Possible awards banquet/dinner

[skrezyna]

A friend of mine emailed me today and asked if I would be interested in photographing an awards dinner. I was wondering if anyone here has done such a thing and what it would entail. I just dont want to be in over my head. I do mostly portraits but wouldn't mind getting my hands wet with this.

My equipment is in my signature and wanted to make sure I have what I need to do this. I'm assuming I'd need to use my flash (for fill flash indoors?) which I havent used much at all and I could use some practice.

Thanks for any advice/comments.

[cowpix]

Piece of cake. Your 30D with 580 and probably the 24-70.

Just need to get the people lined up, focus quickly, and shoot. Don't waste a lot time. Find out ahead of time where and how the awards are given, so you can be in postion. You don't want the crowd waiting on you. Sometimes they want a few as the awards are handed out, and then group shots after the dinner. If so, scout out a good background.

Biggest thing is to be prepared. You don't want to be fumbling with batteries, cards, etc. when it's your time to shoot.

[Jon, The Elder]

....and for heavens sake shoot RAW.

[samnz]

Shoot RAW,HIGH and HISTOGRAM= RAW format, HIGH ISO and read the HISTOGRAM

[skrezyna]

Can I open and edit RAW files in Photoshop 5.5? I am still trying to get my hands on Photoshop CS/CS2/CS3.

[samnz]

Originally Posted by skrezyna

Can I open and edit RAW files in Photoshop 5.5? I am still trying to get my hands on Photoshop CS/CS2/CS3.

I don't think so. DPP v2.2 will though...but you probably already knew that.

[pagnamenta]

I would take the 30D, 580, and 24- 70 & 70-200 f2.8 just in case you have some distance between you.

Definitely shoot RAW so you can adjust later.

[skrezyna]

Looks like my 30D came with DPP 2.1.1.4

[samnz]

I honestly don't know sorry. Anyone?

[ssim]

The gear you have is more than adequate for doing one of these events. I've done several and it all depends on how they want it. I've done some where they want a shot of the person getting a reward and others where you shoot the recipient in a more controlled environment off stage. In this case I set up my mobile studio lights, set up a background and did them as they came through.

RAW is certainly good if you are hesitant about the results that you will get. If you can nail your exposure in the first place then RAW doesn't provide you as much value. If you are good at getting that exposure where it should be then you should be able to shoot JPG.

The DPP that came with your camera should be just fine for doing any conversions. Keep in mind that this is not the most user friendly user interface, imo. It takes me longer to convert images in it than it does my normal conversion software which is C1.

While shooting make sure that you don't make your 580 have to use too much power that it can't recycle in time for the next award on stage. Shooting with an f-stop of around 5.6 you should be fine, again though this varies by the distance to the subject.