Thread: Advice needed
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Old 14-02-12, 02:14 PM
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amk1977 amk1977 is offline
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Hi Jim,

For the party (assuming that's relatively well lit) I'd keep my ISO as low as possible and use bounce flash for pleasing light on your subjects.

When it comes to the disco, I'd suggest you raise your ISO up considerably. Take some test shots and see how the level of noise is at 1000, 1200, 1600 ISO, etc. Keep going until you hit the ceiling for acceptable noise. This will significantly improve your shutter speed, which should help to eliminate motion blur. Having said that, you could make blur a feature of some photos by using a rear curtain sync.

Wide aperture glass will also be a bonus. If you have a Canon 50mm f/1.8 MKII, or faster, that would be my weapon of choice. If the Sigma f/2.8 is the widest aperture lens you have, then go with that. You'll just have to be a bit sneakier getting the candid shots at close range. I'd also try and stop the lens down as much as I could too, as shooting wide open is going to give you a shallow DOF, perhaps too shallow in some cases making focus that more critical but, at least you have the option of going to f/2.8 if required.

I'd probably shoot in manual mode too, as the camera's meter is likely to be thrown off by constantly changing disco lights. Take a few test shots until you're happy with the exposures. Then just leave the settings the same, as it should remain constant thereafter. Continuous focus mode will probably be a good idea too as people will be dancing around.

If you have a ring flash adapter, like a rayflash or similiar, those can be pretty effective. They give a nice wrapped around to your subject, whilst leaving the background relatively unaffected.

Finally, If you don't already, shoot in RAW for the added benefits of shadow and highlight recovery in post processing.

Good luck!
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