Shooting pictures on parties (300D)

[CGNKlaus]

I took a lot of pictures on a party last month with my 300D and the built in flash. It was outside an it was dark. As a lazy one I switched to the full automatic program (green).

About 80% of the pics were good.

But with the rest of 20% I had the problem of focussing right. Due to the fact of using the program for lazy ones the 300D often focused f.e. on the rightmost person of 5 guys standing in front of me in a half-circle. So the other ones were not sharp (using the set lens).

So my question is:


Which program do you use in such situations ? Can you give me any hints to get better results ? What about buying an external flash ?

By the way I'm very happy about the battery of the 300D. I took about 400 pics with flash and the power was still at 50% !!!

[forrest64]

Set your camera on P (Program) mode then select the center focusing square. In your view finder place the center focusing square over the area you want in focus. Shoot, or press the exposure lock button then move the camera set the area you want in your picture then shoot.

As to an external flash the Canon 550EX works best.


Mark

[gerolamo]

Not sure how it works on Rebel, but generally I would decrease the aperture (or set it to a large value, same thing) manually, and let the camera do the rest (exposure and stuff)

This will increase the depth of field and you will have more people in focus

[CGNKlaus]

Thanks guys. I will try that.

Switching to "P" programm mode will let me chose the aperture manually. So if I use an external flash (f.e. 550 EX) which aperture is possible ? With the built in flash I'm fixed to one value...

With my (very old) EOS 1000 I had a large flash. With it I could let it flash against the ceiling to get naturally looking fotos. What about flashing at night (party) outside with it (there's of course) no ceiling and I don't want to get those "everything ist dark but the person I took"- look.

Hoping you understand my partially worse english :oops:

[DocFrankenstein]

You may try Av mode, it lets enough ambient light in the camera for the background to be seen, but it's gonna be blurred.

But... your subject will be in focus cause the flash only fired once. Any movement is also gonna be exaggerated. It's nice to create a dreamy atmosphere this way:

http://images2.fotopic.net/?iid=yfgptr&outx=600&noresize=1&nostamp=1

[Olegis]

With my (very old) EOS 1000 I had a large flash. With it I could let it flash against the ceiling to get naturally looking fotos. What about flashing at night (party) outside with it (there's of course) no ceiling and I don't want to get those "everything ist dark but the person I took"- look.

The Lumiquest Pocket Bouncer (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=39082) is designed just for these situations when you want to use bounced flash, but there is nothing to bounce it from.

[robertwgross]

Switching to "P" programm mode will let me chose the aperture manually. So if I use an external flash (f.e. 550 EX) which aperture is possible ? With the built in flash I'm fixed to one value...
:

The guide number for the 550EX is 55 (feet at ISO 100). So, you can calculate this by dividing 55 by the subject distance in feet, and that will tell you the aperture that you can have on the lens. If you have plenty of light, then the 550EX can reduce its power. Or, the other way to calculate it is by dividing 55 by the widest aperture of the lens, and that will tell you the maximum subject distance in feet. Actually, it is a little more complex than this, and there is a table in the back of the 550EX manual.

---Bob Gross---

[Hellashot]

For shooting a group, choose the A-DEP setting which will choose a focus range that'll best get your entire subject in focus.

Hellashot