Lighting and Lens combo

[insomniak media]

This might fall under another thread, so sorry if this is the wrong place to post this. I have 2 friends that use fast aperture lenses and camera mounted flash for indoor situations. The photos look great and the ambient lighting is well lit. I know larger apertures bring in more ambient light, however I normally use a 2.8f lens in most situations. I've been considering getting rid of my 50mm 1.8 for a canon 50mm 1.4 or a sigma version (i've been told sigma has auto focus issues.) Will it be "easier" to take these kind of photos "http://www.flickr.com/photos/papapaya/5213442199/in/photostream" with a 50 1.4?

PS. Can't afford a 1.2 or I would

[zona5101]

The effect you are going for is not related to the aperture...it is related to the shutter speed. In the most general terms, aperture will control the effect of the flash, shutter the ambient. In the shot you linked the shooter "dragged the shutter" - meaning they used a shutter speed below their flash sync speed that allowed more of the ambient light to be captured. It was slow enough that people in motion were captured with blur.

here is a nice piece on the technique:
http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-pho...g-the-shutter/

[SGToliver]

exactly. Add some off camera flash and speed up that shutter speed and you will be able to snap some better shots.

[insomniak media]

Thanks for the tips.

But I think the picture I supplied might be a little misleading. I know about dragging shutter, but maybe I don't know how to use it effectively. I know about lowing shutter speed and allowing more ambient lighting, but what I'm asking is [and I think I figured this out myself thanks to your comments zona5101] will a lower aperture allow me to shoot to achieve good still images with no blur unlike the one I used as a example, yet still allow plenty of ambient lighting in to reduce the brightness of the flash when used correctly?

[insomniak media]

I don't know how to edit my post, so forgive me for double posting. but that guide you showed me zona, has a photo that is telling me sort of what I'm looking for.

http://neilvn.com/tangents/images/li...Aaron-1185.jpg

at 1/200th the ambient lighting is great. I am assuming the flash is just a direct flash but at a very low output setting. This image is what I am more ideally going for.