Vick I Loc: Texas

Was asked by one of our pastors to take photos at a dinner celebration at our church tomorrow evening. I have a Nikon D5000, 35mm Nikkor prime, 18-200 Nikkor zoom, and a new speedlight (Nissin di866).

The event will be in the auditorium. No natural light, and lighting levels will vary, I presume (i.e., lights up while people are attacking the buffet line, down lower during the program portion).

I am a serious amateur, but don't know that much about lighting yet. And the other wrinkle is that I have been pretty ill the past three weeks -- missed the last two weeks of work and am only just starting to feel better in the last few days. So, if I hadn't been asked to take photos, I don't even think I'd be considering going to the event due to slow recovery from illness.

Ultimately, I am going to do what is best for my health. I have been trying to find someone else who would agree to take the responsibility -- so far no takers.

So, if I go through with this, how do I "keep it simple" for me and take some decent pictures. I can shoot in raw, and I know how to take a custom white balance, but not sure how to make best use of the speedlight -- just go with auto setting? And should I use the 35mm prime, to keep it simple for handheld?

Sorry for the long post, but figured you needed some background. Thanks for your input.

DANthephotoMAN

Yikes! Max aperture on the zoom is probably 3.5, but what is the prime? D5000 has some good MP's, so I suggest you use the prime and just do a little cropping later. Goodluck!

Vick I Loc: Texas

Good point. Max aperture on prime lens is 1.8, and yes, 3.5-5.6 on the zoom.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Vick, The 35 will get you good photos as Dan has said, BUT at 1.8 and even 2.0 your DoF might be to shallow to get more than one person at a time. The zoom with flash bounced of the ceiling may be best assuming you don't have 30' ceilings. A high sync. speed will keep things sharp. Practice with it before you go. Hey you might even want to drag the shutter a little bit. If the 5000 has built-in flash it should be good enough(sorry, don't know Nikons)
Hope your health is good enough for you to go.
Don't worry about it to much, if they want perfect they would call a pro!

Vick I Loc: Texas

Well, the ceilings are pretty high -- could be 30', and black. So no real bounce there . . .

sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

definetly set custom white balance. bring grey card with you, and shoot in raw so that you can adjust wb. when i shoot in my churches sanctuary, its always a nightmare. mustard brown paint on the walls give a brownish tint to any shots of the platform, fluroscent lights over the pews and incandesent lights over the altar. i woud also set flash to auto ttl and might depending on what the sancuary looks like adjust the power down on the flash gun. i got my best results shooting with my 50mmd lens when covering our living last supper. platform lighting was bright enough that i was able to shoot with midle range fstops. good luck and hope you feel better!

richnash46 Loc: Texas

If you feel up to it go, if not then don't and don't worry about it! If you do go and take the pix, go with your prime and you will do just fine, after all, they are after shots of the people there and you will get some great shots of them with that lens, flash, and camera! Relax, take lots of shots, and enjoy being with the "folks!"

ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA

Vick, I agree with the others about using your 35mm lens. As long as you're at least 15 feet from your subjects you should have enough DOF at f1.8. If you have a diffuser for your flash then use that and then stop down to f8 or more for greater DOF and for closer than 15 feet. Good luck

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

A few things: Use ISO 800. It will save battery power and allow you to shoot more shots on a set of batteries. I own the flash you mentioned and while it is quite powerful, it does not recycle nearly as fast as my Nikon SB600. It also uses batteries faster. With the di866 I only get about a hundred shots on a set of batteries while with the SB600 I get almost twice that number. So take a couple of extra sets of AA's. Set your camera on manual at 1/40 to 1/50th of a second shutter speed. Even if your camera flash sinc is 125 or higher, you don't want to use that because it will make your background go totally black and the photos will look very 2 dimensional. If the room is very dark, I have used a shutter speed as low as 1/15th of a second to give some depth to the photo. If there is much ambient light though, don't go that low or you will experience some ghosting of people as they move.

sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

tell us how it went.!

Vick I Loc: Texas

Well, after all of your great input, I still was too ill to go. This has been a very challenging illness.

sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

i will add you to my prayer list. May God grant you a speedy recovery.

Vick I Loc: Texas

Thank you, Sinatraman -- much appreciated.

sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

i don't know why but when i look at your avatar I think of john wayne.

Vick I Loc: Texas

That's funny ;-). It is a picture of my dad and me. I imagine u already guessed that. He didn't look anything like the Duke