top tips please

On Saturday I am off for a photoshoot in the caves at Ingle borough. These are lit as a tourist attraction. Any tips for getting the best shots?

Dave

I used a tiny but sturdy Slick tripod in caves on my last holiday, as it meant that I could still use a low ISO, people ended up nicely blurred and nobody could trip over the tiny thing. I could also hold it against the wall.

Bracket the exposures. Then you can either choose the best one or do an HDR with all of them.

Shoot in manual, take some test shots to judge the right exposure levels, exposing so as not to burn out any highlights, then leave it on the same setting as long as the light doesn't change too much.

Regards
David

I shot a lot of cave images in Australia link.

Tripods were not allowed in the caves so I used a clamp grip on the hand rails link

I shot in RAW at f/8 and 200 ISO using a 14mm to 24mm lens on FF. Images were well acceptable.

Best regards

Dave, I'll see you there. Having read around the subject a little I will be shooting RAW so less white balance problems, using a tripod and initially, my widest lens (Sigma 8-16). I like the suggestion of exposure bracketing as I suspect the dynamic range will be high. I plan to experiment with ISO and aperture to get a good depth of field. Lots of suggestions to include people in your image to give a sense of scale.

Peter

Thanks for all the above suggestions I will bear them all in mind.

I think that my main concern is the white balance as I shoot jpegs - as raw needs processing which I don't want to start doing.

Peter aren't you a bit concerned about the dampness of the cave and the sigma? I was thinking of using the Pentax 16-50 and keeping the water out. otherwise I would use the sigma 10-20. Looking forward to meeting you.

Dave

Set the camera for raw (dng) + jpeg to give you the option of reprocessing the balance etc. if need be. It's actually possible to develop/reprocess them in camera if you wish! The raw files are larger so make sure your memory card can cope. If you have Photoshop Elements or similar, processing the raw files is no more complicated than adjusting jpegs, but gives you more leeway to correct all sorts of errors. Have a practice before Saturday, it's certainly nothing to be afraid of! Taking both raw & jpeg means you'll still have the files you're used to and they may be just fine.... but if they're not, you'll have wasted that £25. The raw's will give you a second bite at the cherry to get a better image, which given the contrast you'll encounter, they almost certainly will be better.
Also, remember take spare charged battery(s) if you have any.