Need advice quick.

[bozburn]

Hey,
So my fraternity brother is proposing to his girlfriend tonight, on the back patio of the Fraternity house (dont ask why).
Well he asked me to shoot it for him.

Im asking advice on what I should use. The back patio has awful lights on one side of it, also they have put up christmas lights all around it. The patio is like a large concrete square to give you a picture of what it is.

What should I use and what settings?

Gear list
7d
xsi
24-70 2.8L
70-200 2.8L
50 1.8
28-135
430ex with Gary Fong Lighsphere.

I was planning on using the 7d with the 430 and lighsphere with the 24-70.

I also have a AB800 but I dont think that would be able to go anywhere where it can be effective.

Thanks

[bigarchi]

are you to descretely photo the actual proposal or shoot after the proposal?

i'd say no flash until she knows what's going on, otherwise you'd blow the suprise. like something is obviously going on, why is that guy taking pictures of us?? haha

so i'd go 7D and 70-200, high iso and from a distance until she says yes. then 24-70 and flash..

[Peacefield]

Use the 7D. The 24-70 would be nice for wide shots, but you may wish you had the 70-200 so you can get tighter without getting intrusively close. Leave the lightsphere at home; it's really only useful when you can bounce off walls and ceilings and I don't even think it's useful then. It would be great to have your flash off-camera; is that something you can do? If there's any reason for bringing the AB, it would be for off-camera lighting but leave it home if you can do this with your 430. Re: settings, it's hard for me to understand exactly what the scene will look like, but you want to set the camera so that the lens can collect enough light to see much of the scene or at least the Christmas lights and use your flash to illuminate only the couple.

Hope this helps.

[bozburn]

Yeah but the way he is doing it is that the brothers are going to have shirts spelling out "Leanne will you marry me?" so I dont know if she is going to walk out and have it like that or they are going to take their sweatshirts off.
If it will be a suprise then ill go with the 70-200 untill she knows about it.

[deemarie]

Its Hard because we don't know how far away you will be but I want to say the 24-70... if he is having the guys spell it out and him on one knee and her, that is a lot to get in the shot and you'll want something wider then the 70-200.

[bigfatty]

7d, 24-70 or 70-200 depending on distance, ditch the flash and go as high iso as needed to make the shot. If you fire the flash you will lose all the soft "mood" light the Christmas lights will give you.

[Karl Johnston]

I almost thought this was the one from last week because someone had the exact same situation, the exact same gear. Its hilarious the advice people give you, it wont near help you (guy above me, for example, I cant tell if hes poking fun or not)
I hardly believe you have all that stuff yet dont have a clue how to use it...

[bozburn]

Originally Posted by Karl Johnston

I almost thought this was the one from last week because someone had the exact same situation, the exact same gear.

Haha thats strange.

[Jerk.photo]

Originally Posted by Karl Johnston

I hardly believe you have all that stuff yet dont have a clue how to use it...

lol i was just thinking that as well...

24-70 and the 430 oc with the lightsphere...either way that sphere makes the light much softer.

go ahead and send me that 24-70..ill show ya how to use it!

[bozburn]

Thanks for the input. I will be able to test it out before it happens so that will make it a lot easier.

[egordon99]

I'm a Phi Psi too!

Penn Theta from Lafayette

Graduated in 1999.

Good luck with the shoot! And congrats to your brother!

[TheBurningCrown]

So how did it go?

[Red Tie Photography]

I want to see pictures too