Few questions before First Paid Gala Event.

Hi. I hope I am posting this in a right forum. I am going to be shooting my first paid event tomorrow and I wanted to get your opinion if I am missing something. I am going to be shooting with 5D and 24-105 F4. I also have 430ex with diy better bounce card (sorta looks professional). I will also have Rebel XTi and 10-22 as a backup. The event is going to be in a restaurant with I think not very high ceilings. I am thinking to bump up the iso and use flash for some fill. I am going to have to photograph people being honored at the event and a then a group picture. My concern is the group picture. I hope I will have enough ambient light for this shot. Is there anything I can do with my setup to get a better group shot? I am charging all the batteries now and I have 2 4gb CF cards which should be enough space to shoot raw. Can you guys give me some last minute advice? Am I missing something? What should I watch out for? Any good shot ideas?


Thank you very much in advance,

Yan

I'd bring a tripod for the group shot.
High ISO / flash for fill sounds good. Raw sounds good as well.

Make sure the color of the flash (sort of) matches the ambient lighting: If all ambient is tungsten, I'd gel the flash with a CTO (orange) filter, and set the WB to tungsten.

If you have the time (before or after the event): Here is a good read on flash.

Thank you very much for the response. I am going to take my tripod with me but i have a feeling i am not going to have enough time to set it up for the group shot. I was told that i need to take quick shots while people will be honored and then a quick group shot.
Thanks for that link, i actually read this before but this is great to refresh my memory before the event.

Yan

yanz wrote in post #5567007
a quick group shot.

Make sure you get (take) enough time.
1 minute extra shouldn't make to much difference to them, but can make quite a difference for the shot!

Set up the group shot *before* bringing in the people. That way you don't need to mess around with "technicalities" (lighting, setting up camera) while the group is waiting, and have a bit more time (and attention span of te group) to get them posed well.

Act like a professional, and they'll treat you as one...

I agree with Rene. Ask them what they want, followed by, "Gentlemen, here's how were going to do it."

Thanks for the replies!

Yan