Shoot to do in a pub
 

Hi,

On Wednesday I'm going to be taking some internal shots of a local pub before it closes its doors for 5 weeks for refurbishment.

My question to all is:

Do you have any suggestions as to what F/stop i should use?

To help with this I will be using:

Nikon D50
Nikon 18-55mm standard lens
Nikon SB-600 Flashgun

with Aperture priority setting.

My main reason for asking is because until lately I have mainly used full auto on the camera mainly the auto focus as my eyesight is terrible and when manually focusing what I think is good is actually badly out of focus.

If you need to ask me further questions about the set up then please do.

Cheers


Neil

I don't know if you're planning on using bounce flash or straight, on-camera flash, but if it's the latter I'd suggest P mode and let the camera work out the flash exposure. Autofocus is a good idea, provided it's not too dark for the D50's AF to lock on properly. If the lights are kept on, it should be fine. RL

Unless I miss my guess you're doing this for record purposes before they tear out 200-years of tobacco grime and beer soaked carpet.
You will probably be looking at long shots down the bar etc., in which case auto-focus could be more of a hinderence than a help. A small aperture is going to be your best bet to get the max. DoF, but there's only so much power in a SB-600 and if you're going to bounce it you will lose a coupe of stops in the process.
Depending on how high the ceiling is and what colour, bouncing is going to get you the best coverage. If the ceiling is too high or too dingey try pointing the flash vertically and bouncing off a white card at 45 degrees. Be aware that these places soak up flash like you wouldn't believe.
So, max power, small aperture, focus about 1/3 in and do all the fine tuning with your ISO setting. Take a couple of test shots and check out the histogram to determine ISO. Zoom into the image on your LCD to check for focus etc.

Gee going a bit far to make up an excuse to go out for a drink? :) We will not tell your wife!

Thanks for the responses guys pity they were all after the date I was doing the photo's on (it was Wednseday 15th Feb).

I actually found the built in flash worked better than the SB600 but it was a fairly low ceiling.


Oh and no wife to tell as I'm single haha