Non flash photography

Has anybody tried low / available light photos. I did a few in my film days but have forgotten how I did it LOL. Yeh I'm getting old and forgetfull, There are times when a flash can't be used and tripods or monopods would just get in the way.

Is the subject moving or not?

If it's static the wider you go the easier it is to hold still and also a wide Diaphragm helps, f/2.8 or even lower.
Then heigthen the iso till the shutterspeed is fast enough, better to have grainy photos then moved one.

Normally you wont want a shutterspeed longer then your focal length so with 50mm 1.5x because of the smaller sensor would be 1/75th of a second.
But since you have shake reduction just forget the 1.5x, the SR can handle that and most of the time even more.

Keep in mind to stand solid and with the elbows close to your body to reduce movement. sometimes it helps to shoot in burst since you probable move the camera when pressing the button so the shot one might be better.

with moving subjects the same thing but you got the problem of movement not by you but the subject so you need to reduce the shutterspeed a lot and probable shoot at max iso.

You probably used a fast film, and pushed it some. The results were probably grainy too.

The maths are quite simple really, use as large an aperture as you can for the required DOF (a fast lens would be needed), a shutter speed as slow as is necessary but without any camera movement (a tripod), and if that's not enough to get the right exposure, wind the ISO up (it would have been ASA in your film days :lol.

You could always use reflectors to throw more light into the scene if the scenario allows for it.

Buy an old 50mm 1:1.2. For flattering, available-light portraits there's nothing nicer.

G

Thanks guys, thats jogged the memory back into the right direction.

Now i've got to dig out my old camera and pinch the lens off it. then get some practice doing everything in manual again.

Hopefully a 50mm 1:1.7 will work even better with SR

I always do when on the job for concerts:
f2.8 and iso 800...would love less noise and better AF in low light, but the most important thing to me is to have a small, light camera (K10;K20) that fits my hands