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A place to politely discuss the tools, technique and culture of photography.

This is not a good place to simply share cool photos/videos or promote your own work and projects, but rather a place to discuss photography as an art and post things that would be of interest to other photographers.

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Low light lens for night hikes (alien.top)

submitted 2 years ago by FoolishTook7@alien.top to c/photography@viewfinder.pro

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I am looking for equipment advice. I am a member of a group that does night hikes on a regular basis. I would like to take photos of the people in the group during the hikes, and am wondering what I should look for when shopping for a low-light lens.
I would like to shoot people and dogs as they hike the trail. Sometimes, we have bright moonlight, and sometimes we are deep in the trees in darkness. Everyone carries either headlights or handheld lights, so there is some light from that.
I would like to capture the people, and also the environment. I feel flash, in addition to being an annoyance to dark-adjusted eyes, would eliminate everything except things closest to the camera, which I feel may not make interesting shots. I can't expect people (especially dogs) to hold especially still, so long-shutter photography would be difficult.
I am thinking of shooting people at a range of 5-20 ft. Moderate zoom would be nice, but is not a requirement.
It sounds like I am looking for a very high aperture lens. Does such a lens exist, or am I hunting for a snipe? Would such a lens make such a narrow DOF to be almost unusable?
I have a Canon EOS Rebel T3. My budget is in the couple hundred dollar range (less than 100 if possible).

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[–] Fineus@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Everyone carries either headlights or handheld lights, so there is some light from that.

If you set up shots you could achieve this with a tripod and long-exposure shots if everyone was willing to stay vaguely still. But you probably wouldn't get great portrait shots...

I see you mentioning that'd be tricky further on.

However you mention torches etc. and so there is another option....

I have a Canon EOS Rebel T3. My budget is in the couple hundred dollar range (less than 100 if possible).

Get a 2nd hand 50mm or 35mm f/1.8 lens.

Use the other people who have torches / head torches as a mobile lighting studio. Get them to provide light not just on your subject but on the surrounding area. Use that along with a high ISO and low aperture to take your photos.

Being a Rebel T3, you'll still encounter some noise over ISO3200 odd, but that's the price you pay for this kind of thing.

I really feel like getting creative with it that way is your best bet. Otherwise? With no light? I really don't see how.