Event Photography (grab-n-grin) newbie Advice!

joshweissphoto

Greetings All -

I just found the site here and it looks great - I'm really excited to look around some more. I'm posting because I have my first (quasi?) pro job shooting party/schmooze/grab-n-grin pics at a weekend conference coming up in a couple weeks. The event will be indoors. I'll be using a D40 with an SB-600 flash. Also bought a Sto-fen white diffuser. There is a separate photographer shooting the event's speakers and getting the more formal shots; I'm responsible for the "fun" stuff. What advice do folks who have done this before have? I'm wondering, for starters

-Is it necessary to get the flash off camera, or will a diffused on-camera flash suffice for this kind of event
- Should I use the sto-fen throughout an event like this?
- What should I do for White Balance settings? Auto? Flash?
- Should I use the TTL, or TTL-BL setting?
- Do most people who do this kind of event use "P", or will I be better off Shutter or Aperture Priority and having more control?
- AND, is ISO 400 a good starting point for this kind of shoot?

Responses to any of the above greatly appreciated, as well as pointers to any other resources. I realize there's so much to learn about creative flash photography, but am starting now with just what I'll need for this specific shoot. And I'll be practicing up until the event!

Thanks so much and keep up the good work

-Josh
http://www.joshweissphoto.com

Scott_Quier

See answers below

joshweissphoto wrote:

Greetings All -

I just found the site here and it looks great - I'm really excited to look around some more. I'm posting because I have my first (quasi?) pro job shooting party/schmooze/grab-n-grin pics at a weekend conference coming up in a couple weeks. The event will be indoors. I'll be using a D40 with an SB-600 flash. Also bought a Sto-fen white diffuser. There is a separate photographer shooting the event's speakers and getting the more formal shots; I'm responsible for the "fun" stuff. What advice do folks who have done this before have? I'm wondering, for starters

- Is it necessary to get the flash off camera, or will a diffused on-camera flash suffice for this kind of event

No - you are looking at very informal setting and need to be quick. An alternative might be Jeff's "Light on a Stick" technique

joshweissphoto wrote:

- Should I use the sto-fen throughout an event like this?

My weapon of choice is either the light scoop or the BBC (see links in my siggy), depending on what I have for a ceiling. And, yes, I would use it throughout the event or bounce the flash of walls or something. Direct flash is not a goodness.

joshweissphoto wrote:

- What should I do for White Balance settings? Auto? Flash?

Opinions on this will differ, but I would recommend you shoot RAW and you can fix the WB in post. Of course, this assumes you have it together enough to shoot a gray card reference at some point during the event.

joshweissphoto wrote:

- Should I use the TTL, or TTL-BL setting?

I'm a Canon shooter - this is Greek to me - sorry

joshweissphoto wrote:

- Do most people who do this kind of event use "P", or will I be better off Shutter or Aperture Priority and having more control?

I would shoot full manual mode, setting the shutter to something between 1/30 and 1/125 (depending) and aperture to something between f/2.8 and f/4. ISO would depend on how much ambient light I have. Why manual mode - becuase a camera is stupid I don't trust it to set an appropriate shutter speed or aperture.

joshweissphoto wrote:

- AND, is ISO 400 a good starting point for this kind of shoot?

ISO 400 would be a good starting point. I usually shoot wedding receptions at ISO 800 - but they are dark. You might be lucky and have a bit more ambient light to deal with.

joshweissphoto wrote:

Responses to any of the above greatly appreciated, as well as pointers to any other resources. I realize there's so much to learn about creative flash photography, but am starting now with just what I'll need for this specific shoot. And I'll be practicing up until the event!

Thanks so much and keep up the good work

-Josh

Hope that helps

Mr. 2H2O

Ditto what Scott said.

I shoot many thousands of event frames each year and what he said is what I do. I use my own light modifyers that I make for my own purposes. With the modifyers, I just shoot on camera flash or use a bracket - all depends on what I'm trying to do. I did use light on a stick once and for me, didn't prefer carrying it around and getting it set up although it did create a nice lighting effect.

For white balance, I set to flash except when I use a BBC which is not true white - then I shoot RAW. In my camera, RAW is inconvenient and when sorting through 800~900 photos, I prefer to dink around with jpg.

