Party photography tips?

Question

i have a Sony SLR with an external flash and a friend of mine wants me to take pictures at his party, ive only been doing photography for about 5 month (mainly landscape) so im wondering what settings should i use, should i use auto or manual? im really panicking on what to do! any tips would be a great help to me!

Answer 1

You have a couple of choices indoors at night. Shooting high ISO will likely introduce noise. Shooting handheld, use the shake reduction. Do NOT use the built in flash if you can at all avoid it. Set your white balance to match the predominant lighting type. (Tungsten for regular light bulbs, fluorescent for tubes or compact). Use a grey card for a custom balance if you can for ambient. Set WB to flash for an external flash. Flash can be an annoyance at a party, so get your friend to turn on all the lights possible and concentrate on finding yourself a couple of areas that are well lit and give a metered exposure that you can live with for hand held shots. Hang out and catch people as they filter through candidly or take posed shots as required. If you're not a pro and aren't being paid, photography is supposed to be fun. Use the review feature, dump junk shots early and carry a spare battery and the charger. Shoot on one while the other is discreetly charging in a socket nearby. HAVE FUN!

Answer 2

Heres a quick overview of your quick settings:



Camera:



Mode - M

Shutter - 1/30-1/50

Aperture - between f2.8 and f5.6

ISO - 200-800 (dependant on ambient lighting).

Lens: 18-35mm.





Flash:



Head: Swivel/tilt to bounce flash off suitable wall/ceiling

Mode: Manual

Power: between 1/4 and 1/16 power (take a few test shots in situ to meter for flash power)

Synchro: Rear/second curtain.



Bring spare batteries.

Answer 3

It would help to know what lenses you have but from my experiences...



If the event is going to be indoor low light, I hope you have a fast lens (f/2.8 atleast) so you don't have to raise the ISO and risk degraded image quality and noise. If you just have a kit lens, start with ISO 800 and if you need more bump up to 1200. always use the widest aperture possible and hopefully the shutter speed doesn't have to be too slow.



If it is well lit inside, I would say to shoot at f/8 and shutter speed 1/50 at ISO 800 and go from there.



If it is outside, try ISO 100-400, f/8.0-f/11 (depending how bright it is that day) and shutter speed 1/125 to start with.



(if you need to adjust any of the settings, start with shutter speed first then aperture.)

Answer 4

Well

I read many books about photography and learned a lot. The best training material I used though is a video course. I am sure it will help you too. This is the link of the site: http://www.goobypls.com/r/rd.asp?gid=557

Have a nice day