Thanks all, this event is one I really enjoy visiting, the atmosphere is always friendly, welcoming and interesting, I really do admire the folk that get dressed up for the event, especially the ladies when they 'glam up' for the occasion, a lot of time effort and care goes into this.
It's well worth a visit, also Pickering (12th, 13th, 14th October 2012) has a similar event with the added attraction of steam trains running. And there is the 60's weekend at Haworth. Pop along if you are in the area, you won't be disappointed.
On a technical note, I find the 135mm F2 just about perfect for these kind of shots, it's ability to kick the background out of focus is vital when it's so busy and you can't really control whats going on around.
On a crop camera, the 85mm F1.8 would be an excellent choice.
The only real problem with the 135mm F2 , and it's been said before, it's sometimes too sharp, consequently will pick out even the minor skin flaws. While I always use the clone brush to remove the odd spot and pimple, I veer away from over smoothing the skin.
As an example, here is a 100% crop of the nose from one of the images, the amount of detail is probably not complementary to the subject.
For anyone even remotely interested, the camera/flash settings were:- taken between f2.3 and f3.5, camera set at aperture priority, ISO at 200/400 1/3 stop underexposed, flash (580ex) set to ETTL and 2/3 stop under, I find this is a good starting point for fill flash, and tweak the setting as needed.
