party Photos ...any tips

[Davie Hudson]

I'm attending my daughters 18th birthday party tonight and she wants me to take some photos... any tips ? I don't have a flash so i'll be using built in (i've never needed one) should I do a couple of test shots to test how full on the flash should be ?

 

[Darren Bradley]

I've never been happy with the results of the built-in flash in a party environment, because it tends to wash out the ambient light and the subjects have an unnatural skin color. If you use it, try to diffuse the light by taping a piece of paper over it or something. If you don't have an off-camera flash you can use, my recommendation would be to with with the fastest prime you've got, and the wider, the better. Anything above a 50mm focal length will just frame your subject with little context of the party around them. Even 50 is a bit too close in a crowded party. Best lens would be a 24mm or 35mm at f1.4 or better. Actually, regardless of the flash, you should try to use a very fast, wide prime.

 

[Davie Hudson]

I could do that ... as i say i don;t have an external flash because being primarily landscape I've never needed one , this is most definitely a one off

 

[Darren Bradley]

Yeah, I don't have much use for them in architecture photography, either (I prefer continuous lighting over strobes...) and my camera doesn't even have an in-camera flash. But I've ended up being called on to shoot family events and such that I finally relented and got a flash a while back. Now that I have it, I use it more than I thought I would.

As for your situation, I would definitely try the paper diffuser trick. Also do experiment with not using the flash. You'll likely end up with more blur and more noise, but when you get a nice shot, it's much nicer!

 

[Brian Moore]

Film or digi? (I dislike flash and I like film, so indoors I use high speed film and no flash.) I generally like the results, even though they often don't turn out bright and clear--although sometimes they do.

 

[Davie Hudson]

That's a thought , I could bang the iso up from my normal 100 lol and Brian , always digi

 

[Darren Bradley]

I went scavenging around my archives for a couple of examples. Here's a shot of a bartender friend of mine, using a 50mm @ f1.4, with the ISO cranked up to 3200 at 1/20th of a second. No flash and it was DARK in there!



And here's a shot I took at a concert, using my 24-70mm and shooting at f4 (I couldn't shoot wide open because I needed more DOF). ISO was 400. This was using a flash with a diffuser in ETTL mode, toned way down so as to not blow out the concert lighting. This was at 1/60th but looks like a much faster shutter speed because the flash had the effect of freezing the action.

 

[Brian Moore]

and Brian , always digi

Oh yeah,...I'm out of my league then Davie. Never mind!

 

[Hamish Gill]

Ill tell you how i set gregs camera up at weddings for indoor evening shots (nikon d700)
Set the camera to manual 1/100th
set the lens as wide as it will go, a fast prime will help a lot
set the iso to auto capped at the 3200 (im happy with my shots at 3200 iso from the d700...)
then set the onboard flash to -2ev

What ever you do, set the flash to -2ev (ish) and the iso as high as you are comfortable and you will find that the washed out light doesnt happen so much

think of it this way, the high iso gives a bit of ambient light, the low power flash fills in the gaps ...

hope that helps?

 

[Darren Bradley]

Good advice!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

I was going to recommend shooting all available light with a fast lens as well.

The -2ev flash is a good idea - enough fill to work, not so much that it looks like flash.

High ISO is your friend

 

[Pete Askew]

All sounds sensible to me. I'm a big fan of available light.

Whatever you do is don't fall over while carrying your camera (eg Hamish / F4) or ride your bike home (Eh, Dan?!!).

 

[Davie Hudson]

it went reasonably well, took a load of shots and there was a couple i had to PP by upping the exposure +1 but all in all not bad.

definitely not something i'd like to make a habit of, i don't mind the idea of a studio shoot though

 

[Hamish Gill]

I didn't fall over, te camera did

Glad it went well!

 

[Pete Askew]

And bumped into your ribs on the way down I suppose!!