Canon 400d+70-300 lens...I am struggling to get decent,sharp quality photos--why?

Question

Hi Photography people!..

I love the new Canon 400d and 70-300 lens that I recently bought..The work I mainly want to do with the camera and lens is for indoor concerts and outdoor concert festivals..I have taken a few good photos,but many have come out looking too distant or blurred..When I have used the zoom outdoors from distance to it's full,the stage and performers look close and sharp but the photos don't!..I was close-up at a recent indoor gig and most of the photos I had taken were either blurred or dark...I am a newcomer to the SLR world,but surely it can't be too hard to get quality shots?!!..Do I need a more powerful lens?..Is the built in flash the problem?..Can somebody be so kind to give me a quick briefing into what basic settings I should be using for now-especially when it is dark..I want the photos to look bright and sharp!..

I think SLR photography is a little more tricky than I first thought!...I'm confused!

Thanks,very much appreciated..

Oz_Tin

Answer 1

It's the old problem of telephoto vs aperture. When you go to long focal length on the telephoto lens, you need much more light  since the aperture is now wide open. Long lens like 300mm often have a max aperture of only about 3.5 -4.0. In low light, that doesn't cut it. You get under-exposed, blurred pictures. In 35mm, we compensated by using faster film, but resolution suffers. In digital, you are losing resolution at the long focal lengths, a common complaint. It's the one area that digital hasn't quite caught up with film photography.

Answer 2

Go to Bobatkins.com he rates your lens and will tell you the pros and cons and any problems he has encountered using the lens you described.

Answer 3

Just forget about all the jargon.

Use a firm tripod and a cable release and bingo !

Camera shake is the problem of any novice.

A fast film is of some help with certain loss of

color resolution.

Have patience, good photography is not easy.

Answer 4

There are several factors to consider, the 70-300mm lens is considered somewhat "slow", with a maximum aperture of f/4-5.6.

This means the maximum the lens can open at 70mm is f/4 and the maximum it can open at 300mm is f/5.6, forcing you to use a slower shutter.  

You can try to compensate for this by using a higher ISO... say in the 400-800 range, but then you'll start to get noise (grain) in the darker areas.  You can use the "long exposure noise reduction" in the custom controls, but this will slow down the time the camera processing of the photo when it's written to your CF Card.  

If you are shooting concerts in poor light (evening under stage lights etc..) you'll have a bit of difficulty.  During the day, with bright sunlight, I prefer shooting outdoor events with this lens, using a setting of about f/8-f/11 for sharpness (that is the sweet spot for my lens), and an ISO of about 200-400 depending upon the light.  You will also want to use a tripod in lower light, even Image Stability will not help in the poorest of light.  (turn off the IS when using a tripod).

Try using AV mode, and play with your settings.  You can also try using TV mode to gain a faster shutter, but don't make it too fast, or your photos will be very dark.  It's a matter of trial and error for each situation, until you figure out what works best for you in which situations.

Answer 5

i have the same camera as you and also have a few different lenses inc a 70-300 sigma lens which i no longer use. i have a 18-200 f1.8 canon lens which is great for low light shots.... but cost almost £700.

there is lots of good advise in the posts above, from peeps who do know what they are talking about - good luck.

Answer 6

You need to tell us more about the lens.

All the advice about lens speed is correct the cheaper lenses are 'slower' however in a concert scenario you can bump up the ISO to 400 to speed things up.

You also want to look at your metering.  In a concert there are areas of dark and areas of light, the camera will be confused by the areas of dark and set a long shutter to get an exposure, this IS NOT WHAT YOU WANT.

The dark areas should be dark, you want to meter off of where there is light, or tell the camera to deliberately underexpose: Both will increase the shutter speed and reduce blur.

In P or AV mode  dial in -1 or -2 EV (the AV+/- button on the back then use the input dial)

OR

Set the meter up to partial mode (the button with the two half circles with a spot in the centre (.) )  scroll trhough so that only the two half circles are left i.e. ()  this gives a partial reading from the centre of the frame.

Place the centre of the frame over your subject, then press the * button under your right thumb, a * appears in the viewfinder and you have locked exposure.  Recompose your shot as normal and take it.

This should improve your shots without getting too technical.

A monopod is a good idea, or if your lens has an image stabiliser then use it (though don't use both a monopod and OS at the same time)

ALSO, USE RAW mode.

This gives you more latitude to adjust exposure after the photograph has been taken.   The trick may be under-expose (even on top of the exposure adjustment) to allow a faster shutter

Answer 7

if you're taking photos of dark subjects you're probably experiencing motion blur due to the long exposure necessary, the built-in flash won't reach far enough if you're having to zoom into your subjects.

Answer 8

Does the lens have a built in IS  (Image Stabilisation)

Does the lens have a lower 'Aperture' at the 'telephoto' range (f/3.5)

You really need to use a tripod, with 'Telephoto' zoom lens, because you get far more camera shake at high zoom.

There are ways to avoid this.

Buy a lens which has 'Image Stabilisation'  they allow a lens to be handheld at 2-3 stops slower shutter speeds , with a 300mm Lens you can shoot photos at shutter speeds of 1/80  (f4 -5.6)

Buy a Lens with a wider, faster Aperture (f/2.8) , but they are very expensive, and although they will give you some avantage, you still need to use a tripod or have Image Stabilisation.

Unlike other DSLR manufactuers Canon don't put 'Image Stabilisation' into the body of the DSLR like 'Olympus' do. This means with Canon you have to buy 'IS Lens' while with Olympus any lens you install will have 'IS'

Both my Canon Lens have 'IS'

.

Answer 9

Turn off the flash. Its useless in concert situations if you're more than 10, 15 feet away from your subject.

Now lets get serious about low-light photography. Its best to have as fast of a lens as possible - f2.8 or f2 or even f1.8. If your lens is slower (f4, f4.5) then your only option is a higher ISO. Since your camera only supports ISO 1600 you're even more limited.

Looking at my trusty FotoSharp (http://www.fotosharp.com) Day & Night Exposure Guide I'll use Scene # 13 - Night club with dim lights

ISO 1600

f2 @ 1/15 sec.

f2.8 @ 1/8 sec.

f4 @ 1/4 sec.

An alternative is to go into Manual Mode, get a meter reading of the performers on stage, set it and then shoot from just about anywhere and get good results.

NOTE: If you zoom in at 300mm you'll be metering at f5.6. When you zoom out to 70mm you'll be at f4 so you'll have to change your shutter speed. Ex.: Metered at 300mm, f5.6, shutter speed of 1/125 sec. Zoom out to 70mm at f4 and your shutter speed should be changed to 1/250 sec. You can try using Aperture Prority (Av) and let the camera adjust the shutter speed.

You'll have to experiment some with different ISO settings. Obviously, the lower the ISO the better the images. You should use the in-camera noise reduction at ISO 400 and above.