Shinoburen – Shimokitazawa
At the annual Awaodori festival in Shimokitazawa the Shinoburen (しのぶ連 or 忍連) did a great performance as usual. For some reason I always end up with pretty decent shots of this group’s performance. They have some excellent drummers and a wide range of talented dancers and I guess they are one of the most famous Awaodori groups out of Suginami ward in central Tokyo.I took these with my Nikon D700 and 50mm prime lens combination. More photos to come this week of this excellent group! Enjoy!
Can you give me some advice for taking photos like yours?
It’s dark, they’re moving. It’s difficult. Either I get motion blurring(?!) or I use a fast shutter speed, but then the photos are way too dark even if I adjust the brightness as much as I can.
Well, the rule of thumb is to set the camera on the absolutely highest ISO setting you are comfortable with. Experiment to get a number that works for you. For most handheld non DSLRs it would be around 800-1250 I guess. Then set the f number to the lowest possible, manual setting. Probably f2.8 for a normal camera/lens combo. Then use the manual setting and set the speed at just over the mm of the lens. So if you have a camera with a lens that is set at 55mm you can use 1/60 in shutter speed. If you do all this and it is still too dark, try to find a spot that is brighter and try again. If not, you might have to raise the ISO setting even it will make the image less pretty.
Another good was is to get effective photos is to use a flash but lower the EV setting to -0.3, -0.7 or -1.0. Try it out! Or even better, set the flash at rear exposure if your camera has the function, and try again.
Anyway, the trick is to shoot with manual settings!
I can almost here them!
Thanks Val! Good to see you again! (^-^)/