crying at the disco-tec.

[charliesux]

im about to take photos for a friend at his club/pub and of course its low light i have a canon 450D(xsi) with 18-55 kit lens a 55-250mm (which im pretty sure is irrealvant?)and a 50mm lens.its just to catch some punters hugging and having fun to put on the big screen and instead of my mate using his shoddy little behind the bar snapper he asked if i would do it.im just so un sure and would love any advice.on camera flash?or no flash?manual?thankyou

[i speak in math]

Depends on the location/lighting conditions and so forth. If its reasonably bright, you can get away with using the fast 50mm with no flash (assuming your camera can hit 1600 ISO or so without any issues). If there is bad lighting, and a low white ceiling or something, bouncing a flash might be a good option. The 18-55 and 55-200 are likely useless here unless you are bouncing the flash because of their slow apertures. But then, you won't get any ambient light in the shot

[charliesux]

Originally Posted by i speak in math

Depends on the location/lighting conditions and so forth. If its reasonably bright, you can get away with using the fast 50mm with no flash (assuming your camera can hit 1600 ISO or so without any issues). If there is bad lighting, and a low white ceiling or something, bouncing a flash might be a good option. The 18-55 and 55-200 are likely useless here unless you are bouncing the flash because of their slow apertures. But then, you won't get any ambient light in the shot

thankyou so much.it is rather low light with faulted ceilings and i only have the in built flash,will that do?and should i have it at f/1.8? with iso1600.sorry to bug but im trying not to look to foolish when i go there!thanks for you feed back.

[i speak in math]

unless you can bounce the pop up, I wouldn't use it.

If you can do f/1.8, give it a try. The depth of field will be very shallow. Again, if you can do ISO 1600, give it a try. You might not need to go that far.

[charliesux]

Thanx again.very helpful.

[FocalFrenzy]

I have the same camera, and I take alot of shots in the bars for Motorcycle Charities (Poker Runs). I mostly use my 50mm lens set to F5.6 @ ISO 400-800 depending on how much light is available. I've found that my shots look better if I diffuse the onboard flash with something. I cut a small piece of clear white plastic milk jug to fit under the pop-up flash. It diffuses the light (making the shadows less harsh), and also helps to eliminate "Red-Eye". Just remember, almost any shot of a person who is really drunk, will have Red-Eye. The pupils in their eyes won't adjust fast enough to the "Red-Eye reduction pre-flash, to prevent Red-Eye. These shots will have to be fixed in post. I have also used a white business card, set in front of the flash, to bounce the light off of the ceiling when possible.
I have 2 different "Off-Camera" flashes, but rarely like to take them into a bar/club. Unless I need to stop action (such as shots of dancers, etc.), I prefer to use the lightest gear possible. I hope this helps, and look forward to seeing the shots you get.

P.S.
Don't forget to set your White balance to "Flash". If you shoot in RAW, you can always adjust your white balance later. Good luck.

[charliesux]

thanx for the tip aswell focal frenzy have not been on for awhile,i will post pics soon.

[vsa]

That camera can't really handle ISO 1600 so better stay with 800. Shoot wide open at 1.8.
Diffusing the on camera flash is a must. You can even try a napkin.
And use 2nd curtain flash. This will allow you to get some ambient light in and then freeze the subject in the foreground.

[charliesux]

thanks for the info i am now borrowing a friends flash,(Canon Speedlite 430 EX II)he says to point it at the ceiling with a some paper rubber banded to it (pretty much making none of the flash to go foward)is this right?

[Swisstony10]

I do much the same on occasion with a speedlight, but I have a couple of different ways of doing it, depending on what I want.

I carry two sheets of stiff neoprene (cost hardly anything from an art/craft shop) - one is white, one is black. If I want all of my flash to be bounced, with nothing direct, then I point the flash at my bounce surface, and have the black neoprene banded on the subject-side of the flash, so there's no direct light on them.

If I do want a little bit of fill onto the subject, I use the white neoprene sheet wrapped around either the back or the front of the flash - if I wrap it around the back of the flash, it reflects a little light onto the subject, and if I wrap it around the front, it lets diffused light spill instead. The diffused version is more subtle than the reflected version, so as with anything, it depends what effect I want to achieve.

A sheet of paper is unlikely to block out the flash - it's much more common for people to use paper held on the back of the flash to reflect some light forwards to act as fill alongside the bounced light. I don't know about the 430EX, but the 580 has a little card which slides out (although it's not as effective as a big piece of paper, other than close-up).