Help and Advice Required Indoor Photography

pete.rush

pete.rush

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Peter Rushworth
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A friend of mine has just asked for some advice on indoor photography. He's been asked by the Head of his son's school to take some photo's for the schools end of year event this Friday and wanted some help and advice. This will be his first real assignment and is abit nervious about the whole thing. He mainly shoots in the auto modes and has only just ventured to the darkside of the control dial on his SLR

Personally, not really having any real experience of indoor photography, I mainly shot motorsport and aviation, I thought the next best thing is to open his request to TP for any help and advice.

He's got a canon 350D with kit len (18-55mm), 70-300mm, 28-135mm lens and a 580 flash unit.

I've told him to visit the school hall before the event to scope out the light conditions and overall hall plan. A faster lens would be ideal, however, unless he rents one, not sure he's prepared to pay for new glass. Shutter speeds and ISO settings are important (although again) the 350D isn't renowned for it's ISO performance above ISO 400.

He's got a flash which he could use to bounce light off the walls or ceilings. Any tips for the lights in the hall, would he need to avoid auto whitebalance.

Any help and advice for him would be much appreciated.

Peter
 
Anything :shrug:
 
What is invloved in an "end of year event"?

What are the circumsatnces, the venue, who's there, how many, what sort of photos are required?
 
use the flash, bounce off wall and shoot raw. make sure he lifts the little white card up as well or a better bounce card(try google, they free)
 
always try to avoid auto wb, it will make the difference if you set it accordingly. with that said, the right gels for the flash will be required.

a flash is always good but some (i am definately guilty of it) make the mistake and use the flash to overpower whatever light is already offered, and such you get a black background, with no detial of where you are and possibly what you are celebrating. dragging the shutter and a tripod are necessary for this. another alternative, if the camera and flash have the ability to run remotely. you can get the flash off the camera for more complimentary lighting.
 
I took a few shots at the weekend in a sports centre hall and was only just getting a reasonable shutter speed in AP mode at iso 1600 with a 24-70 f/2.8 wide open, the light was terrible...

Off camera flash could be an option. Bounce may not be effective depending on the size of the hall and height of the ceilings.

He definately needs to go down there before the event with a tripod if he has one have a go. He could also then take a look at the lights and try to find the best WB setting before hand, I wouldn't leave it in auto myself and see if you can get him to shoot in RAW or RAW+JPG if he isn't already.

He might find the light is perfectly OK so panic over...
 
Thanks for your rely's so far, I've given him the link to this thread so he's digesting your advice at the moment ready for Friday
 
You need to be quite sensitive about using flash. If you are sat in the audience and keep firing it off, you might get people's backs up.

I just shot my daughters end of term production and got away without flash. But that was using iso 1600 and f/2.8 and f/2 lenses. But I did rattle off 150 shots which would be a pain using flash.

Maybe there is stage lighting to make the light a little better. Also you can try some noise reduction software. Do some experimentation with it before hand.

Good luck and enjoy!
Graham
 
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