Night Birthday Party

[prinzhernan]

Hi all. I'm new to photography and got an SLR as a gift last Christmas. I don't have much time to practice and all as much as I'd like and I'd like to ask for help. I'll be shooting for a friend's 50th birthday party this coming Saturday night and I'd like to know what settings I should use on manual mode. I'll be using a Rebel XS with a Sigma 18-50 f2.8 and a 430 EX II flash. Thanks!

P.S. I have a white balance card too. Should I bother using that? I usually shoot in RAW but should I just shoot using jpeg since they're not really going to be creative shots? And I also have a Sto-Fen Omni bounce and a lightsphere. Which one would be better for the event?

[Peacefield]

Hello, Prinz; welcome to the hobby.

I would tell you to shoot in manual, aperatures of f2.8 for just one person, the f4 - 5 range for multiple people and/or groups, start with the shutter at your sync speed, but consider lowering it as much as possible to help brighten up the background which will not be illuminated by the flash.

My recommendation would be to leave the Stofen and Lightsphere home and experiment with bouncing. The best is to bounce off off walls if they are a light and/or neutral color. Not just the walls left and right but also behind you. This creates the most natural and pleasing light. If you have to, bounce of the ceiling.

Enjoy.

[prinzhernan]

Hello, Prinz; welcome to the hobby.

I would tell you to shoot in manual, aperatures of f2.8 for just one person, the f4 - 5 range for multiple people and/or groups, start with the shutter at your sync speed, but consider lowering it as much as possible to help brighten up the background which will not be illuminated by the flash.

My recommendation would be to leave the Stofen and Lightsphere home and experiment with bouncing. The best is to bounce off off walls if they are a light and/or neutral color. Not just the walls left and right but also behind you. This creates the most natural and pleasing light. If you have to, bounce of the ceiling.

Enjoy.

Hey there Peacefield. Thanks for the reply. Would 5 be enough for a whole group? I remember taking shots of a group at 5 and having a face or two blurred.

Well, that's true. I've always liked the bounced look on people but I wanted to bring a diffuser as I see most event photogs use them. Guess I'll just leave the diffusers at home.

[Peacefield]

On the issue of diffusers, there's much debate. Some swear by them, others say they do nothing more than consume batteries because the flash is working extra hard to throw out the same amount of light. It's my preference to bounce when that's possible.

On the aperature setting, like so many things in photography, the answer is depends. DOF is goverened by aperature as you know. But it's also affected by the distance to the subject and the focal length of your lens. Shooting at f5, the DOF at 50mm is much more narrow than it is at 18mm. This is a big topic and I would encourage you to find more info about it, preferably by checking out a book or two from your local library. At the end of the day, you may want to cheat your ISO up to 800 or so (or whatever your comfortable with) to see if your flash may adequately light the scene at f8 or more so DOF is no longer an issue. Something to experiment with prior to the big day.