Shooting a barn dance - tips?

Joe T

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I've been asked to take some pictures at an indoor barn-dance tonight. The pictures will just be used for church newsletters and the like.

I have used my D70 indoors at all really, so I need some tips.

I cant decide whether to use a slower shutter speed to get a sense of movement (blurry limbs etc) or a faster one in order to get sharper pictures.

I think light will be a problem, and I dont think I can use a tripod really.

The kit I have is as follows: D70, kit lens, 50mm f1.8, Sigma 70-300 APO

So any tips anyone?

Thanks in advance. :)
 
for a start, stay away from the zoom lens, it will be too slow for indoors,

use the 50mm, get up close , dont use a tripod,
if you have a seperate flash, use it, if not , use the popup flash in ' P ' mode,

shoot from a low angle ( looking up at peeps rather than down on them ),

get down at the level of the kids faces when taking pics of em,


i wouldnt go for the ' blur ' effect while taking the pic, sharp n bright is what u need,, you can always motion blur em after in ps or something, while maintaining the quality

doin it on camera will just look like its out of focus,


take all of ur mem cards and dont shoot in the highest quality , as you wont need it for printing in a mag, and you will be able to take more pix that way.,

hope some of this helps

and have fun

MP 8)
 
not got anything to add as ive never done anything like that either, but have fun!! Crank the ISO up a bit and ause noiseware to lesson its effects after
 
MyPix said:
take all of ur mem cards and dont shoot in the highest quality , as you wont need it for printing in a mag

I have replied on OCUK, but I think i would disagree with the above. If you have space, i'd shoot in RAW. It gives you the flexibility to correct white balance issues (which may be an issue if it is indoors with various lighting), and also correct exposure, so you dont have to worry as much about the settings while you're shooting. Of course if means more space used, and more time processing, but I think it would definately be worth it :)
 
If you have space

thats what its about,,,,,,space,, and speed sometimes, the larger the pic, the more time it takes to lay down, as we all know


i always shoot in NEF format as i have large cards, but not all peeps do,

just pointers thats all, not a written rule :wink:

MP :)
 
Yeah, i'm not sure what the D70 is like with RAW files. My 350D rattles them off very quickly, so I don't notice any difference between shooting JPEG and RAW most of the time.

If you are shooting JPEG, make sure you do a couple of test shots to set up the white balance before setting off on the rest of your shots.
 
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