Sloaner Loc: Dayton Ohio

I have been selected to take pictures at my family reunion in July. It will be inside of a fairly well lit room so I don't want to use a flash. I have taken some shots in low light using a 35mm 1.8 lens on my D5100 which came out good with very little post processing. Because I'll be shooting families, probably above the waist, I'll need to back up to get the group. I'm planning on getting a 50mm 1.4 and shooting without a flash with a wide aperature. Does this seem like a reasonable approach?

Advice on the best way to take these pictures will be appreciated. I know if I screw this up I'll be in deep trouble.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Just because the room is bright doesn't mean the quality of light is good.
I would bring a flash.
Use it with a modifier like a Light-Scoop or Lumiquest or bounced if the ceiling and or walls aren't sky high.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

I would use a flash with bounce capability and go for a 24-105 zoom. Sigma makes a f4 art lens that gets very good reviews.

ken_stern Loc: Yorba Linda, Ca

I shoot Canon so I'm not familiar with Nikon but assume their lens lineup is similar if not more extensive -- I would go after an 85mm 1.7/1.8 assuming that the price 50mm vs 85mm would be about the same -- so you then could use the 35mm for your group shots & the 85mm for individuals --- I would also take the flash
Having 2nd thoughts --- As I said I know nothing re Nikon --- My "assumption" is that your camera is a full frame if it is then I stick with my 85mm suggestion -- But if it is not then your idea of using the 50mm is a good idea and or the suggested 24-105 zoom

orrie smith Loc: Kansas

have you considered a zoom lens so you will not need to change lenses. the 24/85 or 24/120 would both fill your need for close ups and a little further out.

Shoot Happens

The 50mm f1.4 is a great lens. The problem I see is that at f1.4 you will have such a narrow depth of field that people in one row will be in focus while people in other rows will not. You are best to shoot at f8 or maybe f5.6 if you can get away with it. You will need to boost up your ISO to get decent hand held images and I am not that familiar with how well higher ISO images are on the D5500 but my guess is that anything up to 400 will be fine while up to 800 would be OK for facebook, but again, I am not familiar with the ISO quality on the D5500. Maybe someone else can answer that for you.

You don't say how big a group you will be taking. but that will make a difference as to how far away you will need to be and if a flash will even work. Do you have an off camera flash or just the one with the camera? The camera flash is only good for about 12 feet or so which will make it fairly useless with a larger group shot and the light will need to be defused so you will not get that inevitable hot spot in your image thus making 12 feet likely too far away.

Although I have many diffusers for my flashes, I have had great success with Gary Fong's Lightsphere collapsible speed mount for off camera flashes and some success with his Puffer diffusers for an on camera flash.

Good luck with your project.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

If you will need to back up you may want to consider a 24mm f/1.8 lens. The wider 24mm would eliminate the need to back up, or at least reduce the distance you need to back up.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Fast lenses at maximum apertures are seldom sharp and problem free from corner to corner, edge to edge. The nice thing about fast lenses in general, is that they are really very good stopped down 1-2 stops. So a 1.4 lens is esceptionally good at F2.8. Correspondingly, an F2.8 lens doesn't look great until at least F5.6. Though in the center, all of these lenses will look very good. This is a very broad generalization, and of course there will be exceptions.

For control and quality, use a speedlight. Since you are using a cropped camera in somewhat tight quarters, the 85mm will be of no use to you, but 24 and 28 mm might work ok. An 18mm would give the equivalent field of view of a 27mm lens on a FF camera, and I would not go any wider than that. Edges and corners get distorted, and foreground gets really big relative to background. A flash will also allow you some control over depth of field, and allow you to use lower ISOs. You will need to bounce to get the best results.

charles brown Loc: Tennesse

Have been in the exact same position. Three things to consider: 1)how big will the groups be; 2) how big is the room; 3) the quality of light. My groups ranged anywhere from 3 people up to 50. Found that a zoom was the best to use. People can get impatient if you have to stop to change the lens or have to take time to find the right distance from subjects. Also used an off camera flash as a fill flash. I did some test shots without the flash and found that a fill flash resulted in much better photos. The room had three different light sources, sun light from windows, overhead florescent, and lights from regular table lamps. If you can take a look at the room before you make a final decision as to what lens to buy. I used an 18-50, 2.8-4.5, sigma lens and it worked just fine. Set my camera to ISO 200 and aperture priority. Given the importance of what you will be doing can not emphasize enough the need to practice as much as possible beforehand. You will find that the quicker you can work, the happier the subjects will be. At least I did. Good luck and let us know how it all turns out.

JPL

f1.4 will not give you any good results in this situation. You need to use f5.6 or f8 to get a sharp shot of the group if you can bring them tight together. You need some lights, using wide open at f1.4 will give you most of the people blurred in the picture.

It is a huge and common misunderstanding that f1.4 solves all the problems of shooting in low light. It does not.

Gifted One Loc: S. E. Idaho

I agree that a speed light should be considered and to use the 35mm. Use of a speed light and a zoom would be great for me.

J. R.

rbfanman

Use a flash, unless the lights in the room are Full Spectrum, or Daylight, bulbs. Incandescent bulbs will give your photos a yellow cast, and Fluorescents can impart a green, or blue, tinge. A flash will throw a light of a color about equal to sunlight, and make everything look right. Use the 35mm lens...or a 28mm if you have one.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Shoot with the window at your back, make sure your subjects are not hit by direct sunlight and facing the window, please shoot at least f2 and make sure everyone is lined up in a straight line, ie. everyone should be at the same distance from you cause your DOF is shallow, if a person is slightly behind someone else, they may not be in focus. Yes, if shooting at 30sec you should be on a tripod. For individuals try opening the door and having them stand just inside the direct light. Make sure you do not have any thing highlighted in the back ground as this will wash that part of the picture out. I would also suggest manual, try different exposures until you like what you get and stay there, just have your folks come in for the shots you want. GOOD LUCK. If you have a add on flash unit, aim the flash behind you and up, stay on TTL and your shots will look like they were taken without flash.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Although a large aperture is helpful for natural light photography, going from an f/1.8 to an f/1.4 would not be money well-spent. If you see this photo shoot as an opportunity to buy a lens, look for an f/2.8 zoom, something you'll find very useful. Raising ISO and doing some basic processing should produce excellent results.

There is currently a 24-hour $30-off sale on DeNoise.
http://www.topazlabs.com/cart/?noisefree&utm_source=TopazUpdates&utm_campaign=dbbba735d5-DEnoise_6_End_of_Sale3_18_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5e4dd8652a-dbbba735d5-88042677&mc_cid=dbbba735d5&mc_eid=19fe3ce9b7

EDIT: I don't know if anyone has suggested this, but tell the group you will be taking three shots - one after the other. It's tough to get a group of people to have their eyes open at the same time. Also, swapping heads is relatively easy if one person looks bad in a certain shot.

CO

Tamron has started to revise their SP series of lenses and they are including vibration compensation. You never see vibration compensation on prime lenses. Having vibration compensation is a big plus as camera shake is the number one cause of blurry photos. The first two lenses out are the 35mm f/1.8 VC and 45mm f/1.8 VC. I recently bought the 45mm f/1.8. I'm really impressed with it. It has pro build quality with a metal lens barrel and weather sealing including a weather seal at the lens mount. The 85mm f/1.8 VC lens is being released soon.