Indoor House Party - Flash? ISO? WB?

hello. i am going to be using my 5d along with my 580ex ii for the first time at a house party tomorrow night.

while shooting Manual - what ISO do suggest i have it set at while in ETTL mode? also what WB setting?

if not, what camera/flash setting would you suggest? i plan on using the gary fung lightsphere to bounce off the ceiling.

thanks in advance!

Below is my copy-paste "essay", just replace P-TTL with E-TTL and 1/180s with 1/200s (for your 5D)

Use the lowest ISO you can get away with based on how high the ceilings are. Just shoot RAW and AWB.

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Basically, with flash, the FLASH exposure is solely determined by flash power (actually duration, how long the bulb is actually firing for), aperture and ISO. Ambient exposure is determined by ISO, shutter speed, and aperture (just like without any flash), so the trick is balancing the two. If I'm indoors in a smallish room (such as in someone's house), I usually just forget about ambient since the flash is powerful enough to light up the entire room (hence the 1/180s below, if the flash didn't fire, I'd have a more or less black picture) Now although you're shooting MANUAL Mode, that's only for the ambient exposure (the exposure needle in the viewfinder will blink warning you about underexposure, but ignore that). The camera's P-TTL metering will determine the needed flash output for a proper exposure.

Here's something I wrote on another forum -
"Easy" recipe for great P-TTL flash shots -
1)Point flash at ceiling
2)Put camera in MANUAL mode on the mode dial
3)Set FEC to +1 on the flash head

4)Shoot RAW (this allows you to recover some highlights that might get blown as a result of #3 above)

5)Set ISO to 200 (to start)
6)Set shutter speed to 1/180s
7)Set f-stop to whatever DOF you want


Now if the flash runs out of "power" because of high ceilings, you can raise the ISO or open up the f-stop to compensate. Or you can slow down the shutter to bring more ambient light into the exposure (in addition to adjusting ISO/f-stop) If the ceiling is REALLY high (like in a church), you may need a reflector to throw some of the light forward (I use the Joe Demb Flip-it).

Quick and dirty outdoor fill flash tutorial -
Basically, if your subject is in shade and the background is bright (ie under a tree) or majorly backlit, fill flash is your friend. Think of those times when you got a properly exposed background, but the subject was almost pitch black.

Put camera into Av mode, metering will set the shutter speed to expose the overall shot (which in the situations that call for fill-flash will generally be the background) based on your selected aperture/ISO.
Make sure flash is set to HSS (in case your shutter speed go faster than 1/180s) and P-TTL. Fire away! The shutter speed/f-stop/ISO will expose the background, and the flash should output enough power to light up the foreground.

Now to control the background exposure, you use exposure compensation on the camera body (which would adjust the shutter speed), to adjust how much fill for the flash exposure, you use Flash exposure compensation. The trick is balancing the two (as it is with indoor work), and that comes with experience/experimenta​tion.

Tips for Xmas Ball Please

Yet another link: Nightclub shots

This works for me with my 430EX, might be able to stick with straight ISO 200 on the 580EX, but 400 gives faster recycle times.

Manual Mode
ISO 200-400
F4-5.6
1/80 shutter

thank you everyone for your input! i get so nervous, the last time i shot a party i simply shot in automatic and ETTL to ensure proper shots.

tkbslc wrote in post #7610520
This works for me with my 430EX, might be able to stick with straight ISO 200 on the 580EX, but 400 gives faster recycle times.

Manual Mode
ISO 200-400
F4-5.6
1/80 shutter

The 5D handles noise so incredibly well don't have any reservations about going to 400 to increase recycle times. Or even 800 if you have to but with the 580EX you probably won't.

so here's the info i'm gonna go with tonight...

f/2 (f/1.4 for single subject)
ISO50 - lower the better
ETTL bounced from the ceiling.

i have a GF lightsphere, should i use it? or should i use the on flash diffuser or flip card?

MacFly wrote in post #7610915
so here's the info i'm gonna go with tonight...

f/2 (f/1.4 for single subject)
ISO50 - lower the better
ETTL bounced from the ceiling.

i have a GF lightsphere, should i use it? or should i use the on flash diffuser or flip card?

Do not use ISO 50. That will accomplish nothing other than draining batteries faster. The "lower the better" ISO thought is good only to a point. Going from 100 to 50 will gain you nothing. Shoot at ISO 100 or 200.

If you are bouncing from the ceiling your flash will be plenty diffused. Again, flash diffuser will do nothing except cut down the output, require more flash and drain batteries. And lengthen recyle times.

JMHO

matonanjin wrote in post #7611049
Do not use ISO 50. That will accomplish nothing other than draining batteries faster. The "lower the better" ISO thought is good only to a point. Going from 100 to 50 will gain you nothing. Shoot at ISO 100 or 200.

If you are bouncing from the ceiling your flash will be plenty diffused. Again, flash diffuser will do nothing except cut down the output, require more flash and drain batteries. And lengthen recyle times.

JMHO

understood.

so ISO100/200 and simply pointing flash towards ceiling is enough. what if my pix seem to be blown out with the flash?

Shooting with 580EX II in E-TTL mode that should not happen.

matonanjin wrote in post #7611086
Shooting with 580EX II in E-TTL mode that should not happen.

thank you very much for your time!

i'm gonna be using my 50 and 17-40, wish me luck!

Good Luck! Have fun!

I'd take ISO 800 over ISO 50 for an indoor party at night *any day of the week* (and twice in the weekend).

You can stop down a bit for more DoF, use less flash power while still getting a hand-holdable shutterspeed if you want to let the ambient light play any role whatsoever.

If flash is your main light (which it will be at ISO 200), you'll get a bat in a cave party....

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