Princess Party Shots - Tips?

[TravelBel]

My daughter and her cousins are going to a princess party this weekend. I own a Nikon D5000 and play around with the settings, but got a tad nervous after a trip to Disney this past week and one of the "professional" photographers there commented on my settings being bad when he was taking a photo of us with our camera.

So, I guess now I'm paranoid for this coming weekend's event - it's rare that all of the ladies in the family get together and I want to take some nice shots. It's indoors in a gymnasium and I have either a 50mm lens, 18-55mm, or the 70-200mm (I think it's that) lens. Any tips on actual settings?

Thanks!

[TBrown00]

Originally Posted by TravelBel

My daughter and her cousins are going to a princess party this weekend. I own a Nikon D5000 and play around with the settings, but got a tad nervous after a trip to Disney this past week and one of the "professional" photographers there commented on my settings being bad when he was taking a photo of us with our camera.

So, I guess now I'm paranoid for this coming weekend's event - it's rare that all of the ladies in the family get together and I want to take some nice shots. It's indoors in a gymnasium and I have either a 50mm lens, 18-55mm, or the 70-200mm (I think it's that) lens. Any tips on actual settings?

Thanks!

Indoors in a gym - go with the 50mm or the 70-200 f/2.8 if it's that one or you'll most likely have to really crank the ISO to undesirable levels. You'll also have to probably leave the 50mm pretty close to wide open and not go higher than f2.8, if even that high. Leave the 70-200 wide open. Gyms usually have pretty horrible lighting and suck to shoot in. Do you have an off camera flash?

[TravelBel]

No off camera flash...

[TBrown00]

Originally Posted by TravelBel

No off camera flash...

Too bad. That would really help. I saw that you have the 18-55 - I would avoid using this due to its smaller/variable aperture. Did the zoom lens (the one you said you think is 70-200) come with the camera and the 18-55 or was it purchased separately for about $2100? If it was $2100 then it's the 70-200. If it came with the camera its the 55-200 and I would avoid using it for the same reasons as the 18-55. If it's the 70-200 then I would use it.

[TravelBel]

You're right - it's the 55-200mm that came with the package. So, stick with the 50mm? Aperture wide and around f/2.8? I do appreciate the help and I completely get that it's trial and error sometimes, as well as adjusting according to the setting once we're there... but sometimes it's hard to know where to start! Thanks!

[TBrown00]

Originally Posted by TravelBel

You're right - it's the 55-200mm that came with the package. So, stick with the 50mm? Aperture wide and around f/2.8? I do appreciate the help and I completely get that it's trial and error sometimes, as well as adjusting according to the setting once we're there... but sometimes it's hard to know where to start! Thanks!

I'd stick with the 50 then. You'll have to see what the lighting is like once you get there, but in my experiences gym lighting is one of the worst types. Anywhere between 1.4/1.8 depending on which 50mm you have up to 2.8 should be fine. I'd try to start with ISO 400 or 800 at f/2.8 in Aperture priority and see what the camera gives you for a shutter speed. Then adjust your ISO/aperture from there depending on lighting or what you want for a depth of field. As long as your shutter speed is 1/60 or faster for the 50mm you should be fine.

If it's an event with stage lighting, then the kit lenses might work fine. Since they aren't that big I would take them with you, but not count on being able to get a fast enough shutter/low enough ISO if it's just the standard gym lighting.

[tiny]

I agree. Gyms have the one of the worst lightings. I once tried to shoot a basketball match using a D90 with the kit lens 18-105mm f-3.5-5.6. It was horrible. Even at ISO3200 the light was not enough. I had a flash with me. Test fired twice and I was forbidden to use flash. I wish I had the 50mm f/1.8 then.

TBrown, I am just curious why you are suggesting to use f/2.8. I would have used aperture priority mode and f/1.8. And adjust the ISO or shutter speed depending on the available light.

[TBrown00]

Originally Posted by tiny

I agree. Gyms have the one of the worst lightings. I once tried to shoot a basketball match using a D90 with the kit lens 18-105mm f-3.5-5.6. It was horrible. Even at ISO3200 the light was not enough. I had a flash with me. Test fired twice and I was forbidden to use flash. I wish I had the 50mm f/1.8 then.

TBrown, I am just curious why you are suggesting to use f/2.8. I would have used aperture priority mode and f/1.8. And adjust the ISO or shutter speed depending on the available light.

She may have to go to 1.8, but I suggested 2.8 just for a larger DOF. Since she said that her daughter and cousins are going, I assume that she is going to be taking some group shots and the DOF at 1.8 is too narrow for groups. 2.8 can also be too narrow for groups, but anything above that will probably be useless in a gym. Even 2.8 may be too small of an aperture depending on the lighting and how high of an ISO she wants to use, so she may have to go to 1.8 anyway.

[zona5101]

just curious...how did the pics come out from Disney...the ones taken at settings the "pro" said were wrong???


another vote for the 50, indoors without flash & you'll probably need to pump up your iso too.

[TravelBel]

Thanks for all of the suggestions! I'm going to write them down, then play tomorrow and I'll let you know how the pics turn out!

The Disney pics that I took were not bad --- My biggest complaint would be that sometimes with more then 1 face in a picture, only one came out in focus. Another would be that the background was often too fuzzy... should have used a larger aperature. Also, "action" shots didn't turn out too great, but that could be partially because I didn't have time to switch my camera over to any appropriate setting (even the built in action mode)... my kids ended up getting grabbed to be in a parade and it was so fast and I just had to go with whatever the camera was at.

On another note though, the pictures taken by the "pros" at Disney were hit or miss. Some of them were horrid --- out of focus (esp. at night), blurry, items that should have been in focus behind us (i.e. castle, status of Mickey and Walt Disney, etc.) weren't. I guess we're all learning!