Shooting for birthday in a pub

[kennmail]

Hi there, I own a prosumer cam and planning to to shooting some unposed candid shots during a friend's birthday at a pub soon. hope to get some advice from bros here on the cam setting.

1. I was thinking to shoot in Aperture priority f/5.6 but bcos I suffer from shaky hand problems...will it b better to shoot in shutter priority or manual mode instead? If shutter or manual mode is better, can suggest appropriate settings for the mode also?

2. this are my other settings, pls advise :
-auto WB
-Continuous AF focusing
-Center AF mode
-ISO 400
-(-2/3) flash

thanks to everyone for their advise :sweat:

 

[Rashkae]

If you already manually set it at ISO 400 and you then set it to the largest aperture, you'll get the fastest shutter speed possible with those settings.

 

[labla]

Since it's candin i am not sure about flash wise but i guess with flash it will look better esp when light is low. but try to blow up apperture so that you won't have such a long shutter speed.

 

[Astin]

Tell us what camera model that u will be using so we can advise u correctly....

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

yup, agree to astin...

bump the iso to the highest you would want (not the highest of the camera), you still wan less noisy pics.
open your aperture as wide as possible.
use rear sync flash. having lens vibration reduction or on sensor is a bonus.

 

[calebk]

There is no one set of fixed settings. It's the same logic as "give a man a fish and he survives for a day, teach a man how to fish and he survives for a lifetime." (Until there are no more fish.)

The importance is in learning how to set your settings to fit the application, and knowing how different settings affect the final output.

Generally, you'd want your aperture as large a diameter as possible. If your lens can open all the way up to f/2.8, then do that. f/5.6, in contrast, is a much smaller diameter aperture, and you'll be letting in less light. That means

i) your shutter speed has to slow down
ii) you let in less ambient light when shooting with flash

What ii) means is that when you shoot with a flash, you will be getting well-lit subjects, but a very dark background. To counter this, bring up your ISO as high as you dare to, before the noise becomes unbearable.

As for white balance, usually tungsten (lightbulb logo) works best, but try out your presets (or if possible, and you know how to, take a custom white balance).

 

[jnet6]

Best to use a flash and most of your "problems" will be solved.
With P-mode and +ev most cameras are able to capture decent images.
WB not to be worry as mix lighting will be in the pub, use either flash WB or auto if u can trust the camera auto WB.

 

[kennmail]

appreciate all ur advice, i will blow up my aperture to f/2.8... ISO 400 is probably the best I can use w/o too much noise. I will use e anti-shake function and slow sync flash as well

 

[ZerocoolAstra]

if your camera allows F2.8, why did you initially mention that you would like to shoot at aperture-priority F5.6 setting?
With ISO 400, rear curtain (not slow sync) flash, f2.8, and image stabilisation, it should be quite all right for indoor.
Usually candid shots at birthday parties are for momento only, and not to be framed up or anything, so even with a bit more noise in the picture, sometimes it's better than getting a blurry picture. Can try higher ISO if the above settings still not enough.

 

[kennmail]

if your camera allows F2.8, why did you initially mention that you would like to shoot at aperture-priority F5.6 setting?
With ISO 400, rear curtain (not slow sync) flash, f2.8, and image stabilisation, it should be quite all right for indoor.
Usually candid shots at birthday parties are for momento only, and not to be framed up or anything, so even with a bit more noise in the picture, sometimes it's better than getting a blurry picture. Can try higher ISO if the above settings still not enough.

well, I did a read up on previous "pub" threads and someone suggested using f/5.6 so tt gave me e idea. thanks for all the corrections, at least I feel more assured now

 

[xiong]

i think the advice is to shoot at f5.6 for groups for greater depth of field, your flash will probably freeze the foregroud, slower the shutter for ambient light so you won't get black backgroud

 

[electrobeat]

Why not just set to P mode and enjoy the time with your friends ?:dunno:

 

[Drumy]

i'm going to shoot at at friend's birthday as well and I'm intending to only go with a 50mm f1.8, light and easy coz i want to enjoy my time as well. What do you think about it?

 

[kennmail]

Why not just set to P mode and enjoy the time with your friends ?:dunno:

hehe, I planning to go enjoy myself but still hoping get some decent pics...the last time I attended a similar function, someone else was the photographer who totally used Auto mode.
In the end, the pics kind of disappoint everyone... guess other den the fun times, ppl hope for good photos to retain the good memories

 

[gymak90]

Well since you're using a prosumer, am I right to say that the lens does not have a fixed aperture? Meaning you certainly can't stay at f/2.8 once you decide to zoom.

My idea of your pub will be quite dark and I guess even at f/2.8 won't do the job. Besides, you should expect lots of movement from your friends. So even if your shutter speed is fast enough to overcome your handshake, it may not be fast enough to freeze motion, result is you getting motion blur from your subjects.

I recommend using flash, but it can be disturbing to other people in the pub. Best scenario is that you guys have a room to yourselves. Fill flash will be good. If it the flash turns out to be too harsh, then try bouncing the flash. That can be done simply using an opaque or translucent card.
Otherwise, you've got to bump up ISO, get noisy pictures at the expense of details. Prosumer cams usually don't handle high ISO well.

 

[kennmail]

Well since you're using a prosumer, am I right to say that the lens does not have a fixed aperture? Meaning you certainly can't stay at f/2.8 once you decide to zoom.

My idea of your pub will be quite dark and I guess even at f/2.8 won't do the job. Besides, you should expect lots of movement from your friends. So even if your shutter speed is fast enough to overcome your handshake, it may not be fast enough to freeze motion, result is you getting motion blur from your subjects.

I recommend using flash, but it can be disturbing to other people in the pub. Best scenario is that you guys have a room to yourselves. Fill flash will be good. If it the flash turns out to be too harsh, then try bouncing the flash. That can be done simply using an opaque or translucent card.
Otherwise, you've got to bump up ISO, get noisy pictures at the expense of details. Prosumer cams usually don't handle high ISO well.

yup, u r right. I had a few tots about this. Was thinking try my best nt to zoom:bigeyes: when possible ..den crop the pics later. For crowd movements wise, hope to capture moments while people gather together to chat.. I set my cam's flash intensity to -2/3 which is alrd the lowest.. and for ISO, think 400 is the highest I can go w/o too much noise affecting the pics :dunno:

 

[peapilot]

Shoot on manual. Bump to highest iso you find acceptable and open up to largest aperture.
Set your shutter speed such that the ambient's maybe 1 stop underexposed and let your flash freeze your subject. With this technique I find myself able to shoot at ISO100, 1/30 - 1/15 at f2.5 (using point and shoot) and still get good clean shots in some pretty dim situations. The trick is to strike a balance between letting your background burn in a little so you can still make out the surroundings and allowing the flash + a high enough shutter speed to freeze the subject.

 

[peapilot]

Also if you're using flash you can set to daylight/flash wb to match your flash, or shoot on cloudy/shade to get a warmer look. If I'm not wrong most cameras when set to auto will default to daylight wb when the flash is used, but personally I prefer the look of "cloudy" wb with flash.