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09/19/2009 10:30:50 AM · #1 |
I'm going to shoot some photos on the party for the first birthday of my daughters (twins). I'd like to hear some opinions on what is the most practical/effective setting to use on my camera. I've paid someone to take the pictures but I still want to take some with my own camera, and I will eventually ask some invitee or relative to press the shutter for me...
I guess that these settings below would be optimal, since I will not have time to setup every photo individually and also whoever is pushing the shutter for me will not know how to set the camera correctly.
Take a look:
Auto Focus (multi point or single point in the center?)
AV mode (what apperture should I use to have good DOF? The general lighting in the place where the party will occur is good, mostly incadescent mixed with white economic lamps. You know, most people will not notice the focus is wrong on the viewfinder.)
Custom white balance (I guess I could set it with a white sheet of paper right before starting taking pictures)
Auto flash and auto ISO (this would be a way to avoid the camera to choose too slow shutter speeds?)
As I have only the built-in camera flash, I'm looking for a good way of diffusing this flash, maybe building one of those DYI that we can find on the internet. Any tips?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
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09/19/2009 11:01:17 AM · #2 |
Shoot in Raw so you have more room for fixing errors when you process, Set ISO to 400, Auto ISO might end up cranking it over what is needed and could lead to some nasty noise in your photos, good DOF do you want it to be nicee and chrisp or creamy? I would go around F/6 - F/9 for nice sharp pictures, It depends on how much space is behind your subject for good DOF and I am not sure your lens is fast enough to get a great deal of bokeh. It can be achieved but like I said it will depend more on the distances between subjects and camera, vs subject and background, For the defusing the flash, Get yourself a white pingpong ball and cut a hole in it and slip it over your flash, That works quite well. If you do not have access to a pingpong ball. a piece of white paper or tissue paper with some scotch tape will also serve the purpose. White Balance should be set to flash if your planning on using the flash, however if you shoot raw you can always adjust that while editing. So it is not a major issue while taking the photos, Enjoy the bday party, Twins are twice the fun.
Message edited by author 2009-09-19 11:05:17. |
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09/19/2009 11:01:49 AM · #3 |
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09/19/2009 11:27:41 AM · #4 |
I̢۪m guessing you are using the 500D and kit lens.
Multi point the children will be active.
I think the widest (lowest number) aperture will blend out some of the background but 3.5-5.6 is not going to do much except very close to subject and help shutter speed.
Incandescent + florescent (energy efficient bulbs) are going to cause some problems with your white balance I would go auto WB, or better if you have the software shoot RAW and adjust in post.
Adding flash especially a built on flash will cause harsh shadows and screw up your WB, I rarely use mine and only to screw with sleeping pets LOL. I have a 450D and it handles 400 ISO fairly well, 800 and 1600 needs a bit of Noise Ninja in post, but its better then trying to blend out the shadows later.
If it was me I would arrive early, and take a few test shots starting with the following settings.
Small JPEG + RAW
AV
ISO 200
Auto WB
Then adjust AV +/- and ISO until the photo looks right on the screen. Adjust in post processing. |
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09/19/2009 11:55:17 AM · #5 |
| One more bit of advice. You have already put some good money towards this party. Why not run down to the camera store and spend a extra $100 and get a Canon 50mm F/1.8, you might have to move back and forth a bit but the final result will be much better.. |
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09/19/2009 12:02:03 PM · #6 |
| The most important thing is the shutter speed....kids move FAST! Faster than you would think. Minimally, 1/250 is best to grab the kids so they don't blur. Of course, that depends on a lot of factors, but I found 1/250 to be the best versatile shutter speed. |
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09/19/2009 12:47:54 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by PGerst:
The most important thing is the shutter speed....kids move FAST! Faster than you would think. Minimally, 1/250 is best to grab the kids so they don't blur. Of course, that depends on a lot of factors, but I found 1/250 to be the best versatile shutter speed. |
I agree, I would shoot in shutter-priority mode to minimize motion blur -- no one will notice the DOF in the final image, but they'll certainly notice if the faces are blurred from moving around. I think you might get away with as slow as 1/125 ... but why not experiment with your kids first? Find a setting/lighting similar to the party and shoot as few pictures as various shutter speeds and see how fast you need to go. |
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09/19/2009 07:20:23 PM · #8 |
Thank you everybody. Very useful tips. I will then try to find the best setting before the party. I will experiment at home, where I have incadescent lamps and see what setting goes better.
If I manage to borrow an external flash, is there any way to use it effiently without having to adjust it too much? Like a basic setting that will work for most photos in the mentioned lighting situation. A friend of mine has a Bower SFD35C (mid to low quality flash unit with E-TTL support), and maybe I can use it for the party.
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09/19/2009 07:50:35 PM · #9 |
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09/19/2009 09:27:31 PM · #10 |
The other thing to keep in mind is the autofocus....be ready for it not to work, for the same reason as I mentioned for shutter speed....they move fast.
