Bar shoot for St. Patty's Day...help

[jargaguy]

I was allowed to shoot at my local Irish Pub for St. Patty's this year. I had never shot in a bar before with my DSLR. I shot in AV & TV. Needless to say it wasn't like my S500 P&S. There were so many different lights and TV's that it threw my WB way off.

I shot a group of dancers in TV at F4, ISO 800 and EC-1. Since I had my flash (580ex) on, it set the shutter at 250. I couldn't move it. Is this normal?

The people and babpipers I shot in AV at F4, ISO 800 and EC -1. I couldn't raise the shutter speed to past "3-"5 & someimtes 8-10. Needless to say the pics are not spectacular.

If I tried F5.6 or 8, forget about it...I needed my tripod. I probably should have gone to P mode and have my shutter set at 60! I wanted to figure it out though, But I feel I cost some good pics!

There are lots of pics so I'm including the link to my website. Enter and got to St. Patrick's @ Wild Rover Gallery. Check them out and notice how some are OK and others blurry.

http://jargapix.com/


Any tips as I'm gonna try and shoot in a bar again this weekend?



JA

[Tee Why]

in custom function, you can set flash sync speed to 1//250 in AV mode, in which case you cannot change the shutter speed. I know you mentioned Tv Mode, but it may have been in Av mode. In manual you can chage it. I

f you couldn''t raise the shutter speed anymore in Av mode, then it's probably b/c the aperture cannot be made any wider with the lens you have. You should increase the ISO for that and/or get a faster lens.

A simpler option maybe to shoot in P mode. Once you're more comfortable with flash photography, you can goto M mode and experiement with the settings.

[PhotosGuy]

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[MagentaJoe]

Available light photography is, I think, one of the more technically challenging aspects of photography. Hi ISO is a real big help in these situations, that combined with wide aperture.... these things together will allow you to get the shutter speeds to the spot where you can freeze motion. Problems are introduced though, hi iso has noise and loss of detail. Wide aperture causes your depth of field to be so reduced that it can be difficult to get the whole scene in focus. Finding the right balance for the given situation takes practise.

Once you've read about technique the best thing is to go and shoot and check the data on the shots to learn what has worked for you and what hasn't.

[bieber]

When I'm using my 580EX indoors, unless I'm really trying to capture the available light, like at a concert, I just point the flash straight up, switch to M mode, and set 1/250 and whatever aperture value I feel like. Unless the ceiling's really high or really dark, it works fine. If I absolutely can't bounce like that, I put my diffuser (cut-out isopropyl alcohol bottle) on. Once you've got the flash working acceptably, just check your histograms periodically and adjust the FEC if necessary; E-TTL should generally take care of things for you.