I recently went to a belly dance show here in Rochester, NY and I was looking forward to taking some great pics.  When they announced at the beginning of the show that no flash photography was allowed I was bummed but understood.  Heck even if flash was allowed I was too far away for it to have any effect.

My solution, use the High ISO Scene type on my Kodak M1033.  You can get there by pressing Mode, then SCN, then High ISO in the lower left.

For a great explanation of what this mode does look here(it gets a bit technical but you will get the idea).

Here are some of the better pics from the evening:













Here are some tips if you want to get the most out of the High ISO mode:

• Steady, Steady, Steady - you really need to keep your hands steady since even the slightest movement will cause a blur in the image.  The key is to let the camera do the creative work but if you move too much then the blur takes over most of the image and you lose most of the context.
• Framing - since the camera will take longer than you are used to to take the picture, you need to account for your subjects movement within the frame.  So if you have them framed well but there isn't much area at any of the borders then when the picture is taken, parts of them leave the frame.
• Not 1 shot, but 5 - every pic I posted here had about 4-5 worse versions of it.  Take a lot of pics in this mode because its very easy to get a crappy picture.
• Subjects are not all equal - some of the dancers did not wear any bright clothes or use bright props.  The brighter an area(clothes, lights, props) the more interesting the picture will be.
  

I need to thank the wonderful women at Goddess Hour here in Rochester.  They hosted the show and always put together some fantastic local and national talent. 

Have any examples of great High ISO pics?  Leave a comment or follow me on twitter.

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