50th Birthday event with limited equipment. Advice?

My friend is having a 50th birthday party and had requested for me to be the photographer. She offered to pay me, but I declined and insisted I do it for free (more as a bday gift). I found out later that it was gonna be more of a 200-person event at a hall than a simple and intimate party. Problem is, I've sold some of my gear and what I have left aren't too ideal for low light situations I think.

The 7D's ISO is not great. The nifty 50 and 85 1.8 are my fastest glass, and my L lenses don't perform too well in low light....and I only have one speed light Would I be able to make it work? Or do I need to rent some gear, like maybe an extra speed light, strobes, or fast glass?

I think if I can control the mixture of ambient/flash lighting, I should be ok. But I have never been able to master that skill and have always had mixed results.

Not sure about your equipment - I would ask if it is a formal event and ask her what kind of pics she wants. Sometimes people come from all over and they want a bunch of group pics (like a wedding). Then you might need additional lighting. It is going to be a lot of work.

This has happened to me so many times. It is just a small gathering (wedding/Party) and ends up being an event they should pay a pro for. I end up getting stuck helping a friend when they should have hired a pro.

I say no to all of these events now, esp. if it is a party or wedding that they want a "favor". The best one is, "can you come to my husbands birthday party, oh and bring your camera."
Not saying that this is your situation, just letting you know if you have not done an event like this before, it is a lot of work and time consuming, esp. if it is a favor.

Diane

I'd add another speedlight (2 is one; 1 is none) and borrow a backup body if you can (even a 40D), but to be honest, your gear is perfectly fine for this kind of shoot. I shot my first 10-15 parties with nothing other than a 5d classic + 17-40 +70-200 F/4 + 50mm 1.8 + 2 430ex flashes without wireless.

Careful not to get bogged down in the endless group photos (requested by aunts !) that may distract from more significant and interesting photos. Talk with your friend about this and perhaps designate a portion of the day during which the formal groups that she specifically requests are all done.

Your gear--even your F/4 lenses are absolutely fine--so long as you're not afraid to go to 1600 ISO (and I'm at 3200 on the 7D unhesitatingly) and you bounce some light onto your subjects.

p00kienrayray wrote in post #17189354
My friend is having a 50th birthday party and had requested for me to be the photographer. She offered to pay me, but I declined and insisted I do it for free (more as a bday gift). I found out later that it was gonna be more of a 200-person event at a hall than a simple and intimate party. Problem is, I've sold some of my gear and what I have left aren't too ideal for low light situations I think.

The 7D's ISO is not great. The nifty 50 and 85 1.8 are my fastest glass, and my L lenses don't perform too well in low light....and I only have one speed light Would I be able to make it work? Or do I need to rent some gear, like maybe an extra speed light, strobes, or fast glass?

I think if I can control the mixture of ambient/flash lighting, I should be ok. But I have never been able to master that skill and have always had mixed results.

cameragal1 wrote in post #17189821
Not sure about your equipment - I would ask if it is a formal event and ask her what kind of pics she wants. Sometimes people come from all over and they want a bunch of group pics (like a wedding). Then you might need additional lighting. It is going to be a lot of work.

This has happened to me so many times. It is just a small gathering (wedding/Party) and ends up being an event they should pay a pro for. I end up getting stuck helping a friend when they should have hired a pro.

I say no to all of these events now, esp. if it is a party or wedding that they want a "favor". The best one is, "can you come to my husbands birthday party, oh and bring your camera."
Not saying that this is your situation, just letting you know if you have not done an event like this before, it is a lot of work and time consuming, esp. if it is a favor.

Diane

It's not a wedding, so I'm pretty sure she's not expecting multiple sets/series of photos such as pre-event, solo portraits, etc...I'm expecting it to be a couple of group shots, lots of candids, and of course, posed snap shots. But I will clarify with her to make sure. She attended a graduation party where I did a bunch of snapshots and candids using only a 5D2, 2 prime lenses, and 1 on-camera speedlight. Nothing spectacular, but she liked the photos.

Christopher Steven b wrote in post #17189991
I'd add another speedlight (2 is one; 1 is none) and borrow a backup body if you can (even a 40D), but to be honest, your gear is perfectly fine for this kind of shoot. I shot my first 10-15 parties with nothing other than a 5d classic + 17-40 +70-200 F/4 + 50mm 1.8 + 2 430ex flashes without wireless.

Careful not to get bogged down in the endless group photos (requested by aunts !) that may distract from more significant and interesting photos. Talk with your friend about this and perhaps designate a portion of the day during which the formal groups that she specifically requests are all done.

Your gear--even your F/4 lenses are absolutely fine--so long as you're not afraid to go to 1600 ISO (and I'm at 3200 on the 7D unhesitatingly) and you bounce some light onto your subjects.

Good idea about designating a time for all the requests to be done, though I'm sure I will get requests throughout the day.

I will try to secure another speedlight, maybe rent one. I can either borrow my cousin's 5D2 or my sister's T3i; most likely the T3i since I doubt I would need a second body. After all, this is not a paid gig, and she knows it.

