this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2024
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Photography

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Which lens for low light event + portraits? (lemmy.world)
submitted 7 months ago by HKPiax@lemmy.world to c/photography@lemmy.ml
16 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Hi everyone, although I like to study the photography topic, I'm really a noob when it comes to practical terms.

I would like to take pictures at a family event which will take place in a garden in the evening/night.

Well, my gear is quite modest, and I know I don't have what I need to take good pictures of both the place and the people there. I'm looking to rent a nice lens to carry around as I take pictures (and enjoy the party too! So I'm just taking one ๐Ÿ˜…). So I would really appreciate some advice on what to rent.

There are the four lenses I found while digging, two are primes, two are zooms:

  • Canon RF 24MM F/1.8 IS STM: it's fast, with IS, but I'm not sure about portraits with this focal length.

  • Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L II USM: super fast, no IS, still not sure about portraits with this focal length.

  • Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM: IS, quite fast, zoom lets me take portraits, but I've read it's not very sharp.

  • Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L IS USM: IS, quite fast, zoom lets me take portraits (not strongly as the one above but still).

Here's my situation:

  • I have Canon Eos R10 with the EF adapter.
  • My hands are shaky, so without IS I need to be at least at 1/125...
  • I like to keep ISO really low (<6400) if I can.
  • I kind of pixel peep (I know I don't have the right because I'm crap but I can't resist) so I like to take as sharp pictures as I can.

Which lens would you reccommend? Since I'm renting them I was thinking about going all in with the expensive ones, the cost won't increase much. The primes are so bright I feel comfortable they will be bright enough, but I don't know if I can take good portraits at 24mm. On the other hand, zooms let me do more things, but I don't know if I can handle f/2.8 with my crappy and shaky hands.

Of course, if you can think of other lenses that would be perfect for the job I'm all ears!

Cheers

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[โ€“] IMALlama@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Good point - there's a difference between dim, but still somewhat directional, light that you can have your subjects pose around and straight up dim light. A dim light directed at someone's face will result in a lot more detail than that same amount of light randomly diffused around the scene. If it's going to be truly dark, with no sources of directional light, and OP is a pixel peeper they probably won't like the results.

If OP does go the flash route, which I hope they do it it's actually dark, there would no longer be a need to shoot wide open unless maybe they're focusing on single subjects. For groups, more depth of field is good.

[โ€“] HKPiax@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's going to have ambient lighting, similar to a fair, with those hanging light bulbs and illuminated stands. Hopefully I give the right idea, english is not my first language.

Another issue I have with the flash is that I don't like its effect on the pictures, and I'll be using it wrong because I've never used one so there's also that.

[โ€“] IMALlama@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Ambient lighting, especially if you can get it to fall fairly directly on faces, will be the thing to try to use to your advantage.

You're doing great with your English!

As far as flash, there are two things you can do to make it better:

  1. Use a gel or a dedicated filter to match the color temperature of the ambient lighting
  2. Diffuse the flash - don't just aim it directly at your subjects. If you were inside, you could bounce it off a wall but since you likely won't have a wall at your disposal you could look at diffusers. There are tons of DIY options available as well as products you can buy