Photo-Al Loc: Sonoma County, CA

Last night my son and some friends decided to initiate a "Zombie Crawl" to downtown ... there is a small downtown with a few bars and the name people have given to the evening event is normally the "Cotati Crawl" (since the bars are so close together ...) Anyway, they are a group of actors, so they got the makeup and did a bang-up job of looking like zombies, and I wanted to get some shots of them shambling down the street like zombies are fond of doing, but I've never taken pictures in the dead of night. I got out my nifty-50, set the ISO to 1600 (max on my XSi) and planned to shoot a flash off to the side (6 ft cable) or down toward their feet or whatever ... but

* none of the shots that the camera actually did fire for were in focus, and
* most of the time the camera wouldn't fire at all.

I probably should have used manual focus, but since they were moving and one hand held the camera and one hand held the flash, I came up one hand short...! I guess since it was so dark, the camera never found anything to focus on and thus, wouldn't fire.

So ... how do people take pictures of this type scenario? What I was after was a shot of a zombie with face maybe 1/2 - 3/4 in shadow, and very little background visible ... just black. Perhaps other zombies in the background, but I didn't want anyone too brightly lit up. After all, they are the recently dead and I wouldn't want to tick them off!

I would appreciate any guidelines on how to shoot this type of scenario, or even point me to a book or website or something ... Thanks in advance.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

If I ever see Zombies I will shoot them and let you know how it turned out!

Danilo Loc: Las Vegas

With your camera, MT! With your camera...

Danilo Loc: Las Vegas

There's an old system we used to use, Al, called "zone focus". It goes like this:
I can't tell the difference between 45ft. and 50ft., but I CAN tell the difference between 10ft. and 15ft. Soooo...
On manual focus, set your lens to about 15ft. (somewhere where it's light, and you can see) then, just watch your action and try to outmaneuver them so you're always about 15ft. away. Use as small an aperture as your flash will permit, for good DOF. If there really is not much ambient light, your shutter speed won't really matter, as the flash will "stop action" effectively.
Then, just shoot like a madman, so you'll have lots to choose from!

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

Haven't actually done this. (Zombies are a rare commodity around here) But my suggestion would be preset distance manual focus and maybe no flash.
I know nothing about using flash but not sure why you would need to use ISO 1600 and F/1.8 if using flash. Maybe its just my miusnderstanding of how you are using the flash.

jdubu Loc: San Jose, CA

What flash were you using?

If it was specific to your camera, you should be able to set it to ttl off camera on cord and preflash for focusing the lens.

You then would use flash compensation and dial down the flash power to -2 or so for the creepy effect you were looking for. Setting iso 1600, would be very grainy if that is the max for that camera... but that could be a good effect for zombies.

If it were too grainy, increase the flash comp and decrease your iso.
Make sure to set to second curtain so they are not moonwalking backwards.

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

Make sure you get a close-up head shot.
Focus carefully and be sure to take multiple shots.
The flash will be automatic. No adjustments required.
The shutter speed should be at least 2,000 ft/sec.

Mr. B Loc: eastern Connecticut

Taste like chicken?

:lol:

deej

Try firing the flash from a lower perspective such as holding below waist level and angling up. Backlighting would look great to with slight front illumination from a streetlamp. Have fun

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I just saw an article somewhere about doing exactly that! If I can re-find it, I'll tell you where I saw it.

Did you try Google?

Ugly Jake Loc: Sub-Rural Vermont

Your flash will sync that fast a shutter? You're out of my price range - most cameras sync at 1/400 max!

allen finley photography Loc: Sunshine State.

What you are asking is how to shoot what is called "Low key photography". Here is a link that easily explains how to achieve this effect. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91gU93J2Q8k&feature=related

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

THANK YOU!!! I kept going through my photo mags trying to find that article. I was getting to think that I had dreampt about it. :F

Hal81 Loc: Bucks County, Pa.

I shot zombies back in my film days, And when I devloped the film THERE WAS NOTHING THERE Wooooo