Often, by the time you achieve focus, they have already moved to the edge of DOF. So, in lower lighting situations, in order to stop them at 1/250, your apertures are often wider, reducing your DOF.
One solution is to use AI Servo if they are moving and you don't care about cropping, or use AI Servo and be ready to change the auto focus point. Otherwise, you may be using manual focus if they are running toward/away from you. Parallel movements aren't subject to DOF changes, obviously.
If you are using a flash, you may try to balance against the ambient light. Once you have a meter reading within 1 to half stop of nominal (allowing for color brightness correction of course) look at the shutter speed. Adjust the shutter and aperture appropriately to maintain the same exposure while directing toward 1/250. Use the flash to help fill. Just remember, the effectiveness of the flash will be a function of the aperture.
So, take some time BEFORE the kids move around. Take some test shots. Chances are, once you find a flash/shutter/aperture combination, you'll end up sticking with it indoors for the remainder unless there is a distinct light change.
Outdoor shots work the same way. Recently I shot photos at a party. It was a bright sunny day. The sunny 16 rule works well...but, at ISO 200, I had to adjust make adjustments to get to the proper shutter speed. At ISO 200 I used f/4.5, 1/250 with a little fill flash. I got an excellent exposure balance no matter what angle I shot. |
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09/20/2009 01:27:37 AM · #11 |
Originally posted by PGerst:
The other thing to keep in mind is the autofocus....be ready for it not to work, for the same reason as I mentioned for shutter speed....they move fast.
Often, by the time you achieve focus, they have already moved to the edge of DOF. So, in lower lighting situations, in order to stop them at 1/250, your apertures are often wider, reducing your DOF.
One solution is to use AI Servo if they are moving and you don't care about cropping, or use AI Servo and be ready to change the auto focus point. Otherwise, you may be using manual focus if they are running toward/away from you. Parallel movements aren't subject to DOF changes, obviously.
If you are using a flash, you may try to balance against the ambient light. Once you have a meter reading within 1 to half stop of nominal (allowing for color brightness correction of course) look at the shutter speed. Adjust the shutter and aperture appropriately to maintain the same exposure while directing toward 1/250. Use the flash to help fill. Just remember, the effectiveness of the flash will be a function of the aperture.
So, take some time BEFORE the kids move around. Take some test shots. Chances are, once you find a flash/shutter/aperture combination, you'll end up sticking with it indoors for the remainder unless there is a distinct light change.
Outdoor shots work the same way. Recently I shot photos at a party. It was a bright sunny day. The sunny 16 rule works well...but, at ISO 200, I had to adjust make adjustments to get to the proper shutter speed. At ISO 200 I used f/4.5, 1/250 with a little fill flash. I got an excellent exposure balance no matter what angle I shot. |
I've experimented at home tonight with incadescent lights and a home made diffuser on the flash. I still cannot get rid of the hard shadows, but they are slightly better than without the diffuser. I'll try another diffusing material, since the one that I used seems to be too thin to soften the light enough. If anybody gets interested, the material that I used is the back of the original software CD that came with the 500D, glued with tape to the built-in flash, forming a mid circle in front of the flash. It looks like the right material mentioned on this site, but it's not. I'm sure it is much more thinner.
Also, I still have to tweak the settings so I can see what ISO/Flash output power/apperture/shutter speed/DOF combo is better for my taste and the current lighting conditions at home. I expect than to find optimal values so I don't have to change it all the time. Then I will try to get trained so I can do the same, as quickly as possible, on the day of the party, some minutes before it begins.
I can tell that get the right focus is tough because the kids move all the time. I've set the camera to auto focus on 1 point in the center and then I compose the photo so this focus point stay on their eyes while I get the auto focus and then I quicly recompose to the right composition without loosing the alreay acquired focus.
They are not as sharp as I would like and surely far more harsh light on their faces that I'd like too. But it was just the first experiment with the new camera and maybe the lack of sharpness is just because of the low shutter speed or the high ISO (cannot tell for sure).
The kids are now sleeping, I will try again tomorrow and see if I can get more success.
If anybody wants to give me any advices, feel free and you don't need to be light on the critiques, I accept bad critiques very well.
Edit: Forgot the pictures (no crop, no editing):
Message edited by author 2009-09-20 01:34:29.
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09/20/2009 08:55:55 AM · #12 |
You will almost always have some harshness with any type of diffuser only because the light source is still relatively close to the subject. Those photos don't look to bad. The only way to completely eliminate "harsh" shadows (while maintaining portability) is to bounce the flash from the ceiling with an external flash. Only then, will the light source because large and diffuse enough to fill.
One option is to use the omni-bounce or something similar to cover the external flash. If you combine that with bouncing off a ceiling, it will fill in almost every "harsh" shadow. But, then your photos will tend to look flat as filling in shadows will remove depth.
Originally posted by marcusvdt:
I've experimented at home tonight with incadescent lights and a home made diffuser on the flash. I still cannot get rid of the hard shadows, but they are slightly better than without the diffuser. |
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