Indoor Party Photography

markmullen

markmullen

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I've been asked to photograph a birthday party for a terminally ill teenager, as a freebie, which I'm fine with.

My usual photography is landscapes but I foresee that 5 seconds at f13 with some ND grads is not going to fit the bill here :lol:

In the past when I've shot indoors (family parties etc) I've gone with bounced flash and started at ISO800, 1/60th at F4 as a starting point and worked from there up or down as required.

I've got a 1Ds mkii, 17-40 F4, 24-105 F4 IS, 70-200 F4 IS and a 50mm 1.8 (which I want an excuse to upgrade to a 50mm 1.4) plus another 1D mkii body and a pair of flashes, a Canon 430exii and a Sunpak PF30x.

I'll be shooting in raw and will take a custom WB with a Colourchecker Passport in the venue, then processing in Capture One Pro which has some cool things like skin tone WB adjustment. The restaurant has dark red walls which I thought might play havoc with WB hence the Colorchecker.

I know the venue pretty well from dining there, I am going to go down next week and do some test shots and see how they work out.

Any thoughts or tips?
 
In this situation, to be honest, during the party I wouldnt focus heavily on getting every shot technically perfect, like composition, perfect wb, perfect exposures with the flash.

I would be focusing more heavily on the ill teenager and his / her friends emotions and happiness and ensuring that I capture that. Capturing that emotion, and that teenager being with their friends and family is going to be appreciated alot more in years to come, even if the teenager is no longer with us, as opposed to technically perfect photos that dont capture quite capture the emotions as well.

Thats not to say chuck out the rulebook and dont make an effort taking technically perfect photos, just dont get hung up on it, you dont want to miss those split seconds where emotions really come out and show themselves on peoples faces because you are fumbling around with your flash :thumbs:

Sorry if im spouting the obvious :)
 
Thanks Alex, good thinking, I just want to be as prepared as possible as there is no possibility for a re-shoot on this one.

Chuck me a rapidly setting sun with a load of dynamic range and I'm happy, a dimly lit party of teenagers and I'm not as comfortable!

I've just got a Canon Pro9000 mkii printer and am thinking I'll print the best shot out big and give it to the family.
 
I would use a faster shutter speed and smaller aperture. You are likely to be dealing with fast moving kids and plenty of ambient light. Switch to manual 1/125 & F9 i'sh and go from there. Bounced and/or diffused flash is a good idea. For the more creative shots maybe try and just use the ambient light if possible and a large aperture.
 
I'd have done the opposite of Dave with the shutter, generally with flash you can slow it way down as long as theres not much movement (in nightclubs I can shoot 1/8 at f3.2 without any difficulty if the people are standing relatively still. That said if they are dancing or moving I'm usually at 1/60 or above). If theres not much movement then I'd suggest using around 1/30 but really depends on the action.

For lenses I'd take the 24-105 and if you want then possibly the 50 1.8 but I think that will be quite restrictive and you dont really need the wide open apertures.

What colour are the ceilings and walls in the venue? Obviously if they arent white then you cant bounce without getting colour casts, which leaves diffusion. Syl Arena goes into some speedlight diffusers on his blog. I'll link if you want

Remember that shutter speed controls ambient light and aperture controls the effectiveness of the flash. (controls the ambient aswell if you want me to confuse you) I.e. F9 will take a lot more flash power than F4, which also means more diffusion.

If you end up using flash on manual--In clubs I generally use Iso 1600 and F3.5. At a distance of approx 1-2m that means my flash (580exII) will be at 1/128 +0.3 (1/3rd stop above 1/128). That should translate easily enough for you to use (probably around 1/32 on your flash with the settings you posted)
 
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In clubs you are not dealing with much ambient light. I am presuming there will be plenty here. I would and frequently do need and use higher shutter speeds. The less ambient light the slower shutter speed you can use. Why risk losing a shot?
 
I find good settings for parties is (for manual exposure mode) f/8-f/16 for good dof, and shutter 1/30 or 1/60 at iso 200, with flash at 1/4-1/16 depending on subject distance. Lens wise 24/28/35 is ideal as you will generally be shooting fairly close.
 
My first thought is how high is the ceiling, and what colour is it?

If I can bounce, I'll bounce. If I can't, then I start worrying about diffusion and high ISOs.
 
Dave Stone said:
In clubs you are not dealing with much ambient light. I am presuming there will be plenty here. I would and frequently do need and use higher shutter speeds. The less ambient light the slower shutter speed you can use. Why risk losing a shot?
Click to expand...

Yes thats true, for some reason I was thinking this was a meal in a dimly lit restaurant...:bang:

Dont quite know where I got that one from

Either way shutter speed depends on the amount of movement, not much movement and low shutter speeds are fine, if theres lots of movement then you need a far higher shutter.
 
wealthysoup said:
Yes thats true, for some reason I was thinking this was a meal in a dimly lit restaurant...:bang:

Dont quite know where I got that one from

Either way shutter speed depends on the amount of movement, not much movement and low shutter speeds are fine, if theres lots of movement then you need a far higher shutter.
Click to expand...

You can get away with surprising low shutter speeds when using flash as the flash only lasts for about 1/1000th of a second, so it will tend to "freeze" the subject to a certain extent although there might be some blurring of ambient lit background elements.
 
boliston said:
You can get away with surprising low shutter speeds when using flash as the flash only lasts for about 1/1000th of a second, so it will tend to "freeze" the subject to a certain extent although there might be some blurring of ambient lit background elements.
Click to expand...
I take photos at dancing events (jive type - so women spinning etc) and often use about ISO 400, f8 and about 1/6 - 1/10 shutter speed - using the flash to freeze the dancers but still pick up enough ambient to give a feel for the setting of the event. I'm still trying different settings though!

Taking test shots will be a good idea - give you some settings to start with.
 
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