Taking pictures of Grand March for Prom

I have a Canon 7d and a 70-200 2.8 is II.
My questions is what settings would you use to photograph this type of scenario? They are usually dark with a spot light and lane runners.
Do I use flash or just go with 2.8? or both? I want to get it right because you only get one chance. Any help is appreciated.

personally i would shoot @ 2.8

Here's my 2 cents: I think that if you could bounce the flash then it may be worth trying although it might ruin the mood as it were by brightening the overall scene too much. I'm not a fan of direct flash so I would personally avoid it if possible. This might be way over the top, but what about using both of your 430's off camera in the corners or something via some cheap triggers. The flashes should help illuminate things and depending on the angle might give you a "paparazzi" look. Of course like I said, this might be way overkill but could be fun too. Are you taking pics of all the couples or just some family?

just my daughter so i dont think they will allow me to use off camera flash.

I would guess that with the equipment you have know what setting would work best? Perhaps you're like me and need to dust a little snow off the equipment and get back to it In any case, here's what i would do with your set up:

Assuming you shoot in Manual, keep the aperture at f/2.8.
Since they'll be walking at a slow pace practice on a few other students to find what the best shutter speed would be or shoot at your mm zoom in seconds (200mm @ 1/200s), which ever speed is faster.
Then put your ISO on Auto, switch on the 7D's Servo AF (which is truly a fantastic system!), make sure IS 1 is selected on the lens as well as AF switched to On. The camera will track the subject as they walk towards you, change the ISO as needed to get the shot and that should get you there!

Best of luck and have fun at the prom

Really don't care for on camera flash; it may be good to have for fill, but I wouldn't use it as the light, because I think it makes your 7D a very expensive disposable camera. If she's going to be in a spotlight, you can zoom it with your lens and just fill a bit so you don't wash out the spotlight, but give a bit more even lighting and a kiss of light to the eyes. Also, you may want to have a bit slower shutter speed to let in the ambient running lights; even as little blurs they can look cool.

I'm not really sure what a grand march entails, but it sounds like something a bunch (or all?) the kids do (I think we had something similar when I was in the homecoming court, but we called it something different), but the beauty of that is that, you only have one chance for your daughter, but you can probably use some of the earlier kids as practice once you get there and see what works best....hopefully she's not first!

I have a Gary fong light sphere would that help to lessen the harsh light?

Supersteve911 wrote in post #12338136
I have a Gary fong light sphere would that help to lessen the harsh light?

Maybe, but I wouldn't use it. Do you know how to use your flash manually?

on camera one or the 430 EX II? I haven't worked much with either as far as settings in camera for them. I guess I have always let the camera figure that our for me.

Supersteve911 wrote in post #12351214
on camera one or the 430 EX II? I haven't worked much with either as far as settings in camera for them. I guess I have always let the camera figure that our for me.

The flashes are going to have a tough time negotiating moving subjects with a spotlight. I would recommend getting in a bit early if you can and figuring out which manual setting works best. eTTL could probably give you really inconsistent results.

Well I had a heck of a time figuring this out. She was like number 300 so I was taking pictures of a whole bunch of kids. I tried Manual mode, AV mode and then just put in the green square mode for a while. They had it set up really weird and didnt turn off the lights until they march was ready. Then they had spot lights on the spots the kids would stop at plus flood lights points up at them. It was a nightmare I think. I tried no flash and with flash. Disappointed to say the least.

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