party photogrpahy

Hi,

Next weekend I'm asked to do a shoot on a party. Not the average birthday party. It will be more like a lokal club party.

Do some of you have some usefull hints to get things right?

Thanks,

Wouter.

First suggestion:
Have fun.
Second suggestion:
Make your photographs fun.
Do that by using longer shutter speeds and rear curtain synch with that SB 600.
Third suggestion:
Refer to the first.
Good luck!
Brian

Learn to use a bounce flash with your camera.

Jim B.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wouterdhoye

Hi,

Next weekend I'm asked to do a shoot on a party. Not the average birthday party. It will be more like a lokal club party.

Do some of you have some usefull hints to get things right?

Thanks,

Wouter.

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By "local club party" I guess you mean people dancing? This is one of my favourite subjects! Of course I like to dance too which helps, and that is the secret. I'm right in there in the middle of it. In your case I would use the D50 with the lens set to about 24mm and the SB600 set head-on, camera set to 400 ISO. I hunt about for interesting people or groups and when I see something that pleases me I move to normal person-to-person distance (between 4 and 6 feet) and go "Hi Hey" or something so they all look at me and go Wow and that's when I take the picture.

If it's dark - as it usually is in clubs - the camera is going to start using the infra-red beam on the flash and hunting for focus, which means it won't fire immediately. In these cases I turn off the autofocus and preset the lens focus to 5 feet, use aperture priority f11 and just shoot. Usually the TTL flash gets the exposure about right. Shoot a lot..

Charles

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mtbbrian

Second suggestion:
Make your photographs fun.
Do that by using longer shutter speeds and rear curtain synch with that SB 600.

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What is rear curtain synch? How do you use it, and what does it do?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by steelerdirtfreak

What is rear curtain synch? How do you use it, and what does it do?

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Rear curtain sync is letting the flash go of just before closing the shutter. Instead of the ususal first curtain sync where the flash is triggered right after opening the shutter. Refer to your camera and flash manuals on how to use it. It's most used to caputure motion using long exposures. The motion gives a slight blur during the exposure but by flashing at the end you still freeze your subject well enough. When properly used it can give quite stunning results. It's used a lot for shooting cars in motion at night. The lights of the car give sreaks that show the motion. The flash lights up and freezes the car.

Wouter.

P.S. Thanks for the replies!