twosummers Loc: Melbourne Australia or Lincolnshire England

Good morning from Melbourne my UHH friends.

I will be attending my son and his family's Australian Citizenship ceremony tomorrow evening. I'm a real estate photographer so only really comfortable with subjects that don't move and can be revisited if I mess up. However I would like to try and step up a bit from using my iPhone tomorrow night.

My camera is a Canon R and my lens options are:

Canon EF 16-35mm IS F4L USM
Canon EF 50mm F1.8 STM
Canon RF 24-105 F4L IS USM

So I really do need some advice on which lens to use and what camera settings? Do I just go Automatic for safety and use burst mode. What about that fancy eye-tracking? Each family usually poses for a few minutes with the Mayor or other dignitary with their certificates and a family member is invited to come forward and take a few photographs. So it will be a small group of 5 and I can get probably to within about 6ft or so. I'll be nervous too of course and don't want to frighten the children so I need to be (or look) confident. I have 2 days to practice.

Any and all advice welcome, thank you in anticipation

James

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

For lenses, the 24-105 will be the most useful for individuals and for groups. Congratulations to your family!

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

Is the event indoors or out doors?
In other words what are the lighting levels like?
(I have shot a few Australia day citizenship ceremonies, however they were always outdoors in the morning and they light levels were ok).

twosummers Loc: Melbourne Australia or Lincolnshire England

Indoors, evening, town hall. I'd prefer not to use flash

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

OK
I would not not use eye detect, unless you can control which eye it is detecting (I never use it).
Shoot raw and be prepared to do some noise reduction when PPing and possibly white balance adjustment.
I would shoot aperture priority, with the lens wide or nearly wide open, with a fairly high ISO value (3200+?).
Take what ever shuitter speed you can and have IS/VR on (it may help with camera movement).
If you have more light than you think then consider shootring at a smaller aperture (more dof) and or a lower ISO.
Feel free to ask any questions.

LarryFB Loc: Depends where our RV is parked

I think you just answered your own question. Indoors, town hall, prefer no flash; that says use the fastest lens you own and work around the focal length constraints. I have to add; don't panic about high ISO, yes high ISO can cause problems but the primary goal is to get the photo, perfect or not.

twosummers Loc: Melbourne Australia or Lincolnshire England

All good and sensible advice thank you. I will have time to figure out some exposure options during the run up to my family doing their bit. How high is a safe ISO on the R do you think? I'm pretty sure the results will not get much bigger than email or maybe a smallish print. Happy to do lots of PP if necessary. Is burst mode a good idea (as in get lots of photographs)? Hopefully I can get the ISO up a bit as suggested then a safe speed for hand held and enough aperture to get everyone in focus. I'm actually getting quite nervous (and not just about the cost of my wife's new outfit - it's like attending a wedding)

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

Nowdays I shoot with Olympus M4/3 (and f2.8 lenses) and if need be (rarely) will take it to 12800, however I will be doing a lot of noise reduction and downsizing the image for web publishing and smaller prints.
I think your Canon R would perform a lot better.

Here is an example of a concert reheasal in very low light and hand held.
Run some experiments at home and see how it goes.

1/60 @ f2.8 ISO 12800 F=150mm (crop factor is 2) hand held.

(Download)

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

If you are shooting a group of five people with the lens wide open, you'll have to make sure everyone is the exact same distance from the camera. As pro who did event photography, I wouldn't think of doing a shot like this without a flash so I could use a low ISO and a small enough aperture to get good depth of field.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Then use the 50 - the fastest lens you have. SS 1/125 if possible, 1/60 if not. If you can stop down a stop or 2 from wide open, do so (more DOF). Auto ISO and don’t worry about 12,800 or even higher - a noisey image is usable, but a blurry image is not. Shoot raw so you will have the max to work with for noise reduction.

anotherview Loc: California

Canon RF 24-105 F4L IS USM. It is a fine general purpose lens. It will suit your purpose very well.

anotherview Loc: California

Learning bounced flash is very easy.

Online, you can find all you need to know about this simple application of artificial light for producing well-lit subjects.

Put fresh batteries in the flash unit ahead of time.

Good luck.

P.S. Consider the white balance setting for the indoor condition. Some places use all tungsten lighting. It makes skin tones orange which can prove unflattering, unless compensated. Just set the white balance in your camera for tungsten lighting. Then later in post processing you won't have to do it. Skin tones will look better from the start.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I agree that for an occasion like this that first concerns have to be shutter speed {to avoid motion blur} and aperture {small enough to have all important elements in focus}. I shoot in ‘TAv’ mode - same as ‘M’ mode with auto ISO. Noise can be dealt with in “PP” but user is stuck with blur.

twosummers Loc: Melbourne Australia or Lincolnshire England

Ah ha! that might be the answer here - the R has a Fv option where you can set any 2 of the 3 settings and let the camera set the third. Brilliant advice thanks, set the shutter speed to hand-held sufficient to eliminate motion blur (IS on) and aperture to get good depth of field and then see what ISO the camera figures out! I don't remember Fv mode on my 6D.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

I would go with the 16-35, and put the 50mm-f1.8 "fast" lens in your gear bag. It gathers 4 times the amount of light as does an f4 lens. Events, by their nature, are unpredictable. Be hyper aware of everything going on in the venue. Of course, some people will tell you not to go at all because you don't own a Nikon.