Q: Low Ambient Lighting Help...

[Desmond]

I actually need lighting in a small confined space, a pet pen. The pet pens that I work in are quite small, and I need some sort of lighting that will allow me to shoot at faster shutter speeds and more importantly not have a flash or a strong intense light at the subject (kittens in this case) and need to have some sort of lighting to be able to work with them with.

I have tried using a flash with terrible results, the retina of the kittens comes up bright green and is really not an attractive shot of the animal.

One of the shots I have done is here:



I need to have some lighting to add to the ambient lighting which is fairly dark during the day in the shelter.

I have considered LED lamps, because I can't really carry a Hotlight or anything that they can climb and destroy whilst I am working (I learnt on my first day that camera straps and camera caps are chewable, and lenses are lots of fun to scratch!) but does anyone have any other ideas at this point in time?

I have thought of reflectors but cannot obstruct the walkway in the shelter.

I would need to obviously bounce the light off a mini umbrella of sorts and have to have a portable system to do so. I have also considered the camcorder lights but unsure how well they will work in a situation such as this. I don't think kittens/cats like direct light in their faces...

Any help or advice is appreciated.

Regards,
Des.

[mommymomo]

Damn Desmond, with that shot you make me want that kitty. Look at the fellow's little eyes.

[JasonL]

Hi Desmond. Have you tried shooting at a higher sensitivity? Try shooting higher ISO (800-1600, or even 3200 if your camera allows it) then running the image through noise reduction software.

[timtam]

Damn Desmond, with that shot you make me want that kitty. Look at the fellow's little eyes.

"Please take me home mommy... I will be good... please feed me..."

awww.. I'm a sucker for them too!

[Desmond]

Hi Desmond. Have you tried shooting at a higher sensitivity? Try shooting higher ISO (800-1600, or even 3200 if your camera allows it) then running the image through noise reduction software.

Actually I didn't think of that!

My camera though gives best pictures at ISO100, highest I have is ISO400 on my camera.

I also need better lighting so the camera can focus. Most animals I have worked with really don't like the green checkerboard firing from the camera to do focusing with.

Des.

[Desmond]

Okay, I've tried using ISO400 but it is too grainy for my liking, I need to use these shots for poster A0 size as well as for web prints. Even through noise reduction I would rather capture the subject first time around and less photoshop than to come back to re-compose and fix the image.

I think ISO200 is not too bad with the S2is. If this grows out of the hobby stage then I will definitely buy a dSLR with a lens suited to this type of work!

I'll post up a link of an image on ISO400 for comparison (if anyone is interested).

I'm going to make up my own rig with a Luxeon LED and a small umbrella/diffuser for these situations. When I get time, that is.

Des.

[Desmond]

Damn Desmond, with that shot you make me want that kitty. Look at the fellow's little eyes.

Funny you should say that, that is they type of photo I am ASKED to shoot, lots of fun and persuation with kittens I have so many candid shots, one of my favourites is one of the kittens I was taking, and another one stuck its face in the camera at the time to look down the lens LOL - I'll have to dig that one up and post it, it looks funny. Kittens are funny anyway.

This cat went to a home the following day after the shot went up on the net, and yesterday when working everyone was asking for him.

I'm back taking more shots tomorrow (Christmas day)...

Des.

[Desmond]

This is a shot taken this morning in very low light at ISO400.

The noise is acceptable to an extent as the resized image is a lot smaller than 800px x 800px.

This has been run through noise reduction in Photoshop and also sharpened slightly on the edges...

Des.

[Adaptive]

Looks really noisy/grainy and not very sharp. Please post original before you ran it through noise reduction software. For 400 ISO you shouldnt have that kinda noise?! What was your shutter and aperture values?

[LuisV]

Why not bounce the flash?

You should be able to shoot without a redeye issue and get plenty of light.