Photograpghing a birthday party

[natalieegbert]

Ive been asked by a friend of mine to photograph her daughters 2nd birthday party, its tomorrow. Just wanted to see if anyone had any pointers or any ideas. This is my first time taking pictures of anyone not related to me and in getting nervous.

[JeffreyG]

Will this be indoors or out?

Most birthday parties are indoors. This makes things very simple. Pick a middling ISO (400 or so) along with an aperture that will ensure enough DOF to get the birthday girl, presents and guests (f/5.6 to f/8 ) and then set the shutter speed to something between 1/100 and the synch speed.

Point your Speedlight at the ceiling and capture the event. You will want a zoom lens that covers wide angle to short telephoto. Something like the 24-105L on FF or the 17-55 / 17-85 on 1.6X.

[natalieegbert]

The party will be outside, its a BBQ, complete with bounce house. The party starts at 5pm. So hopefully the sun will be setting by then. Thanks for all the help.

[JeffreyG]

For outside, use whatever approach you are comfortable with to set a proper exposure and aim to generally use a middling aperture for adequate DOF. You are not looking for some artistic shallow DOF shot here, you need everyone in focus.

Bring and be ready to use your flash if it turns out to be very sunny. If the celebrants are standing in full sun they will likely have bad shadows that need to be filled. If the celebrants are in the shade and the background is sunny you will need to light them with flash to avoid blowing out the background.