Manual settings

[may14th1983]

hi
could i get some advice on taking shots of my daughters 3rd birthday party, iam not quite sure what setting on the camera (300D) to use .
what apeture works best with what shutter speed ?
the party is indoors and i will be using a 550ex speedlight.
thanks for your time.

[scottbergerphoto]

In deciding which mode to use on the camera in flash photography it's important to remember that the camera metering is for the ambient light and the flash is done automatically via ETTL in the 300D. In P mode, the camera selects what it thinks to be a good aperture and shutter speed combination and won't let the shutter speed drop below 1/60 sec, That's slow enough to catch some ambient light and not get a blurry picture. In Manual Mode on the camera, you have to be careful that in attempting to set the correct exposure for the ambient light you don't wind up with a slow shutter speed that requires a tripod and the subject to not move. In Manual Mode, you have to decide how much of the ambient light you want, balanced against what you are taking a picture of be it stationary or moving.
At a 3rd birthday party with kids running all around, you can't afford to get too slow. I suspect you are also not trying to capture some moonlight or dusk light with the subject lit by the flash. I would set the camera to P mode, Flash in ETTL, and if I wanted to adjust the DOF, shift the program by turning the big dial. You won't get burned by too slow a shutter speed.
Scott

[Hellashot]

For every appeture there is only 1 shutter speed (unless you get into ISO settings). Your exposure meter will tell you what to do to get proper exposure. There is no magic chart of settings. It all depends on your surrounding as light sources.

[dhbailey]

Go to the location of the party before it happens (a day or so, if possible -- if you're having it in your own house, this is easy) and take some pictures at various settings. Try putting the camera in Tv mode so you can see what results you'll get without a flash, and then try with the flash on and see what you get.

No advice will ever beat being able to test your camera before a special event.

With the flash you won't have to worry as much about freezing the action, but if you can set the WB properly beforehand you can end up with more satisfying pictures.

[Andy_T]

If the distance is not too great, then try bouncing the flash from the ceiling ... this generally gives more agreeable results than the deer-in-the-headlights look of normal (direct) flash.

Also, make a forum search for 'Diffusor'.

Best regards,
Andy