This past Saturday my friend Andy (aka Squep) DJ'd at Rohstofflager and I tagged along to take photographs of the event. A few are posted up on my Panoramio account and many more in a FaceBook photo album. This one below is one of my favorites--I like how Andy's hand is visible but his arm disappears. Spooky!

I really enjoy photographing in low light conditions and capturing motion. Frequently these shots don't work out, but maybe one in three does, and maybe one in twenty is great, and one in a hundred is amazing...like this one!

These photos were taken on my mid-level Canon 350D with a 1GB CF card, monopod and a EF 28-55mm IS f/3.5-5.6 lens. Images were saved as JPEGs. Photographing in such a low light environment brought out both expected and unexpected flaws. Motion blur: expected and even desired to an extent. Noise and color gradient artifacts: Unexpected.

After some web researching (Tips for Night and Low Light Photography by M. Kirschbaum and Low Light Digital Photography from Anthony Peyper), I'm now edumacated on what I can do to avoid these problems. The first is quick and cheap: Start shooting in RAW rather than JPEG. This will skip the on camera compression and I can process on my MBP. The downside is that RAW images use around four times more memory on the card per image. A new Kingston Elite Pro (133x) 16GB CF card (SFr. 66) is on order from Digitec and should arrive this week.

A second technique would be to use a tripod and remote clicker thingy. The monopod was great for mobility but still required concentration and bracing myself against walls, speakers, etc. Tripods that suite my needs run between SFr. 50 and 250.

The last, more expensive improvement is to buy a 'fast' lens. The two lenses that I am looking at are the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II (SFr. 133 at Digitec) and the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens (SFr. 439). The reviews of the less expensive lens are mixed--it's dirt cheap for such a fast lens, but the construction is cheap and image quality is a maybe. Another factor I am considering is the USM (Ultrasonic Motor) in the pricier lens, which I'd really like to have. I'm holding off on this purchase until I have a 'gig' like Saturday night.