Party Advice

PaulieC

Hi All,

I've been asked to photograph my brother-in-law's mother & father's 50th Wedding anniversary party in a couple weeks (phew, what a mouthful). There will be about 50 people present and he's looking for a mixture of posed and casual. The venue is a resturant.
Gear-wise, I have a 30D, 10-20, 24-70 2.8, 70-300 IS and 430Ex. I'd like to get some candids, but am wondering if the 70-300 IS would be fast enough in indoor light? Or would I be better off hiring or borrowing a 70-200 2.8/IS ?

Thanks in advance for your pearls of wisdom

Paul

melekalikimaka

should be grand with your equipment, flash will be used i assume so you dont need overly fast glass

Paulw

You don't always need a long lens to get good candids, especially in a small enough venue. Your 24-70 should be fine for most shots (excluding large group formal shots).

The best thing would be to have a look at the venue a few days before, and pick out some good spots to place yourself. Normally there is a nice spot or two where you can get a good view of the room. Other than that, just wander around during the evening.

PaulieC

Thanks, I know the room pretty well -it's close enough to my house that we tend to have a lot of family type events there.
I think the problem might be that I know about half of the people that will be there and if I get too close the candids just won't be so candid anymore...

DaireQuinlan

I'd stick with the two 2.8s, should do the job. 70mm on a 30d is about 100mm equivalent isn't it ? Should be enough stand off distance so that the subjects don't know what you're doing. You'll probably end up shooting at the two extremes. Honestly I wouldn't say that IS is going to stand you in good stead, you'd be amazed just how dark rooms can get. I had my 20-35 2.8 over the weekend at a friends newly bought apartment housewarming, and a roll of 3200 film and even so I was struggling on occasion to get shutter speeds over 1/20th of a second, so if that 70-300 is a 4.5-5.6 then I'd forget about bringing it at all.

magicbastarder

i often shoot stuff like this with a 1.4 and 3200; that may not be an option for you.

Paulw

Well, if you wanted more candid candids then bring another photographer. You may get another boardsie from here willing to help in exchange for a few pints.

PaulieC

Paulw wrote:

Well, if you wanted more candid candids then bring another photographer. You may get another boardsie from here willing to help in exchange for a few pints.

hehe. I'd be lucky to get a few pints out of it myself !

rymus

I'd stick with the 24-70. Without knowing the lighting in the place, I would imagine that the 70-300 is going to be too slow. The 10-20 might be workable if used with the flash. Unless it's a huge venue, a 70-200 IS would probably be overkill. If you can beg or borrow a 50 1.8 or 1.4, that might be useful.

PaulieC

oh yeah, I have a nifty fifty, completely forgot about that !. That might get a game that night!

rymus

nifty fifty is yer only man for that kind of scenario. That and the 24-70 should see you right.

PaulieC

Excellent. Thanks for the advice all

Fajitas!

If I know the people, I'd prefer my 50 1.4 and high iso, if working it, will use flash and 24-70...

PaulieC

So I can almost do both things, (1.8 instead of 1.4) but could you explain why you would use one over the other on each situation?

Fajitas!

Because people generally want bright images, with catchlights, everyone in focus and vibrant colours if they're hiring a photographer for an event, whereas, if it's something to do with my mates, or family, etc... then I'd prefer work with darker, grainy photos with shallow DOF and whatnot.

PaulieC

I see, makes sense. Thanks