Poor lighting

[eNZee]

Im looking for some people to shed some light on this. im still having issues with my lighting. I did a baptism on the weekend. flashes were allowed in the church but im having such a hard time directing my flash. the ceilings are so high that i cant even bounce off of them. my iso was up to 500. i didnt want to go up any higher because of noise and the d90 sucks. i tried renting a fast lens but was unavailable for the day i needed it so i had to use my crappy 18-105 kit lens (BLAAAH) only because i had some zooom on it.
with pp i was able to fix most shots but im still quite dissapointed with some of them when i know could have been better.

how should i approach this situation next time? lets say a fast lens wasnt available again. how should i deal with this?

[LeeR]

If the ceilings are high, bouncing is not an option and, as you have seen for yourself, neither is available light unless you get a church with remarkable lighting. You also know that direct flash can leave some terribly harsh shadows. I have used a number of things to solve this problem. Years ago I actually had a small umbrella that fit on my flash. I have also shaped translucent plastic milk cartons to fit over my flash and have had pretty good success using bubble wrap to make a diffuser. But the most elegant solotion for me has been the system put out by Lumiquest.It's lightweight, fits in your bag and offers sevearl options including white, gold and silver reflectors, and attaches in seconds.

[eNZee]

Originally Posted by LeeR

If the ceilings are high, bouncing is not an option and, as you have seen for yourself, neither is available light unless you get a church with remarkable lighting. You also know that direct flash can leave some terribly harsh shadows. I have used a number of things to solve this problem. Years ago I actually had a small umbrella that fit on my flash. I have also shaped translucent plastic milk cartons to fit over my flash and have had pretty good success using bubble wrap to make a diffuser. But the most elegant solotion for me has been the system put out by Lumiquest.It's lightweight, fits in your bag and offers sevearl options including white, gold and silver reflectors, and attaches in seconds.

i forgot to mention before that i had a garyfong diffuser on my flash. still found to have an issue. maybe im expecting too much in poor settings???