Beginner Birthday party... lens advice

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Phoey

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Hi everyone.

I'm new to photography but have had a keen interest for many years.

Anyway, I have been asked to take some photos at my fater-in-law's birthday party, it's noting too serious, I'm not being paid and they don't care if they don't come out that great. They would just like a handful at the start to capture everyone there. However I would like to take lots of shots throughout the night to capture the evening, but my problem is I have a Nikon D3100 and just two lenses - my kit lens and a 50mm 1.8G. Ideally I don't want to use the flash as it's just the standard flash on the camera so I would want that turned off so not to have it constantly going off.

Would I be right in thinking that the 50mm would be the best lens to use for the party due to it's apature? I can't think of a reason to take my kit lens, so should I just take the 50mm?

Also, as I want to not use the flash what settings would you recommend in terms of ISO etc?

Thanks for you time.
 
Hi

Welcome to TP.

It really all depends on the amount of ambient light you have available on the day. You could use the 50mm and bump up your ISO. Not sure how high you can go on the d3100 but on my d90 anything over 800 was noisy.

Also when doing group shout it is very difficult to get everyone sharp when using smaller f stops, so may be borrow on flash to use.

Thanks
 
I've owned the same set up.... you will need flash. Bounce the light off ceilings/walls if you cant get it off camera.
 
In doors, the fixed 50 is likely to be restrictive on framing, framing rather tight, and in a party dynamic, hoping for candids rather than portraits, versatility to zoom is likely far more useful.
Use the kit. Avoid too much zoom. Don't shoot in the dark!

This idea you 'need' 'fast-glass' for indoor/low-light, I do really find a little irksome..
Shutter-Speed controls motion blur
Aperture controls Depth of Field
ISO has no effect on the picture, other than potential noise.
You pick your aperture for the Depth of Field you want, you pick the shutter speed for the speed of subjects/camera shake; you adjust the ISO amplification to suit, to be able to control DoF and Moton-Blur as desired; not face-about-twit!

F1.8 is only two-stops 'faster' than a kit f3.5 at the wide end; if you are up against the buffers, at ISO3200 (I think that's the equiv of the 'hi' setting on the D3100), that extra aperture will only let you drop two shutter speeds, so you would have to be pushing the limits for that to become critical, and hand-holding, rule of thumb is to keep shutter above the focal length, so a 50 would beg you stay over about 1/60th, 18-55@ wide end would let you drop to maybe 1/15th, and has VR to help.. so you still get your two-stops of light back, if you really need them... BUT, in that situation you aren't using the controls for their prime purpose, of controlling Depth-of-Field and motion blur, and making compromises to work in the margins... to avoid a little presumed 'niose', or flash... it is likely not the best compromise!

If you dont want to use flash... and yup, on camera flash at close range is nasty and is harsh.. tackle that.. don't use on-camera flash, or use bounce flash, or use diffused flash.... you cant re-angle the pop-up on a D3xxx, but you can put a bit of white paper over the flash as a diffuser or reflector to bounce light up onto and back off the ceiling, then use manual to increase the exposure for the reduced out-put.. might take a couple of test shots to get the exposure close, or bracketing.. But without going to remote flash nits, that's the cheap work-around.

Meanwhile, have to ask, if you are bothered that flash will bother people.... what are you gong to do about the focus ilumination? That will likely be more intrusive, more often than a flash popping once a picture. Turn it off, and focus hunting, and lock-out are as likely to loose you shots as you would from the low-light...and at f1.8 on the 50, Depth-of-Focus is getting pretty slim, and pretty critical, especially so at close range, and in party-dynamic, even if you get a focus lock, and hold it half shutter, you will more than likely loose it from movement between focus lock and shutter release, and get blurry pictures as a result anyway. Tighter aperture, a little more DoF, to give a bit more tolerance, much more likely to up your odds of captures... and if there isn't enough light, then lack of light, not lack of settings is the problem.
 
You will need a flash or you will struggle. Plus, adding some fill flash will help separate people's faces from the background.

Set your camera to manual, shutter speed about 1/200s, aperture around f/4, take some test shoots at different ISO levels to get the background a little under exposed. Turn on flash, set to 45° pointed up, set to TTL (or Nikon equivalent), and away you go.
 
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Amateur here and I always do as @Oliver Pohlmann suggests get the background how you like in Manual mode, with shutter speed below or @ flash sync speed. Then bounce the flash set to ttl.
It as always worked out for me.

Gaz

Good luck ;-)
 
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