Princess Party Shots - Tips?

[TravelBel]

Reading more slowly, so the 2.8 may work, depending on the lighting in the gym for the group shots. We do have 12 girls/women from my family going, so I'm going to pretty much guarantee that we'll be doing some large group shots. If the lighting is bad, I can shoot in RAW and then just "brighten" in PS, right? Go with the f/2.8 for a larger DOF and pray for the best? I'm guessing with the 50mm lens, someone will have to stand on the opposite side of the gym practically!

[megkunert]

I would experiment with different apertures (in aperture priority, obviously) and see what gets you your best result without a slow shutter speed. If the pics are still too dark, try using a higher ISO. I have a D5000 as well and I've seen decent pics (although the noise *can* be a problem) at 1600 and 3200 ISO. If you're shooting a group of 12 people, you may not get everyone in focus at 2.8. You would have to use a smaller aperture, but then you'd have to bump up your ISO as well... or resort to a flash. :/

If you shoot in RAW mode, you can experiment with correcting the light, but it wouldn't bring as results as if you had proper lighting. I would adjust the exposure and fill light - just play around with the different settings, and see where that gets you. So many times I have over-exposed or under-exposed a photo and have been able to "save" the photo by editing with the RAW editor. Good luck.

[TBrown00]

Originally Posted by TravelBel

Reading more slowly, so the 2.8 may work, depending on the lighting in the gym for the group shots. We do have 12 girls/women from my family going, so I'm going to pretty much guarantee that we'll be doing some large group shots. If the lighting is bad, I can shoot in RAW and then just "brighten" in PS, right? Go with the f/2.8 for a larger DOF and pray for the best? I'm guessing with the 50mm lens, someone will have to stand on the opposite side of the gym practically!

If you brighten the photo in post there will be a large increase in noise - especially in the shadow areas. You would be better off using a higher ISO than using a lower one and increasing exposure/fill light later.

Do you have a tripod? If you have subjects who can stay still you could use a slower shutter speed on a tripod for the group shots to increase the exposure.

[kristenh]

Bel, you say that the disney folks made you feel insecure, but how secure do you feel yourself? obviously, they weren't really pros or they would have at the very least gotten consistent shots. so i'd ignore them. but do think about how confident you feel- there is no requirement in life to shoot in manual mode. i went to a similar event just a couple months after i got my camera (same one you have) and i too was messing around trying to figure out good settings and so forth (in a dark restaurant with some relatives i hadn't seen in 25 years). and my brother, a more experienced photographer than i, said- just put it on manual mode and use the on camera flash if you must. and i'm glad i did- it is more important that i got good photos of my family than that i did it perfectly according to the experts. in that setting, i wouldn't have gotten anything good even with my fast lens and high iso. just mho.

[Happy_Mummy]

Something no one has mentioned is your white balance which i'm assuming you have already thought of, but just thought I would bring it up as a reminder. Chances are the gym will be florescent lights, so set your wb accordingly.

As for the lens, I'm too new to comment! That said, I have heard that prime lenses work much better in low light and where possible as little post processing as possible is typically best. That said, if you think you may post process definitely shoot raw. You may find shooting raw and jpg would be best That way you don't end up with a hundred photos to post process... If there is a great shot you could keep that one as raw and delete the rest...

[TravelBel]

I've been wanting to follow up to my original question and post some pictures.

So, I at first started with the 50mm lens on and was quickly frazzled (ugh)....

Here's my first shot - the 50mm really brightened up the photo, but I was not happy with the lack of focus:

f/1.8
ISO - 720

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But, yet this pictures focused nice on great grandma, mostly by accident:

f/1.8
ISO - 800



And, this one wasn't too bad of grandma and granddaughter....but granddaughters head is out of focus.

f/1.8
ISO - 400



So, I got frustrated and put the kit lens back on, threw the camera into auto mode, and snapped away.... ugh.

Any thoughts? I wish we had some good classes around here in the Michigan area, but I can't seem to find any!

[SusanH1970]

In the first one, the focus fell on the pink paper plate and the glass next to it. Bummer, would have been a cute shot if you'd focused on the girls.

[JFSanders]

Yep, you got frazzled and forgot to set your f/stop to 2.8. Secondly, you don't have your shutter speed posted, but it looks like you could have gone to 3.5 and still had enough light for good exposure. It happens and the only cure is to practice. If the light is marginal your auto focus will have a hard time and the brightest spot in the photograph will get the focus every time.

Put the 50 back on and leave the kit lens home for at least a month of making photographs. When you only have one option in lenses it makes you stretch mentally and think about what your doing. Cartier-Bresson used the 50 almost exclusively. You are showing potential don't stop even when it gets frustrating.