I've been practicing balancing ambient vs. flash light, which if I can get good at, I would be able to get great quality photos quickly and effortlessly in an indoor setting. If I can do that, then I figure I can just dial in the settings, float from table to table and cover much ground.

It's a 6 hour event of which I presume 75% of the time would entail people sitting down and me floating around.

And I don't mind 1600-2000 ISO on the 7D, it's 2500+ that I kinda worry about.

Bump up to ISO 1000 TO 1600, use a bounced flash for directional light. Gel your flash to match the ambirnt so you dont have an overwhelming color mismatch.

An examplr of the technique suggested above. Hotel ballroom with mixed lighting.

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gonzogolf wrote in post #17191127
Bump up to ISO 1000 TO 1600, use a bounced flash for directional light. Gel your flash to match the ambirnt so you dont have an overwhelming color mismatch.

Nice, did you shoot that with a 7D as well? @ 1000-1600 ISO, what was your flash power setting? I guess it would also depend on other factors as well.

Let me know if I'm grasping the concept of balancing ambient vs flash.
I practiced last night in my living room, and ended up with:

Variable focal lengths using 24-105mm on 7D
1/80th sec shutter speed (to capture ambient light)
5.6-7.1 aperture (to control flash levels on subject)
1600-2000 ISO (anything lower was too dark, anything higher would render too much noise)
approx. 1/16th flash power bounced from (low) ceiling

1000-1600 ISO seemed kinda low in my application last night. But I suspect the ambient light in your pic may have been somewhat brighter than the ambient light in my living room, hence me needing higher ISO?

Perhaps I am fixating too much on this.

Here's one I shot at a wedding couple of weeks ago, shooting my flash up into the white fabric draping overhead. I never use gels, and find that the loss of light in most cases just isn't worth it. It's a subjective call, though, obviously--aesthetically I happen to prefer dropping my background (ambient) enough so that the tungsteny bulbs aren't oversaturating things.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.christopher​stevenb.com/weddings/b​yc/e37923d92

p00kienrayray wrote in post #17191865
Nice, did you shoot that with a 7D as well? @ 1000-1600 ISO, what was your flash power setting? I guess it would also depend on other factors as well.

Let me know if I'm grasping the concept of balancing ambient vs flash.
I practiced last night in my living room, and ended up with:

Variable focal lengths using 24-105mm on 7D
1/80th sec shutter speed (to capture ambient light)
5.6-7.1 aperture (to control flash levels on subject)
1600-2000 ISO (anything lower was too dark, anything higher would render too much noise)
approx. 1/16th flash power bounced from (low) ceiling

1000-1600 ISO seemed kinda low in my application last night. But I suspect the ambient light in your pic may have been somewhat brighter than the ambient light in my living room, hence me needing higher ISO?

Perhaps I am fixating too much on this.

It was taken with a 5D or 5DII, cant remember which but the gear is less important than the concept. You have a grasp of the idea but dont get hung up on details. The goal here is to lighten the backgrounds so ISO can be whichever one that gets you where you want to be.
A venue like a hall will likely be brighter than your home lighting so you might not want/need to go as high with the ISO. It sounds as if you aee using manual flash, life would be easier if you can get an ETTL flash to use for this event.

Christopher Steven b wrote in post #17191889
Here's one I shot at a wedding couple of weeks ago, shooting my flash up into the white fabric draping overhead. I never use gels, and find that the loss of light in most cases just isn't worth it. It's a subjective call, though, obviously--aesthetically I happen to prefer dropping my background (ambient) enough so that the tungsteny bulbs aren't oversaturating things.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.christopher​stevenb.com/weddings/b​yc/e37923d92


@OP: bring your ambient up with ISO only to 'set' how your ambient lighting (light bulbs, walls lit by light bulbs) looks. Again, take the photo without flash first just to see where you've put the ambient (staying faster than your sync speed of course).

Beautiful shot! Good idea in exposing for ambient light first w/o a flash.

gonzogolf wrote in post #17191899
It was taken with a 5D or 5DII, cant remember which but the gear is less important than the concept. You have a grasp of the idea but dont get hung up on details. The goal here is to lighten the backgrounds so ISO can be whichever one that gets you where you want to be.
A venue like a hall will likely be brighter than your home lighting so you might not want/need to go as high with the ISO. It sounds as if you aee using manual flash, life would be easier if you can get an ETTL flash to use for this event.

Ok, so ISO is at my disposal. My flash has ETTL, but that feature usually under exposes for me, so I've generally used manual mode. I'll try practicing with ETTL.

Just use the Flash Exposure Compensation to dial it in, also look at trying averaging mode for this type of setting.

gonzogolf wrote in post #17191938
Just use the Flash Exposure Compensation to dial it in, also look at trying averaging mode for this type of setting.

Good call. I usually leave it in evaluative and never think of switching over to average.

If you accept the big job, backup body and main lens are maybe needed.