Looking for a SUPER QUICK tips for tomorrow night!

Me: A hobbyist with XTi + Tammy 17-50mm & 85mm f1.8. Has shot for few months and has a good basic knowledge of shooting in daylight.

Problem: I have a 430EX that I bought few months ago and I've yet to touch it since I've been dreading to learn the whole flash animal.

Tomorrow: I'm going to a small indoor party for my friend's engagement bash. It'll take place in a typical indoor setting with tens of friends. I plan on using the cam with the speedlite to do snap some pictures and maybe even get those beautiful bounce-flash exposures.

Your Help: Before I fully learn the flash with time, could you give me some QUICK tips and general settings / rule of thumb for the tomorrow's shoot?

What I think:
1. Just set it to E-TTL + BOUNCE then trial and error it using FEC stops. (Then what do I do with aperture & ISO?)

or/with

2. Direct flash: set shutter speed to 1/4~ for beautiful face shots with balanced ambient lighting (read it here somewhere). What do I do with flash then? Would I be using Tv this case to have the 1/4 fixed?

3. What do I do with white balance? Do I ignore it to AWB since flash is white or still set it to halogen/tungsten? (See? I'm a complete noob with flash photography)

Please advise! I know what I ask if too condensing, but I'm sure some articulate members can precisely summarize and provide key pointers.

My best advice is get familiar with that flash and it's set-up and controls then worry about what you'll do at the party.

RandyMN wrote in post #5495524
My best advice is get familiar with that flash and it's set-up and controls then worry about what you'll do at the party.

Yes.

I just finished reading the manual and are accustomed to the buttons. And I'm asking here because the manual does not teach you How to use the flash properly for exposure.

Then I'd set it to auto and let the camera do the ETTL exposures for you.

Set the camera on P and the flash on ettl and adjust the FEC on the flash. Just bounce on the ceiling. Try also manual with these setting f4 1/60 iso 200/400

Use your 85 1.8 and keep your flash in the bag.

irishman wrote in post #5495807
Use your 85 1.8 and keep your flash in the bag.

you kidding?

85 indoor is a blurry nightmare and how on earth am i going to fit people in? I'd be taking pictures of their noses the whole time (136mm with crop factor).

Thanks to all for sharing this - good info

At your earliest chance, take the flash out and play with it. It's digital, so experimenting doesn't cost you anything. In the meantime, set the camera on whatever exposure mode you prefer (be it Av or P or whatever) and use the flash in ETTL mode, using flash exposure compensation when needed.

Have a look at the tutorials linked to in my signature, there's a tutorial there for manual flash. Don't try it on the night, it's not the quickest thing to use, but it will help you understand how flash actually works.

Flash scared the hell out of me too when I first started it, but once you understand the basics of it, you find that it really looks a lot scarier than it really is.

From the top of my head, when I want to "point and shoot" indoors I set the camera to M and dial in f/4, 1/125, ISO 400, flash in ETTL.

With those settings the ETTL will work everything out for you in 95% of cases.

I prefer some ambient lighting in the background, so I usually set something around 1/20s (off course depending on light levels) f/2.8 to f/4; ISO 1600. Bounce the flash. Use ETTL and set FEC as needed.

In Av, flash is used as fill. Can give good results, if you know how it works. EC / FEC will probably be needed. If light levels aren't too low, this will work.

In P flash is main light; "deer in the headlights" look if ambient is low. I'd avoid it.

In M you can decide how much ambient you want.

Some links: Click

Thanks guys. Anybody would like to specifically answer my questions one by one in the original post?

1) Yes. Set aperture for DoF you want (around f/4), ISO to get a decent shutterspeed (probably 800 or 1600)
2) don't use direct flash if there's a way to avoid it
3) Get the flash with a CTO, and set camera WB to tungsten.
If the ambient is mainly fluorescent, you might have a problem... Best chance is to overpower the ambient a bit more with flash then.