Welt Indoor Photography Advice

[AchtungF80]

This being my 2nd European Delivery experience, I was hoping to get some advice on best DSLR settings for indoor shooting inside the Welt.

Last time I was there, I found that many of my hand held shots were blurry as a result of the need for longer exposure or slower shutter speed. Obviously a tripod is best I realize but was hoping not to have to lug that around along with 2 suitcases to Europe this time.

What do you guys recommend for ISO settings etc? Do I really need to bring my tripod and have more patience? Any other settings I should change. Should I rent a hotshoe flash with diffuser?

I am shooting with a Canon 5D classic and will be bringing my 50mm 1.4 and my 12-24mm.

[AchtungF80]

Yeah i imagine Welt uses natural lighting still (daytime) with very soft artificial light for dramatic effect. Color of the car is the same last time I did this 8 years ago but wasn't as experienced a dslr photographer then.

Thanks!

[allachie9]

Good advice there to crank up the ISO. Modern DSLRs will easily produce clean images at 800 / 1000 ISO, possibly up to 1600.
You mentioned flash in your original post, I would think with all the shiny cars and highly reflective surfaces, flash should certainly be avoided.
Good luck.

[mamafufu]

5D is pretty good at managing noise.
A tripod will be very helpful but may not always be possible given the people traffic.
I would avoid using flash and try to get the most out of the natural lighting.
I would shoot with aperture priority (A).
I would step down the exposure compensation a bit and in most cases -0.3 or -0.7 should be acceptable. Your picture may be a bit darker but may not be a bad thing for indoor pictures.
I would set ISO to 400 to start with and increase only if needed.
The two other variables to play with are aperture and shutter speed. For handheld you may want to stay with 250 (1/250 s) or higher depending on how much body shake that you can avoid. Since you are in aperture priority mode, you don't adjust the shutter speed manually. You would adjust the aperture and the shutter speed will be set automatically. For aperture the wider you have (i.e. 1.4 on your 50mm) the shallower depth of field you will get which also may not be a bad thing depending on what you are looking for. If you have aperture as 1.4 and still not able to get to a reasonable shutter speed, now is the time to increase your ISO from 400.

There are many tradeoffs to manage and to balance. Keep in mind of the following:
- Higher ISO most likely will get you more noise in the picture. For 5D up to 1,600 may still be okay.
- Wider aperture will get you a more shallow depth of field and also the picture may not be as sharp.
- Longer shutter speed will likely produce more blurry picture given the body shake during the longer exposure time.

Also make sure the white balance is set correctly. Depending on the indoor or semi-door environment it could be Shadow, Incandescent, or Fluorescent. May also want to shoot raw so you will have more flexibility on post processing.

Hope this helps.

[AchtungF80]

Amazing reply and advice thank you!

[bmw1racer]

For indoor pics like in museums and the like, I use Av (aperture priority) and auto ISO... And maybe a monopod, if necessary.