography. Your 18-135mm is very good in sunlight, but not so good indoors. (And you can try ISO 3200, it gives pretty good results, too.)

VR is not of much use for capturing 'fast stage movement'. The lowest cost effective lens for shooting theatrical scenes without a flash would be the 50mm f/1.8.

VR won't help to freeze motion. You need lots of light. If flash is not an option, you should look out for a lens in the f/1.4 - f/1.8 range. Also you can try to boost iso to 3200, but you get more noise in return. But with a fast lens iso 1600 will do when you use the larger apertures.

The lens isn't the best one to use for theatre, a 80-200 2.8 would be a better choise, but if you can close to the stage other possibilies are possible, but I use my 80-200 about 70% of the times and 85 1.8 and a 28-70 2,8 the other times.

 

Settings:

auto iso till 1600, higher on 1/focallenth(don't know if that is possible on a D80, it is on a D200.I'm always surprised how many times my camera chooses a lower iso than 1600, sometimes it goes back to 400 and the next pic 1600 isn't enough.

 

camera on spotmetering, the distance spot is now your lightmetering spot too and measure on the faces or other things you think are in important.

 

Set the camera on A and choose the widest aperture.

 

AF-C

 

Look to exif once in while and decide if you can go down in iso or up in aperture or up in speed, just what you want.

 

Don't start taken pics immediately, but make a study of the movement of the artists and try to find slow moments.

 

When there is a red spotlight shining on the stage: stop making pics, they are noise generators.

I was in the same position as you not too long ago. My D80 and 18-200VR in a church setting just wasn't giving me acceptable pictures at 200mm wide open (or even 135mm wide open).

 

I ended up buying the 70-200VR and that with my SB800 gives me amazing results which I have blown up to 16x20 so far.

 

Being that you don't want to use a flash, I would suggest the 50mm 1.8 or the 85 1.8 (or 1.4 if you can afford it). I can use my D80 and 50mm 1.8 without flash at ISO 800 in a low light setting like a Church and get sharp pictures (part of this is because the D80 + 50mm is so lightweight that I don't shake as much). I don't like the fixed focal length so I go with the zooms.

 

The D80 is great at high ISO's so you can get it up to 1600 and still get good pictures.

Unfortunately if flash is not an option and high ISO are not getting it done the only solution is a faster lens. Like the 50mm 1.4 or 85mm1.4. VR lenses will help some but if there is any movement by the actors then the people will be blurry. If the 50mm range is a workable length I would get the 50mm 1.4, it's not only a great low light lens but it's a great general purpose lens. You will find yourself looking for reasons to use it. Great portrait lens on digital too. If 50 1.4 @ 279.95 is more than you want to spend the 50 1.8 would be my next choice @ 114.95. The 85 1.8 and the 85 1.4 would also be excellent choices but are more expensive. 85 1.8 is about 399.00 and the 1.4 is 924.00.

Sorry the price I quoted for the 85mm 1.4 is grey market price more like 1,024.95 for US version ouch, but you get what you pay for. It's one of Nikon's sharpest lenses and considered by many to be the best portrait lens on the market.

One of the only ways to reliably shoot in a theatre is to shoot "staged" scenes at a dress rehersal. Typically the lightly is not going to be enough from the distance that you would shoot from. I have had very good results with a 50mm 1.8

I was faced with the same situation last night. I tried to take some non-flash photos with my D50/18-70mm DX/F3.5 combination with mixed results. The comments here caused me dig out my old 50mm/F1.8 lens and run an experiment in low light. The results are attached. Both photos were taken at 1/60th shutter speed to attempt to freeze action, one with the 50mm at F1.8 and the other with the 18-70mm set at 50mm which provides F4.5. Adobe's auto enhancer was applied to both.

 

The 50mm produced an acceptable image at least to me. The 18-70mm Dx obviously didn't.

 

The next time I will definitely go with the 50mm/F1.8.<div></div>

In low light you'll have to expect some shots will be blurred because of motion. I assume flash is not possible. Let the ISO ride on auto so that it will set lower than 1600 if possible. Then use a shutter speed of 1/125 or even better 1/250. Follow the motion and pan the action. Anticipate the moment and fire the shutter during a pause in the action. Under low light noise is something to tolerate. It's better than no photo at all.

If you are not photographing motion, a VR lens is the best option. It will allow you to go down 3 stops from a non-VR lens.

i think you sould try to use another lens , because i had this problem and when i chaged the lens the problem gone, i know when u make it zoom it will be just more and more and the less on it 3,5 !!!!! this is our lens dear...

You don't say what sort of Aperture or shutter speed you are shooting at?

If you can shoot at f4 or lower a good strategy is to shoot 3-4 shots in continuous mode, trying to remain as still as possible yourself (elbows against your ribs if handheld, etc.). This has worked for me: some shots are due to come acceptably sharp at high ISOs.