what to do when there's NO light?

AT my last reception the lighting was really really dim and it was hard for to get the light on the people's faces that I wanted. I bumped my iso up to 1600 but I'm thinking that maybe it would be better to lower it and let the flash do all the work. When the iso is up higher, do you think the flash doesn't fire as strong? THANKS!

If it was pretty much dark i'd probably use ISO800, as noise is ok, you might get a bit of ambient, and the flash won't have to work so hard.

Slightly off-topic, but I've been known to use ISO1600 WITH flash in situations where getting soft (i.e. bounced) light was making the flash work too hard at ISO800 (i.e. an insanely high roof). If the shots aren't critical and the histogram is looking okay, I don't have any qualms about this.

But in general I think ISO800 with flash is better than ISO1600 underexposed

THanks - no I was using flash with iso 1600 and it was still pretty dark

Can you post up an example?

islandphoto wrote in post #4065285
THanks - no I was using flash with iso 1600 and it was still pretty dark

What f/stop were you exposing at? ISO 1600 and flash can certainly conquer most low light situations.

Rick

Try setting your shutter speed slower when using your flash to bring in more natural light. your 50mm 1.4 should do fine.