Lens selection and advise for Botanical Garden exhibit: I am going to view the Chihuly glass exhibit at the Botanical Garden in NYC at night. Want to walk with minimal stuff. I have a...

FSATIN Loc: Westchester, NY

I am going to view the Chihuly glass exhibit at the Botanical Garden in NYC at night. Want to walk with minimal stuff. I have a Canon 80D with the following lense's;
Canon 50mm 1.4, Canon 100mm f2.8, Canon 15-85mm, Canon 10-22mm. Which one lens would you recommend being the exhibit is at night and the glass exhibits are very bright. Also best settings would also help so I can get the best photos. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

SonyA580 Loc: FL in the winter & MN in the summer

I have a 16-80 lens that I use 90% of the time so I would say take your 15-85. If hand held, I'd probably go with ISO of 400 so I could get a faster speed with acceptable depth of field. Something like f/5.6 or maybe f/7.0. If you are on a tripod you can get away with lower speed and ISO. Get there early and experiment with settings and, don't forget white balance. Shoot RAW so things can be corrected in PP. Send in some of your shots so we can enjoy the show!

FSATIN Loc: Westchester, NY

Thanks for the suggestions. What do you feel would be the best white balance setting?

ala_eh Loc: SF Bay Area

i would take a sample picture and set the custom white balance to that.

SonyA580 Loc: FL in the winter & MN in the summer

Hard to set one white balance that would render all of those colors correctly. That's why I said to shoot RAW ...., you can correct the white balance afterwards.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

FSATIN wrote:

I am going to view the Chihuly glass exhibit at the Botanical Garden in NYC at night. Want to walk with minimal stuff. I have a Canon 80D with the following lense's;
Canon 50mm 1.4, Canon 100mm f2.8, Canon 15-85mm, Canon 10-22mm. Which one lens would you recommend being the exhibit is at night and the glass exhibits are very bright. Also best settings would also help so I can get the best photos. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Bring a tripod - they have no problem letting you use one in the outside installations, but you won't be able to use it in the conservatory. This way you can use longer shutter speeds where there is water or lots of people. No point in using a fast lens - his works are very three-dimensional and you will end up using a smaller aperture for greater depth of field. Bring the 10-22 and the 15-85. Take test shots and chimp, and shoot raw for the best options for color and white balance in post processing.

cthahn

Glass is one of the most difficult things to photograph. Lighting is extremely important. No particular lens is going to help.

Mike Crews

For evening photography I usually default to around a 4000 K temperature setting. The results are warm tungsten lighting with the beautiful blue of the evening sky.
If the setting is after the 'magic hour' and completely dark, I'd try a setting of 3400 K. The ambient lights will be just slightly warm.
Remember that the Chihuly lights have their own light source and may be off just a bit.
Also remember to take a tripod and always capture a few bracketed exposures (especially under-exposed). I'm sure you will need these in post processing to mask in areas that are a little overexposed and may lose color rendition at the normal exposures.
Good luck with the shoot.

TonyF Loc: Bradenton, FL

I was at the Chihuly museum in St. Pete, FL, last weekend. I took these with a Canon 70D and 24-105. These are JPEP, SOOC.

Sorry, double posted # 1 and 2.

(Download)

AntonioReyna Loc: Los Angeles, California

With your setup I would definitely go with the 15-85 lens, which gives you the most flexibility and it is a very good lens.

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

Definitely the 15-85. White balance is important. Shoot RAW.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

FSATIN wrote:

I am going to view the Chihuly glass exhibit at the Botanical Garden in NYC at night. Want to walk with minimal stuff. I have a Canon 80D with the following lense's;
Canon 50mm 1.4, Canon 100mm f2.8, Canon 15-85mm, Canon 10-22mm. Which one lens would you recommend being the exhibit is at night and the glass exhibits are very bright. Also best settings would also help so I can get the best photos. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

I am going to assume you are already familiar with your camera and your lenses, so you know what you are comfortable with. I downloaded one of the images by TonyF and noted that he was using an ISO setting of 3200, which gave him f/4.5 and 1/50. Since your camera is similar, those settings should give you a good starting point. Only you know whether IS gives you enough or whether you need more help to be stable at 1/50.

The one comment I would make that I think has been understated is to remind you that your camera gives you the luxury of reviewing shots immediately. Do take advantage of that capability. Spend a minute or two or three studying your first few shots. Composition, Depth of Field, focus, and motion blur are issues that are not readily fixed in PP, so get those right before you move on. And do take more than one shot so you will have options when you sort through the results later.

Most of all, enjoy yourself!

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

FSATIN wrote:

I am going to view the Chihuly glass exhibit at the Botanical Garden in NYC at night. Want to walk with minimal stuff. I have a Canon 80D with the following lense's;
Canon 50mm 1.4, Canon 100mm f2.8, Canon 15-85mm, Canon 10-22mm. Which one lens would you recommend being the exhibit is at night and the glass exhibits are very bright. Also best settings would also help so I can get the best photos. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

You may want to take a look a the NYBG Flickr Group - lots of photos, including Chihuly, and a few uncommonly good ones.

https://www.flickr.com/groups/thenewyorkbotanicalgarden/pool/with/34826231001/