Indoor Party Photography

[markmullen]

I've been asked to photograph a birthday party for a terminally ill teenager, as a freebie, which I'm fine with.

My usual photography is landscapes but I foresee that 5 seconds at f13 with some ND grads is not going to fit the bill here

In the past when I've shot indoors (family parties etc) I've gone with bounced flash and started at ISO800, 1/60th at F4 as a starting point and worked from there up or down as required.

I've got a 1Ds mkii, 17-40 F4, 24-105 F4 IS, 70-200 F4 IS and a 50mm 1.8 (which I want an excuse to upgrade to a 50mm 1.4) plus another 1D mkii body and a pair of flashes, a Canon 430exii and a Sunpak PF30x.

Any thoughts or tips? I'll be shooting in raw and will take a custom WB in the venue, then processing in Capture One Pro which has some cool things like skin tone WB adjustment.

[007singh]

Most indoor parties I have shot have been in the evening or in darker venues. For the most part I shoot the following settings:

Canon 7D, RAW, 580 EXii (insert lens here).

Slow/candids : f4/f5, ISO 400/800, ceiling bounce flash forwards (45' with the inbuilt diffuser), 1/100 - 1/150sec
Dancing chots / freeze movement : f5, ISO 400/800, ceiling bounce as above, 1/200 sec
Moody / Natural Shots : f4, ISO 1600, reverse ceiling bounce (backwards over my head), 1/60 - 1/100 sec

Just depends on what you are looking for really.

Hope that helps.

[markmullen]

Cool, thanks.

I have a Colorchecker Passport coming tomorrow so I can sort out WB (the restaurant has dark red walls which I thought could cause issues when bouncing flash) and I'm going to take some test shots there next week.

I was practicing under differing lighting conditions last night at home and have got it pretty much sorted I think.

It's a genre of photography I've not explored so am looking forward to getting in there and giving it a try.

[clived]

My advice would be to go for a slightly deeper depth of field than is being suggested above. You may well find yourself closer to the subjects than you're used to, which narrows the depth of field. Learnt the hard way at my first couple of party / event gigs!

[markmullen]

clived said:

My advice would be to go for a slightly deeper depth of field than is being suggested above. You may well find yourself closer to the subjects than you're used to, which narrows the depth of field. Learnt the hard way at my first couple of party / event gigs!

Thanks.

My subjects are usually hundreds of yards away!

[Simpo Two]

My standard setting is f3.5 and ISO320-400, bounce flash with fill card, balanced fill-flash mode (Nikon) which gives me 1/60th and the flash freezes movement. Monitor results (focus/histgram) and use EV to taste. Main thing is anticipating and framing the shot, using the right focus point - then speed of reaction to catch gestures, expressions etc.

[rhinochopig]

Just a thought Mark, but would some video be more appropriate? If it was my child, some pictures would be great, but I think I'd rather some video capturing them laughing / having fun as a memento?

Do your bodies do video?