I use an external battery pack and have spare NiMh cells on hand in case my recycle time gets low which is around 320~330 frames - I shoot at ISO200 because of the limitations of my equipment so I have to use pretty full pops from the flash.

- Mike

mercphoto

Mr. 2H2O wrote:

I use an external battery pack...

Ditto on that. Get an external pack for the flash. Don't use Av mode with flash, that's a recipe for disaster (as in the camera picking very slow shutter speeds). I'd use Tv mode at 1/60 or 1/125, or go full manual with the same shutter speed choices and an aperture of about f/4 to 5.6. I'd choose an ISO to be roughly one-stop under exposed on ambient, letting the flash do the rest.

I'd also shoot RAW. Once I learned a raw workflow its really no extra time on top of shooting JPG. Especially if you use Lightroom or Aperture.

Scott_Quier

mercphoto wrote:

Ditto on that. Get an external pack for the flash. Don't use Av mode with flash, that's a recipe for disaster (as in the camera picking very slow shutter speeds). I'd use Tv mode at 1/60 or 1/125, or go full manual with the same shutter speed choices and an aperture of about f/4 to 5.6. I'd choose an ISO to be roughly one-stop under exposed on ambient, letting the flash do the rest.

I'd also shoot RAW. Once I learned a raw workflow its really no extra time on top of shooting JPG. Especially if you use Lightroom or Aperture.

RE the use of Av - the camera will select a shutter speed depending on the ISO and the amount of ambient light it sees.

If you use Tv, the camera will pick your aperture based on the amount of ambient light it sees. The camera selected aperture may be a lot larger than you want.

This is why I use "M" when shooting with flash, particularly when shooting indoors. Outdoors, it depends on what I'm shooting and the ambient conditions.

RAW - the only down-side to shooting RAW (assuming you aren't delivering / printing on location) is the size of the files. There is no significant impact on the time involved in the workflow. What little incremental increase to the time involved is tiny when compared to the huge "insurance" benefits one gets when shooting RAW.

joshweissphoto

Wow you guys are awesome! I'll be looking into this more fully this evening and see if I have any more questions. Keep the suggestions rolling if you have 'em

Thanks!!!

Josh

TonyCooper

Scott_Quier wrote:

See answers below
I'm a Canon shooter - this is Greek to me ]

I am not of Greek heritage, but I come bearing the gift of information about TTL (through the lens) and TTL-BL. The BL stands for "back lit", but Nikon calls it "balanced fill". It's preferred when the scene has backlighting that needs to be offset by fill light. For example, the subject standing in front of a window with daylight streaming through. It's most effective when the flash is pointed at the subject because distance measuring is involved in the camera's computation.

I'm not sure about this, but I think the Sto-fen diffuser obviates the need for the TTL-BL setting because the flash system can no longer compute the setting.

Cygnus Studios

Scott_Quier wrote:

Why manual mode - becuase a camera is stupid I don't trust it to set an appropriate shutter speed or aperture.ISO 400 would be a good starting point.

I could not agree more. Nikon does a relatively decent job of metering, but keep in mind that the camera is going to read the entire scene caught by the lens and meter accordingly.
As far as ISO and F stops, that will be determined by the light you have available.
Get your flash off the camera and shoot TTL. Bounce if at all possible. If not, defuse.
Make sure that you have plenty of batteries for the flash.
If you have plenty of mem cards, shoot raw. Keep in mind that you will be filling up a lot of space quickly, so be ready with cards. Don't wait until they are full before switching out. You don't want to miss a great shot while changing cards.

Other than that, you have a ton of great advice from some pretty good shooters. Have fun !

LiquidAir

I, too, shoot manual either bouncing the strobe if I can or with a scoop if I must. Generally I set the manual settings on the camera to underexpose the ambient by 1-2 stops and then let the strobe bring my subjects up to proper exposure. When shooting indoors with a strobe I'll typically I'll run around f/4 at ISO 800 and vary the shutter from 1/60 to 1/200 to set the ambient where I want it.

Qarik

I would stay away from teh stofen. It is okay but no the best option. A lot of folks like the BBC or light scoop but my favorite and the choice of many pros is the gary fong light sphere.