Roped into a school fair...

Hi,

I asked this on a UK forum as I imagine schools in the UK are different from those elsewhere but as I got no help over there I thought I'd ask a wider audience.

Any tips, both technical and general?

I'm not very comfortable with kids anyway (despite having two) and on top of that I'm not great at taking pictures of people, but even though they know that I'm still being roped in...

hehe, anyway no doubt it will be a good experience in the long run and perhaps get me past these obstacles I've put on myself, but that aside any advice would be great.

Thanks..

what do u have to shoot? head shots? a booth? kids having fun at the fair?

Actually they've not said, but I know it wont be anything like portrait shooting, so I guess kids having fun

I think this would be a blast!! You have long lenses, you can go "stealth". Just have fun with it!

sounds like fun but watch out for people who think u are strange taking pictures of kids!

Too, right - my worry.

I've had an update though, it would seem its just to take pics of kids with a character that will be at the fair - so no sneaking about taking pics!

But also no studio (not that I have one), so I'm thinking my flash and the 17-70, as it will be indoor and I'll need the light, no tripod though as people will be waling all over.

Any suggestions on speed, aperture etc?
If I recall from a previous fair I'll have a working distance of about 2-3m or so.

Kids with a character? And with a flash? If so, I'd start with an ISO of 200, aperture of 4 to 7 with a shutter speed at 1/200.

Just school kids, so a mix I'd say but basically being plonked on on the knee of an adult in a suit - the flash is the YN-468.

Thanks for the advice - I'll try a few snap shots with my daughter and check the DoF etc, it would be nice to get the whole face sharp (for a change )

dwarrenr I tried those settings just at home and I just couldn't get it at all the other night, but I tried again, using the 17-70 and this time on manual for better control - ap 5.6, one shot, set the flash to +1 & used bounce (rather than defuser as it washed the colour out) and even in my dark and dingy room they turned out pretty good

Thank you.

Glad it worked. If you need more light, rather then adjust the flash, just use a larger aperture. In the gym, I'm guessing you will not be able to bounce, so the setting will be way off using a direct flash.

Thanks again for your help, it worked out well, but on a tripod in the end!
One thing I realised though was that if I had to do it again one flash is not enough

^hope it worked out alright. I was surprised to see a recommendation above to use ISO 200--I've shot dozens of events indoors and I don't think I've dropped my ISO below 800--and this is with a flash popping at 1/4 to 1/2 power. The last wedding I shot indoors I was at 1600 ISO most of the evening and bouncing my 430ex off a 40 ft. ceiling (with zoom set to >100mm).

Cool, don't forget to post some of your best shots.

dwarrenr wrote in post #11352896
Cool, don't forget to post some of your best shots.

I think that might be risky and would probably need signed permission from the childrens' parents.

David

Aye, I had hoped to, but I can't (well I suppose I could having signed nothing, but really not worth the hassle) - I've uploaded one of mine as I doubt the parents would object

The flash by the way was set to +1/3 to +1, but the shadow was strong, having no assistant for reflector and no supplementary lighting it was just okay.

I've done a little colour work and darkened the eyes of Minnie (flash highlights the eyes of the wearer wonderfully ), removed red eye.

If you've any suggestions please feel free to comment as I've not handed them back and the great thing about lightroom is I can adjust all 240 of them in one hit.

By the way feel free to edit and improve and if you did it in lightroom can you share the settings and I'll adjust the lot to match if I like it - I know cheeky!

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