Shooting an anniversary party in a room with windows?

Ah the joys of sunlight mixed with ambient light. It's gonna be one big hodgepodge of ever changing lighting conditions. I want to make sure I'm calibrated correctly, but who knows how things will go as the party goes on? Should I just set at AWB and hope for the best? Or go with a Custom White Balance and pray the photos don't end up with an orange or blue cast as the night goes on?

Metering is also going to end up being an issue. Just set on AV or P and let the camera do the metering work? I'll probably be shooting at all times with a 420EX through a Lumiquest Mini-Softbox (or possibly the larger diffuser that comes with the ProMax kit).

Thanks in advance

FlipsidE

I say, shoot RAW, using AWB and AV mode until you need flash.
After that, set it to Manual, 1/100 with the desired aperture. The flash
will do the rest. Adjust ISO as necessary. Use Evaluative Metering.

In situations like that, I will often use my 20D and 420EX with the Promax System set up with either the bare 80/20 or with the white reflector panel (depending on whether or not there is a close-by white ceiling surface). I almost never use the diffusion panel - it doesn't do much at any distance over a very few feet. When using the flash like this, I usually set the 20D to P mode, and exposure control seems to be quite nice.

Varying the ISO setting allows you to give the camera its needed exposure range to work in (the variable is the camera-to-subject distance).

I also shoot raw (plus large JPG), but I would use either flash or daylight setting for the AWB. Make sure the flash overpowers any incandescent or flourescent lighting in the facility.

Wish me luck. I'm jumping in the shower, and then heading off to survey the area I'll be shooting in for about an hour before the party starts. On a lucky side, this is a family thing and not a paid shoot. So while I want to do my best, it doesn't have to be absolutely perfect.

FlipsidE

I haven't had a chance to peruse my photos yet from this party, but my Dad (who knows a fair amount about photography) has looked them over. Luckily, it seems there was enough light shining through the windows so that AWB worked fine. According do my parents, the whites looked white...which is very comforting.

Also, I couldn't find any other way but to go full manual on the exposure. I had to push the ISO up to 400 (wasn't gonna go any higher than that) and sometimes snap two or three of the same photo to make sure I got the settings correct. But, again, according to my parents, everything turned out quite well!

Whew!

FlipsidE