Shooting wife's choir concert. Please help.

[chango]

I'm shooting my wife's choir concert this evening. She is a teacher in Houston. The concert will be in the auditorium of her elementary school. The last time I shot one of her concerts was ok. The lighting is always insufficient. I am using a Nikon D90 and D60. On the D90 I've got a 70-200 vr 2.8. On the D60 I'll have the 35mm 1.8. Really don't like to bump up the ISO too high. Last concert I went up to 1000 on the D90 with decent results. What else can I do? And how high can I push that ISO? Looking for any advice as this is only my 3rd time to shoot her concert. First time was a disaster. Thanks.

[ldelacruz]

Be courteous and don't get in the parents way and obstruct their view. I just went to my kids school concert and the amount of cameras obstructing my view and shutter noise was annoying! Next use your 70-200 on a tripod to lower your shutter and ISO.

[chango]

Yeah, I'm a teacher as well and I know how important these programs are for the parents. I always try to stay out of the way. But I want to know what is the best focus area mode to use. My DOF will be really shallow since I'll be wide open all night. Is there anything I can do to keep things sharp? Thanks for the input about a tripod. Maybe since they I'm shooting her performance she'll let me get one. Haha!

[Steelsun]

Low light & no tripod & greater than 100mm lens = not sharp.

If you can't use flash, then at least use a tripod or a monopod - you can even pick up a cheap $20 at Walmart which will be better than nothing.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Borrow a couple battery powered flash units with wireless triggers and set them on light stands on either side of the choir (ad some light modifiers to diffuse the light and to get it to spread over the whole stage) that will eliminate the low light problem, that way you can zoom in and also close down your f stop a bit to get a better depth of field and set away from the very front of the seating area.

[ldelacruz]

I have no idea what the lighting is like but if it were me I would try to be parallel to my subjects, shoot manual exposure, use a tripod, try to stay around 1/100 shutter. The further you are from your subjects the more DOF you will have so if you back off enough 2.8 or f4 should be OK.

[Dobick]

what do you intend to do with the photos once you have them?

Reason I ask is that photos look better when printed than they do displayed (with regards to noise)

You might be surprised how well your camera handles ISO 3200 printed up to an 8x10 with the proper exposure. You must be sure and not under expose, or they will deteriorate rapidly on the noise.

[crfitchjr]

Originally Posted by Dobick

You might be surprised how well your camera handles ISO 3200 printed up to an 8x10 with the proper exposure. You must be sure and not under expose, or they will deteriorate rapidly on the noise.

You're right Kent, I shot a wrestling tournament in a high school gym, low lighting with a D90. I got some good shots at 3200.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

How did the shoot go?