Challenge:- What setting would you use??

[stryvya]

Mods if in Wrong group please move.

On Saturday I`m going to Crufts, mainly to Photo GSD`s the ring we are normally in has some Natural light from Windows high up, Lit by Mixture of Sodium & Mercury Lights, Green Floor Covering,
Dogs will be both Stationary & Moving.

Equipment,
Camera:- CANON EOS 750D
Lens:- EF-S 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 IS
No Tripod or Monopod, will be sat or standing
Prefer not to use Flash.

So should I use M,Av,TV,P or AUTO, or any of the Presets available??

If M,AV or TV what setting would you use??

I will collate all replies received by Friday Evening and try to use the settings on the Day and Post on here beginning of next week.

Over to you, please accept this as a fun Challenge.

 

[juggler]

I'm pretty sure @mike weeks did some of this kind of thing using HSS flash.

The light shouldn't change that fast so I'd use manual and I would avoid auto ISO, but that's because I find it quicker and easier than using one of the other modes in conjunction with exposure compensation and exposure lock. You could use shutter priority for moving stuff and aperture priority for static images.

The mixture of lights is likely to have a horrible colour cast. Be sure to shoot a grey card every now and again - and shoot in raw so you can set the WB afterwards

Don't be afraid to crank the ISO right up to get a fast enough shutter speed. I'd guess moving dogs will need at least 1/500s-1/1000s and at that speed you may still find that the extremities are blurred - but do your own tests.

How good is the focus tracking on your camera? It may be more reliable easier to prefocus on a spot and time your shots.
If the focus tracking works well I might also be tempted to use burst (servo) mode.
Back button focusing is invaluable for both of those but it takes a little getting used to.

I'd probably arrange two of my custom presets - one for static, one for motion - so I could swap quickly between them. And I might have different focusing setups for each, but I don't know your camera.
Note that 135mm corresponds to about 210mm on FF so the received wisdom is that at maximum reach you'll need a shutter speed of 1/250 or faster for the static shots.

An alternative approach - and this really appeals to me - is to use a much slower shutter speed - 1/8s-1/15s - and try some panning stuff. The keeper rate will be much lower but the few good ones could be a bit special.

If you were getting sophisticated you could combine panning or zooming with rear-curtain off camera flash. I can visualise an image of a dog running towards me, a bit of zoom blur, but with sharp features from the flash. No idea whether I could pull it off though. Probably one for a home shoot rather than Crufts

 

[woof woof]

Can't give you specific settings and I wouldn't choose that lens but I assume you'll want a shutter speed which is fast enough to capture the dogs without too much or indeed any motion so a starting point might be 1/100 and that's before you've considered any camera movement and focal length to shutter speed ratio you're happy with. Also don't know what your lens is like wide open, possibly not great so you might want to stop down a bit if possible?

I'd start in Aperture priority and see what the shutter and ISO values were and if I wasn't happy I'd switch to manual and dial in the aperture, shutter and ISO combination I was most happy with.

I'd be shooting raw and wouldn't worry too much about WB on the day.

 

[BBR]

In contrast to the above, my view would be to have a wider aperture rather than slower S/S, dogs are never totally still so you need to avoid motion blur. I would want at least 1/500 S/S and adjust aperture and ISO to suit. Definitely shoot in RAW so white balance can be adjusted later.

 

[MadWoman]

I have photographed the dogs at Crufts, and the larger ones trot quite slowly so 1/250 or 1/200 is fine to capture them without any motion blur. The light there is truly poor so you will need to push the ISO right up. I was using an f/2.8 lens and still struggled at times.