HELP. taking photos for prom

[milesthng]

Hi i will be taking photos for my school Prom event and apparently i'm the only photog, and im relatively new to photog so i need some tips. =X
i currently have a sb-600 and a nikon d40
kit lens 18-55 but looking to buy a new lens soon.
i might be purchasing one of the demb flash diffusers with bounce cards, will that help? cause it'll probably be a dark hall with high ceilings.

how should i go about taking photos? please give tips

sorry i'm new to this

[NeTHaCk]

like i said in the previous prom thread,

why should you be the photographer ? its your school prom. YOUR prom night. you should enjoy it instead of worrying about the photographs.

sb-600 is good enough so is the kit lens

[adiknaim]

ur equipment is sufficient... wif the Demb, then ok liao...

if its ur prom, heck care la... enjoy.. its ur graduation lei... once in a lifetime... if want oso, just take for u n ur frens la.. no nd take other ppl...

[Abuddlah]

Did the chairman or whoever pay you? If he/she didn't then go on strike! Don't be stupid to waste your time helping them take. Cause it's your prom night. You can bring the camera and maybe some pictures for your own keeping. And gain some exposure.

Seriously, if the chairman didn't pay you then forget about it. I learnt my lesson, my prom is next week. My chairman asked me to be photographer. I know he has a huge capital and i only asked for like $50 for rental of lens, he asked me to pay by myself. I didn't even care about him after that.

SO MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE

[milesthng]

HAHA wait wait. relax. its not my prom. its for my graduating year 6's and year4's. im year 5(year1 of my IB year). so its not my prom. hahaha. hardly anyone i know is going anyway but i think its a good chance for me to learn how to work under these conditions.
i just don't like the pressure of being the only one. i'll most probably ask for another photog. hmmm. okay so sb 600 and flash diffuser. but if i bounce it theres nowhere to bounce it on. or wil it be sufficient?

[darrrrrrrrrr]

check out the diy demb flip-it under the "others" section. $10 worth of material.

with the demb or diy u'll want to flip it 45 deg forward to get maximum bounce off the card. no point wasting any light sending it upwards to the hall ceiling.

[Headshotzx]

I just got back yesterday night from my own graduation night dinner. I'm not from the photography club, and chose to take photos on my own. My other non-photography club friend also brought his camera, but he didn't want to take photos, so he lent me his camera and flash.

Anyway, I went with 30D + 85mm + 580EXII + (fake) Lightsphere and 400D + 17-40L + 580EXII + DIY acrylic bounce card. I found that for every stage photo I took, 90% of it was done with 85mm, and every group photo I took was using the 17-40L. So do expect to take more group photos unless you're right next to the stage

There was one junior photo club guy there too with a D40 kit without flash. He managed pretty well, if not for me koping most of the shots. Though I must ask one question for him: Halfway through the event, his images were disappearing without him deleting it. The unzoomed playback mode (to see all pictures) showed that some had a red X on them. Anyone know why?

Cheers,
Zexun

[NeTHaCk]

Zexun

chances are ... his memory card corrupted.. there is a possibility there...


to TS :

you might wanna follow what Zexun said, but since you're using nikon, the kit lens would suffice. be prepared to pump your iso to 800 for some shots though

i believe the kit lens should cover enough.. unless you wanna rent a wide angle lens heh....

[Daedalus Trent]

Originally Posted by Headshotzx There was one junior photo club guy there too with a D40 kit without flash. He managed pretty well, if not for me koping most of the shots. Though I must ask one question for him: Halfway through the event, his images were disappearing without him deleting it. The unzoomed playback mode (to see all pictures) showed that some had a red X on them. Anyone know why?

Could he have accidentally switched it to NEF (RAW) mode? You'll see those red X on them like you described since the D40 can't read them


to TS:
preferably i'd have a f2.8 lens and a better body, but hey! Work with what you have The SB-600 + bounce card should be powerful enough

[Fotophilic]

Originally Posted by milesthng Hi i will be taking photos for my school Prom event and apparently i'm the only photog, and im relatively new to photog so i need some tips. =X i currently have a sb-600 and a nikon d40 kit lens 18-55 but looking to buy a new lens soon. i might be purchasing one of the demb flash diffusers with bounce cards, will that help? cause it'll probably be a dark hall with high ceilings. how should i go about taking photos? please give tips sorry i'm new to this

what is ur shooting style? what focal lengths are u comfortable with? where will u be standing? from where are u taking the pictures? u need to think about all these things.

Ok, i ASSUME u are down there interacting with the participants and taking their pics at close distances and not sniping ppl from far.

ur setup is fine. IMHO, u don't even need to buy the diffusers. just cut a simple piece of white card and use rubber band and tie to the flash. WAHLA! BOUNCE CARD! tested and proven method (by me).

if u have the $, sigma 30 1.4 HSM is good. just make sure u get a gd copy. if u don't mind manual focus, voigtlander 58 1.4 is gd too.