Shootout in Ballroom


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gavintan

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Aug 18, 2007
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Hey guys...i gonna hav a shootout in the ballroom this evening...i've got 580exII flash with my 400d with my 70-200mm F4...Can ani of u guys here give me some tips on the shootout most of them are candid photographs? i'm planning to use manual mode with iso 800 or 1600...wat other stuffs shld i set for my manual mode to hav nice pics being taken?:cool:
 

hmmm i think 70 is too long? should use shorter range like 17-40 or 24-70
 

See if you can get a faster lens. Perhaps...50mmf1.8.
 

How big is the ballroom? bring extra lens (shorter) just in case you find 70-200 too long for the event.
 

how was the shoot??

i'm gonna upload the pics soon...pls give me some comments good or bad comments are all accepted...i found that the 70-200mm was too long....:D...50mm F1.8 gave me the best quality..and my 17-40 are good for group shots....
 

i'm gonna upload the pics soon...pls give me some comments good or bad comments are all accepted...i found that the 70-200mm was too long....:D...50mm F1.8 gave me the best quality..and my 17-40 are good for group shots....
good, will do that.
 

some general comments.. WB could be better, the skin tone in some of the pics look odd, as in some too bluish or reddish..

but great moments captured nonetheless..
 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14961629@N02/sets/72157602398814050/

The photos are up in my flickr.....hehe...give some comments uploaded about 29 pics....

Your manual exposure could have been tweaked another way, rather than sticking to 1/100 @f4, I'd suggest at least f5.6 to f8 for more DOF, and the shutter could have been decent at even 1/60. Also try some post sharpening in PS. Most of the images looks like they could do with a lil sharpening...

White balance as mentioned was pretty off, why did you still stick to the same custom white balance throughout when the lighting was not the same in the whole ballroom??

Cheers,
 

Your manual exposure could have been tweaked another way, rather than sticking to 1/100 @f4, I'd suggest at least f5.6 to f8 for more DOF, and the shutter could have been decent at even 1/60. Also try some post sharpening in PS. Most of the images looks like they could do with a lil sharpening...

White balance as mentioned was pretty off, why did you still stick to the same custom white balance throughout when the lighting was not the same in the whole ballroom??

Cheers,

Sorry still a newbie in photography and this is my 1st outdoor shootout..thx so much for the tips guys....So u meant that i should stick with white balance to auto mode instead of using white fluorescent WB in this case? u guys can recommend any stuffs to improve my exposure shootout? And is manual exposure an important part of photography?
 

Sorry still a newbie in photography and this is my 1st outdoor shootout..thx so much for the tips guys....So u meant that i should stick with white balance to auto mode instead of using white fluorescent WB in this case? u guys can recommend any stuffs to improve my exposure shootout? And is manual exposure an important part of photography?

It depends on the camera itself, some have very excellent Auto White Balance, and others you'd do well to check it each time you change scenes. For your case, you might have done better with Tungsten or Incandescent instead. Just a hunch...

As for exposure, if you're using flash, the flash should be auto controlled these days. Shooting in A mode (Av mode for Canon users) would be sufficient as you need only worry about one variable, the aperture to get sufficient DOF.
 

It depends on the camera itself, some have very excellent Auto White Balance, and others you'd do well to check it each time you change scenes. For your case, you might have done better with Tungsten or Incandescent instead. Just a hunch...

As for exposure, if you're using flash, the flash should be auto controlled these days. Shooting in A mode (Av mode for Canon users) would be sufficient as you need only worry about one variable, the aperture to get sufficient DOF.

Thx for the tips....:)
 

1561424905_b2e82d368e.jpg

underexposed and ur White balance seems too "cool"

dont seem like you're using flash right? :D
 

hi Gavin... some great shots you have. Just tot of some areas to try out the next time you shoot:

White balance:
You can try using auto-white balance for shooting, but review the pic after each shot. If the shot is off and auto-white balance does not work, then go into manual mode. In most ballroom settings, it has very warm lighting, so if you are not using flash, you can set the white balance anywhere from 2800-3700K, depending on the situation. Got to experiment with it to see how it turns out.

Flash photography:
I would mostly use flash in such a setting because of the lighting. You can go to www.abetterbouncecard.com to make that better bounce card and also learn how to use flash. I recently tried the instructions from this web site and made a bounce card, and it gives pretty even lighting on the faces of the subjects. When you use flash, the lighting from the flash would change the white balance as well, so try auto white balance first and see the situation. Also, note the distance your flash can throw the light, so adjust yourself by taking some test shots with a subject to estimate what would be an optimal distance.

Lens:
If you use flash photography, a normal lens (i.e. not fast lenses) are sufficient for taking the shots. 70-200 would be too much normally, so if you have a 17-55 lens would be a good range.

Different subjects with different skin tones:
I have recently realized that the white balance setting to take an indian with a darker skin tone would be slightly different from a chinese with a lighter skin tone. So this is something I am learning at this time when I take shots.

Post processing:
After taking the shots, it is important to do some post processing. There are free programs like GIMP or Picasa2 which can do quite a good job.

Cheers and happy shooting!
 

not too bad la ur pictures... make full use of all ur equipement and ur new hobby!! cb dont waste all that moneyu spent.. more events coming up so guess u can pratice more.. :)
 

17 - 55 mm lense is good enough .. and get the best canon external flash .. correct me if im wrong ... canon wont be so grainy so its okay to put high iso i guess ( sorry nikon user here ) unless your speedlight can compensate with the iso like sb 800 for nikon ... correct me if im wrong ..
 

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