Larry, As Paul mentioned, - I think this light is a problem no matter what. AS you know, I've been shooting in similar settings (some tagueros are even more sensitive to flash).
I am still experimenting myself, - but for most part, I find that it's just impossible to get reasonable (and consistent) photos with this low light. The K-x vs K-7 difference wouldn't (doesn't) help either. With dances, - there are two fundamental limitations: the aperture cannot be too large (as the DOF is too shallow), otherwise most of the shots are not sharp, unless you hit the "static" moment; and the exposure cannot be too long, - for the same reason. If I will get my hands on a FF Nikon for the Austin Spring Tango Festival, I'll see how that one would do. Short of that, I've been thinking if I can use some sort of "continuous" light, like videographers use, that I can mount on my camera, - so it is not too bright and it is not a flash (hence, - no "spooky" effect). This would be along the same lines as Paul was suggesting, - to sharpen things up just a bit. If I find something, - I'll share it. Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome. Igor Larry Colen wrote: > I was asked to take photos at a party last night. I shot everything > with the K20D at 3200 using my Sigma 20/1.8 wide open at 1/20. The > party was dimly lit with a few red bulbs, Scott calls his parties > "Blues in Red". This was a birthday party for one of the local blues > dancers who recently moved up to Seattle. > > In the blues and swing dance communities, when someone has a birthday, > they get a birthday jam, where the dancer(s) being jammed will be in > the middle of the circle and the other dancers will take turns > stealing them, and dancing until someone else steals them. > > Most of the focusing was done by manually focusing on something at > about the right distance and relying on depth of field and luck, > mostly luck. > > http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/sets/72157623436322776/ > > While I'm getting better at understanding that a good photograph > doesn't always have to be sharp, it's usually best if the subject is > recognizable. It would sure be nice to have a bit more shutter speed, > a bit more depth of field, or a bit less noise. > > Even so, it was a fun night of dancing, and I think a couple of these > shots are keepers. No special processing was done on most of them > apart from cropping and some slight exposure tweaking. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
