Beginner Needs help

[Chrisfalkirkdj]

My daughter is really into photography
She is currently using a canon 350d
What would any one suggest for upgrade of her kit she buys all her own kit so budget is tight
She takes a lot of photos at parties and has problems with them being blurred when taking Disco lighting photos and she runs a photo booth and the booth photos are purity good but she only uses the camera flash so suggestions for a decent flash would be appreciated
Thank in advance

 

[woof woof]

Is she using a 18-50mm f3.5-5.6 kit lens?

If so and if she isn't using flash maybe a slow shutter speed could explain the blurred disco pictures. If that's the case a wider aperture lens would help to keep the shutter speed up so maybe she could look at a f1.4 or f1.8 lens possibly 28, 35 or at a pinch 50mm? I don't know what the disco lighting will be like but to freeze people she's going to be looking to keep the shutter speed up and that could mean a pretty high ISO and a wide aperture. However, another approach would be to expose for the low light with a shutter speed of around 1/40 or so and an ISO of between 100 and 400 and use a small amount of flash if flash if allowed to freeze the people.

Dunno about flash but others will

 

[troutfisher]

Have a look on MPB (https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/brands/canon/) they have used Canon speedlights ( 580/430) for not a lot of money.
These will support ETTL metering on the camera so one of those a couple of packs of Eneloop batteries and you are good to go.
BTW if she takes lots of pix at parties, Camera to Manual , iso around 400 , shutter greater than sync speed , aperture to suit, flash to ETTL , use the bounce card in the flash or make one, ignore the in camera meter ( it will read under exposed) and shoot away.
In this mode the flash is acting as the main light not a fill light

 

[Jonnybrad2001]

Yeah hunt around you can get a 550EX 430EX from £50, I'd grab a Yongnuo OC-E3 so she can do different flash angles but that might be a lesson for another day. Also recommend if still using the kit lens looking at for something a bit brighter, Tamron 17-50 F2.8 (£150ish) will give an extra stop or two of light which is always useful somewhere, Canon 35mm F2 also a budget choice for an extra stop of light indoors.