Fast lenses for night action shots

sifro wrote:

Soo!

As I said, I bought a Viltrox 56mm f/1.4 and brought it, together with my old companion Fujinon 27mm f/2.8, into real action a couple of nights ago.

Here are some of the shots I took... both the good ones, and the not-so-good ones, because it's easier to learn from mistakes.
Any kind of feedback is highly appreciated, both on the pics in general and on my considerations about them

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Let's start with some considerations regarding framing and focal length.
Honestly, I had lots of fun shooting with the 56mm, while this time I could only get boring shots with the 27mm.
The following is taken with the 27mm. Background is not so interesting because it was towards the end of the night, but I don't think that the pic itself would have been a keeper even with lots of people dancing around. I just find this shot boring.
I have to say though, that the much higher ISO to compensate the smaller aperture maybe played a role.

On the other hand, with the 56mm I could get some way nicer shots....

... and if I wanted a full body picture, I could have just put my camera in vertical (and maybe I should have done it for the following photo).

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Many of you (including me) were worried about DOF issues when shooting with the Viltrox wide open. I have mixed feelings about it...
Being able to move a lot, I could easily find a position from which both subjects' faces were at the same distance from the camera, which gave good results. I'm so proud of this shot for example:

In the next one, position is far from perfect, but I think the end result is not so bad:

Sometimes I'm even happy that only one dancer in the couple can be in focus, like here:

While in other circumstances, I have mixed feelings about it... a part of me would want both of them in focus, but it makes sense also like it is:

Of course I ended up with lots of pictures like the following one, where the AF got the wrong person in focus. But it's something I can fix working on my tecnique and better studying the AF possibilities of my camera:

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Regarding the light and SS issues... well, as we knew it, that's an issue. With fast dancing, even f/1.4 was not enough to get decent SS. I think I'll have to buy a flash and learn to use it:

Of course I also got loads of crappy pics, where I can't even understand if the problem is the ISO, the SS, the focusing, or all of the above...

Bottom line is:

1) 56mm is super fun for portraits of people dancing, even if it means that sometimes you'll feature the couple as a whole, and sometimes only a single element of the couple; being able to move freely in the entire ballroom to find the best positioning makes the 56mm pretty usable.

2) some pics with the 27mm could be interesting to get some more context, but I will use my 27mm f/2.8 only with a flash; the Mitakon 35mm (or the fuji 33mm f/1.4, or 7artisans 35mm f/0.95) that many of you suggested would be even better both for aperture and framing (35mm seems just perfect), but seems also a bit redundant having a 27mm already. I mean it's not really redundant. But feels a bit like this.

3) it might be interesting to get a wider angle to create some fancy effects. I stumbled on this pic and fell in love with it: https://www.nilsandbianca.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/your-crement-BELLA-POSIZIONE.jpg. I guess it was taken with something between 12mm and 15mm?

4) some people also suggested a 23mm, but I think it would be even more redundant than a 35mm, already having a 27mm. If I had to buy a shorter lens, I'd buy a significantly shorter one.

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Considering all of the above, my next purchases should be a speedlight, and maybe a wide angle. If I'm feeling rich and professional, also a Mitakon 35mm.

Do you guys agree?

Great job! Some very nice shots there! Yeah, number 4 is excellent! These pictures make me think what I would do in the venue besides of just getting ready to post process. I guess I would:

1. Use manual

2. Set the ISO at 1600 to start with

2. Set the SS to 400 or 500 for freezing actions unless I aimed to create designed blur for some pictures, then I would use slower SS.

3. Decide the aperture range to be used. I probably would choose f/1.4 to f/3.2 ( maybe f/4 if the room is not super dark with the dance lights).

4. Test my setting for best pre-post results:

I would ask the band to dim the room and turn on the moving heads (or the LED dance lights) for a few minutes to mimic the actual lighting for the dance floor.

I will play with the aperture through the range anticipated to be used ( f/1.4 to f/3.2) while observing the change of the EC value on the camera. I want to make sure the ISO 1600 and SS 400 ( or SS500) will give me an EC ranged within +1 to -1 when I adjust the aperture from f/1.4 to f/3.2 in the room with the moving heads in action.

I would use a chair or two as subjects for testing and would try to cover different spots of of the dance floor. If the EC value is not consistently or mostly within the +1 to -1 range, I would adjust the ISO or SS accordingly. I would try to avoid using anything below SS 320. My ideal ISO limit in low light for Fuji APSC sensor is 3200 or below ( hence iso1600 EC +/- 1) . Anything higher should call for a capable FF camera with cleaner high ISO performance.

With that done, I would be able to mainly focus on 1. composition and catching the actions, 2. tolerable exposure for better PP output and 3. f-stop to create DOF ( Isolation) I want

For better chance to get two faces in focus when you use large aperture, I would suggest to try the 33/1.4 ( Fuji or Viltrox) or even 23/1.4 Viltrox. Otherwise, you may need to step back more with the 56mm but that may not be feasible in the space.

Flash or not, it depends. You can always use temperature filter to match the color tone/vide of the room. But I can see that the flash can be distracting to the dancers.

I think you are doing very well for your first trial! Keep trying and report back what you find! Thank you for sharing!!