Company Party

[dpgiffin]

Hey all.

My family business has its annual holiday party after the new year (makes it easier for everyone). I'm planning on taking my Canon 60D with me. I have a 18-200 3.5-5.6 IS lens that I was planning on using. I do not have anything faster than that right now.

Any tips on how to shoot this type of candid / action shots? It will be dark with bad lighting and people moving a lot. Should i bump up my ISO to 3200 since I can't get my aperture larger than 3.5? Or should i suck up and buy the Sigma 17-50 2.8 lens i've been wanting to buy??

Thanks!

[zona5101]

Silly question. New equipment is always the correct answer

But if the light is all that bad and people moving etc f2.8 might not be fast enough either. But not to fret, the solution to that is...more new gear

Using you existing lens you probably will need to max out the iso... but rather than a new lens, why not an external flash???

[SusanH1970]

Agreed with Bruce, a flash will help you more than a faster lens, if you can swing one. If you choose to buy one, read up on bouncing flash.

[dpgiffin]

I have a speedlite 430EX that a friend of mine gave me last year for my birthday. I never really took the time to learn it though. I've been focusing on other areas of my photography. I'm not sure how much i really want to use hte flash though. I dont want people to be to uncomfortable, and i'm hoping to get more of the candid shots.

[dlambert]

The 50mm F/1.8 is one of the best bargains you'll find for a lens of this speed. It's not as versatile as a zoom in candid settings, but you can't beat the value. Using a bounce flash will let you use your zoom lens, and gives you quite a bit of control over lighting, but again, you're going to lose a little bit of that "candid" feel when you start popping a flash - especially a bigger one.

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by dlambert

The 50mm F/1.8 is one of the best bargains you'll find for a lens of this speed. It's not as versatile as a zoom in candid settings, but you can't beat the value. Using a bounce flash will let you use your zoom lens, and gives you quite a bit of control over lighting, but again, you're going to lose a little bit of that "candid" feel when you start popping a flash - especially a bigger one.

The 50mm f/1.8 is great for low light, but don't forget also that you'll also get a very shallow DOF wide open, so it's not great for group shots unless the people are all on the same plane.

[dlambert]

Good point. Here's a shot with this lens stopped down to f/2.8, and the DOF is still very shallow.

PP - red-eye fix

(link to another thread here on DPS)

[dpgiffin]

I've looked at the 50mm /1.8. Looks like a great deal on a lens. Is there any difference between that lens at f/4 and my lens at 50mm f4?

[dlambert]

Any prime lens is optically simpler than a zoom at the equivalent focal length, so they tend to be sharper and exhibit less distortion, vignetting, etc. (including when they're stopped down).

If this link works for you, it's a test at DPReview comparing the 18-200 to the 50 f/1.8:

dpreview.com - Lens Review - Fullscreen

According to that test, the 50mm f/1.8 is sharper than the 18-200 at f/4.5 (I couldn't get their graph to show me a value at f/4.0) with no CA. I'm honestly not sure whether the differences shown in this test are going to be apparent to you when you're using the lens, but I've been very happy with the sharpness of the 50. As you can see in my photo, the bokeh it produces isn't quite as smooth as Canon's more expensive lenses, including the 50mm f/1.4, but I can live with it for $100!

[dpgiffin]

Originally Posted by dlambert

Any prime lens is optically simpler than a zoom at the equivalent focal length, so they tend to be sharper and exhibit less distortion, vignetting, etc. (including when they're stopped down).

If this link works for you, it's a test at DPReview comparing the 18-200 to the 50 f/1.8:

dpreview.com - Lens Review - Fullscreen

According to that test, the 50mm f/1.8 is sharper than the 18-200 at f/4.5 (I couldn't get their graph to show me a value at f/4.0) with no CA. I'm honestly not sure whether the differences shown in this test are going to be apparent to you when you're using the lens, but I've been very happy with the sharpness of the 50. As you can see in my photo, the bokeh it produces isn't quite as smooth as Canon's more expensive lenses, including the 50mm f/1.4, but I can live with it for $100!

Wow! What a great resource! Thank you.

I've been trying to learn the speedlite this week. I'll try it out there. Anyone have any techniques that can help me be a little conspicuous with it??

But most likely I guess i'll just be upping my ISO to 2400--3200....

Thanks for your responses gu