Pride Day - Advice needed

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hantastic

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Hi Guys,

This is my first post on the forums. I was wondering if I could please ask for some advice on an event that I am covering. It is a gay pride parade so should be pretty colourful, however it is forecast to be very grey and rainy and the skies will probably be very flat and dull.

I have a wide angle 10-22mm, 100-400mm, 17-85mm. I also have a speedlite which i could take. What would you guys suggest that I use to make the most of the day. I will be photographing the parade itself and the bands throughout the day. I have access to the pit.

I forgot to mention that I will have my canon 40d.

I was thinking of shooting in aperture priority with evaluative metering and white balance set on Cloudy or Shade. I will get amonst the crowd during the parade and probably use the wide angle. Do you think that it may be beneficial to use the flash?

Any advice would be massively appreciated.
 
Must admit I've never photographed a parade, gay or otherwise, so my advice might be rubbish. However, photographing any street scene could be problematic if you attract unwanted attention to yourself so I would advise against the use of flash unless you can gauge with absolute certainty that it wont turn ugly. I'd also be tempted to take some sort of protetction for the camera and lenses if its going to rain.
Watch your shutter speed if you're going aperture priority if stuff is moving past you, I'd be tempted to go shutter priority (which I always seem to do) as I'd sooner have too much/little dof than a blurred image due to motion.
Make sure you shoot in RAW so you can pp as required.

Other than that, have a great day, I'm sure there will be much to photgraph despite the weather (great summer eh?)

Matt
 
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I would be a bit worried about aperture priority as well def shutter priority or manual fill flash would kill the mood. A fast aperture would help, its hard to balance exposure with ISO shuter speed and apature
to get the best quality for the lighting conditions
 
I'd go with the 17-85mm. It won't be perfect but I think 10-22mm would be too wide and effectively 160mm would reduce your ability to get general shots - depending on whereabouts you are in realation to the procession.

Are you cleared to walk along the parade route on the "closed" side of the barriers - IE between the crowd and the procession? Low down shots might be good at the wide end.

I'd go shutter priority, try and use a custom WB if you can and if necessary, set a "User Defined" picture style with increased saturation to boost those colours! Or of course, shoot in RAW and pocess after if you prefer.
 
Having photographed at the Norwich event for the last 2 years, my advice would be use your 17-85 and your 100-400 forget the flash boost your iso to keep your shutter speed up.
If the people at Norwich are anything to go by they will be very willing to pose for you and will will be dressed up in some weird and wonderful costumes. Find out where they are meeting up before the parade and try and find out the route. You will see plenty of other photographers there so follow there lead and get in front.
They are a great place to get your confidance in street photography.
 
Shutter priority? Seriously?

I'd use Av, keep an eye on your metering and raise the ISO if necessary.

Unless you are planning to take very very wide crowd shots forget the 10-22 and go with the 17-85. That should cover you for most of the parade shots. Take the 100-400 as well for some close ups and shooting from the pit, 85mm probably wont be long enough for that.

There's nothing wrong with using flash as a tool at all, if it's a dull day and the Press are there they almost certainly will be; although try not to use it for the stage/band work as you'll probably get your head chewed off.

If Pride are using the same security crew as they did for the London march then watch out for them; they are very nasty pieces of work.
 
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