Low Light Photography

Having 2 school aged children I have gone to many events over the past few years that were in dark auditoriums or theaters to watch ballet recitals and chorus concerts and the like.  Of course I want to capture my kids in these early life moments but at the same time I do not want to be disruptive with a flash or getting down in the front and trying to get the most light.  That is my biggest thing:  I do not like people to see me when I'm taking their pictures unless they are paying me to.  I don't want to disturb other parents who are just there to see their kids or are video taping.

The best settings I have found on my particular camera for low light with no flash are these:

• First, I try to get there early, even just a few minutes early, so that I can test the lighting.
• I just about always use my telephoto lens so I can stand to the side or back and not have to worry about the people being tiny.  The 250mm is the best so far.
• I put the camera in M (Manual).  I usually up the ISO to 800, set the aperture as wide as it goes (the lower the f number the wider the aperture) so usually f/5.6
• Next I start taking pics before the kids come out starting out with a shutter speed of 1/150 and then going up or down depending on the exposure.  This is the one time I ignore the little light meter that tells me if its over or under exposed.  That meter just can't tell when there is light in one spot and no light all around you.
• Once you have the shutter speed figured out for that lighting you should be all set!  You don't want to go much lower than 1/80 of a second or everything will be very blurry.  Its ok if they are a little dark because you can always fix that in the software.  
• Also, if you just can't get a satisfactory shutter speed/aperture combo you can always up the ISO. Mine only goes to 1600 but many cameras go much higher.  Remember though, the higher the ISO, the more noise will be present, and if you do not have noise reduction software it can make your photos very grainy and unpleasant.

Here are a few examples of photos I have taken using the above methods:

You can see there is some blur which actually looks neat because it shows motion, but at the same time parts of their bodies are still.  I love photographing ballet recitals, that is probably my favorite subject as far as people so far just because of the costumes and the movement.