AboutBill Edwards Expertise Professional Digital Still Photography and Film Questions on Lighting, Nikon PRO Equipment, Portraits, and Limited Commercial Still Photography.
Experience 30 years as a professional photographer / business owner
Organizations Professional Photographers of America
Guild of Professional Photographers of Delaware Valley - Past President and Chairman of the Board
Publications Have taught photography at all levels Including Lectures at Professional Photographers of America's National Convention; International Professional Photography Guild's National Convention; State and Local Associations
Education/Credentials Numerous classes and seminars - no degree.
Awards and Honors International Photography Hall of Fame Exhibit Winning Entry
Image Published in Fuji Film's Showcase Publication
Best of Show Portrait of a Child - GPPDV
Best of Show Portrait of a Group - GPPDV
Voted best in Bucks / Montgomery County several times
Past/Present Clients Clients are mostly individual Families local to Bucks and Montgomery Counties in Pennsylvania with several regional clients from Connecticut to Florida. Our studio has raised over $150,000 for local schools and other charities.
Question I have a Nikon D70 with a Sigma 28-300 3.5-6.3 lens and I am going to be taking a lot of indoor shots in a gym I also only have the built in flash. My shots now are very dark what are my options?
thanks
Answer Hi Jim,
Here are the obstacles to overcome. 1 - Low indoor light - even a well lit gym is typically not bright enough for available light. 2 - a not so bright lens - especially if you plan to zoom in. 3 - a low powered flash.
Frankly you could solve or nearly solve the problem by correcting one of these problems but by fixing All Three you'll be getting beautiful and impressive images.
A - THE PRO - If you can justify the expense (IE plan on selling enough images) - let's go with the 'all three' approach.
1 - You'll need a few flashes. Either on stands or what most pros do in this type of environment is the pre-install flashes in the rafters or on support poles etc. These must be high powered lights - a few hundred watt seconds with radio controlled triggers. This may cost $700 to $1500 per rig and you will need a rig or two for each area you want to cover. The lighting will be dynamic and three dimensional - beautiful!
2 - I really love my Nikkor 85mm 1.4 lens. Wow - it's bright and SHARP! No Zoom so you'll have to position yourself close to the action. Cost about $1k. The other almost as bright option is the 70-200mm zoom which has a 2.8 opening regardless of zoom power. Still not as much zoom power as your 300mm but two to EIGHT times brighter! ($1800?)
3 - Even with the lights in the rafters it is recommended to have a 'fill' light on the camera. Quantum and Norman make the real powerful ones but the Nikon SB-800 / 900 are remarkable for their cost $300 - $400?
B - THE SERIOUS AMATEUR - This will give you flat frontal only lighting but nice sharp images.
1 - No improvement to omni directional / ambient lighting.
2 - See lens recommendations above.
3 - See flash recommendation above.
C - MOST ECONOMIC OPTION - OK - if there is one thing you can do involving the least cost it's to change the flash to something more powerful. The Nikon SB's should be enough to get the job especially if you incorporate it into the next recommendation . . .
D - WORTH EXPERIMENTING WITH - In any of these cases remember to use the highest ISO setting available on your camera (I'm not familiar with your model) but if you normally shoot with an ISO setting of 200 - raising it to 1600 will allow eight times the amount of light in. Of course the higher the ISO setting the more grainy the image will look so - experiment with your particular situation.
