Sorority Formal Event

Updated: Photos added.

Dear lord...help me...I failed so bad

Just to say, I helped a friend with shooting this and needless to say, I failed..and I failed hard. Just as a disclaimer to all the pros out there, I wasn't paid and no, I specifically told her that I was simply a camera enthusiast before she took me for the event. With that being said, can someone help me with event photography techniques anyways?

The venue itself was a decently high ceiling (where my 430 ex ii) couldn't bounce enough light to light up subjects...as well as lighting all around the room of differently changing colors. (Red/green blue/purple/pink/white​...essentially a nightmare to me) I only had a flash and my t2i, and no strobes so I had to to most shots with a changing light behind the subject.

So, I was taking shots, and bam, I'd take the shot in manual mode with 1/200 shutter, F10, and iso 100, with ettl flash on 430 ex ii, and not going to lie, some of the shots came out ...ok, while others came out washed out as hell...to the point of utter disgust. (Can someone explain why?) As a result, (people were expecting 1 shot wonders) I lost many many shots, until I finally adapted to the flash strength by moving my tripod back and forth to get more decent exposure. (still not anywhere close to good quality.)

But..my question is, I was under the understanding that setting in manual mode and using ettl flash was the best way to go for event photography..but when I did it, the entire subject lighted up like crazy. So, nervous as I was (first semi-professional event) I switched back to what I knew, manual mode/av mode... and it left me with shutters like 1/5 ...as you all know.. even with F4 (largest aperature) and Iso 1600 (wtf so slow I know)... So...people are dancing and that's an obvious mega fail.

What was I doing wrong? How am I supposed to get the shot without multiple tries? Seeing as to how this was a sorority event, they all get the shot then leave pretty much so I wasn't sure if I should go full manual.

Man, I don't know... I was primarily a landscape photographer before this...but it pains me so much to have photographed an event so horribly. Especially because I happened to be the "main" photographer.

Help me please T___T

-Jo

PS...flickr coming soon

f10 and iso 100 !!!
I think that's your problem. Maybe f/4 and iso 400 would be closer.

Sorry can't help on eTTL, I only use manual flashes, and get great results nearly every time.

Bah I really gotta read up on ETTL flashing...that experience made me feel like I literally had no clue what to do.

I find that hard to believe...the reason its called a 430EX is because it has a Guide Number of 43 meters or 141 feet. Even if the Guide Number is overstated the ceiling couldn't be so high that you couldn't bounce. Also in the absence of a suitable ceiling you can bounce your flash off a side wall or any reasonable reflective surface...even a white dress.

Your ISO was certainly too low and you need to open up your aperture.

I'd recommend you take a look at this website and even read his book on On Camera Flash: http://neilvn.com …h-photography-techniques/

I had a similar event and my settings were more like f/5.6 and ISO 400. Used the 430EX II in ETTL mode as well. Found kind of the same thing as you with the flash behaving erratically at times. Some shots completely blown, some perfectly exposed and some a bit dark at times. I kind of chalked it up to different locations at the event had different amount of ambient light. Definitely challenging but got some really good shots and the majority were at least acceptable.

dave

Pixel...you're right, I'm sorry...this was probably me speaking absurdly last night at my own dissapointment. I was trying to bounce off the ceiling with Ettl mode, but it was never giving me a good reflection. (I would estimate the ceiling was about 80-90 feet high)

And I will definetely change the ISO and aperature next time for sure. Will also read that website. Thanks.

And Snyder, thanks for the input as well, I had the some perfectly exposed/completely blown shots and I was pretty bewildered as well. I think...noticing from the pattern of my photos, my bad photos were the ones which were taken close to the fluctuating lights. The ones further away were decently well exposed.

Thanks for your input. Uploading my PP'd photos to get some advice on how to save some. (I had to resort to some rather gay ways to salvage the photos but...ya..you'll see.

Examples?

In that lighting I've found that it's best to use flash as fill to the dancing lights and praying that you get one where a light isn't directly on someone's face. In situations such as that, were the lights are moving too fast to keep up with, sometimes you have to just shoot at the right moments and pray the lights are in the right place.

f/10 with an ISO of 100 is far too underexposed. Something like f/2.8 at ISO 1600 with a shutter speed around 1/30 or 1/60 may have worked well with flash as fill (hard to know without seeing the venue).

Examples are up.

Any specific examples of where you think you're failed? Most of these really aren't bad. A few are pretty underexposed and some have bad lighting, but other than that I think they're fine.

(Sorry the photos were taken down temporarily, flickr auto-posted to my facebook wall and one of the sisters told me to make it private)..that being said, is there a way to have people see it only if they have the link?

And burningcrown, I felt like in general it was too hit or miss. Alot of the photos there were readjusted with PP to either decrease flashes on skin through overall warming of the pictures or made slightly brighter with fill flash PP adjustments.

Jose72388 wrote in post #12497135
(Sorry the photos were taken down temporarily, flickr auto-posted to my facebook wall and one of the sisters told me to make it private)..that being said, is there a way to have people see it only if they have the link?

On Flickr? I don't think so, unless you're "friends" with somebody.

Jose72388 wrote in post #12497135
And burningcrown, I felt like in general it was too hit or miss. Alot of the photos there were readjusted with PP to either decrease flashes on skin through overall warming of the pictures or made slightly brighter with fill flash PP adjustments.

If the lighting is really bad, that's sometimes the way it is. I had an event a few months ago with abysmal lighting. Think 100 ft tall ceiling, painted black, with a good ten moving multi-colored changing strobe lights. To top it all off, to get close enough to people I had to use my 100 f/2.8, with a shutter speed of 1/20th to pick up enough light. After that, I had to pray that the lights wouldn't swing over the subject and blow out a color channel and that I was holding the camera steady enough to not pick up my handshake.

Knowing how to throw light would help (ISO 100 with f/10 is a bit much...), but other than that there are some situations in which the lighting, quite simply, just sucks .

Got photos yet? I'm intrigued now.

<----- which sorority?

agreed with teh f10 and ISO 100 combo is not going to come out good unless you are in noon day sun.

Where are the photos?

Sorry for the long delay haha, I removed most incriminating photos because some sisters preferred not to have certain things posted so I kept the better/safe photos up.

Also, for future reference, if I'm using my 24-105, in a constantly changing light situation, I should stick with Iso 400 and F5.6 and 1/50 shutter speed with my 430 ex ii on Ettl mode right? Just want to make sure that's viable, or if not, what should I do?

Also, it was sigma delta sigma.