Panic! I have been asked to get the pictures at a big company event tomorrow

[Grendel]

I have been asked to get the pictures at a big company event tomorrow, so I have prepped the camera, chosen a selection of lenses from 24mm to 210mm (mostly old legacy manual ones) and dug out my old flash unit and made sure it works and has decent batteries, and now I am panicing because I want to get some good useable shots. I guess I will have to work hard at making sure I get things right.
Grendel

[Tracey]

Indoor event?
Well, whatever it is, I dont envy you with all that pressure.
I wish I could offer some advice (other than check the batteries, and take a look at the venue to see where the best vantage points may be)
Good luck Grendel, and let us know how it goes

[Grendel]

batteries charged, spare batteries for flash, tested camera with flash - hmm may need a bit more practice there, keep getting whiteout if I use standard settings, its OK on manual once you get the speed dialed in.
Grendel

[Tracey]

Hope it goes well, and you get some great shots.

[Hedgehog]

Get drunk... well... it works for me 

OK... aside from posed shots I tend to use the flash later on as people become more used to & happier with someone going round snapping away... initially I use the 50mm 1.8 wide open with no flash for a load of "banker" candids, then move up to the 30mm 1.4 with the flash attached but not necessarily in use.

Get back to us 'cos it'll be interesting to hear how you approach it & how you get on.

[Grendel]

Last time I tried to take pictures when drunk was in the days of film, and I got 1 stunning shot from about 3 films, fortunately it was the one crucial moment of a mate recieving an award, but the rest of the film had camera shake and out of focus and every other fault. Yes I agree with the no flash to start, I wind up the iso and use a legacy lens that allows f2 or thereabouts, but mostly with a zoom lens so I can get in there from a distance so to speak. I think the pictures are mostly for internal publicity (newsletters magazine and presentations), I will have 3 lenses with me, the 35-80 zoom, my old olmpus fit 70-210 zoom and my 24mm widefield.
Grendel

[Tracey]

I dont think I would dare take my camera out when I was drunk... let alone take photos! (I have enough problems taking reasonable pics when sober... )

[Hedgehog]

My last gig shoot...


http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b398/TimEastgate/2009-09-12Belper/

... I was so legless there are photo's in this set I don't even remember taking... ... it was an intentional experiment (of course! ) 'cos previously I'd done gigs where the shots got better as the evening went on... this one they were all of a fairly consistent quality but I missed some opportunities

[Grendel]

Well all I had to do was get people sitting at tables and talking - interesting poses etc, I managed without the flash, iso 1600, and used all the lenses, got some widefields, and was using the telephoto at 210mm to get shots from across the other side of the room, the main trouble was all the girls kept hiding when the camera pointed their way, one good shot was everyone with their hands in the air when the Occ Health lady took everyone through some excercises, They have asked me to go get some shots at one of the other events next week too, and thats just from what they saw on the camera screen (I hope they are mostly all in focus, thats one time I sure was glad of those little red focus confirmation lights, made me glad I bought the active adaptor for these olympus lenses.
Grendel

[Tracey]

Grendel, I'm really pleased it went well. I hope the pictures are as good as you hoped they'd be.

[Grendel]

Well I had a quick look at the pictures last night, and though about 40% are useless due to camera shake, people moving in a slow exposure and a couple out of focus slightly, or focused on the wrong person, out of the nearly 200 shots I have a fair few for them to pick and choose through. I will weed out the crud before I send the photos to them. (then I will ask if they still want me at the other event).
I learned a few things though, a wide angle lenns is great, at anything above 3m everything is in focus, an external flash is a pain in the butt, to get the exposures just right. and above all a crowded room with tables full of delegates is not easy to get round to navigate, Next time I will sit at the edge to get an easy access around the floor, and use the telephoto lens.
One other thing I found is that about 90% of the women there as soon as they saw the camera pointing in their direction hid behind their hand, their hair or the person next to them.
grendel

[Tracey]

Thats good news. It'll be great if you get to do the next one

Next time I will sit at the edge to get an easy access around the floor, and use the telephoto lens.
One other thing I found is that about 90% of the women there as soon as they saw the camera pointing in their direction hid behind their hand, their hair or the person next to them.
grendel

One thing may relate to the other here... if you are sat at the side, using a telephoto, the shy ladies wont neccesarily know you are taking photos and you may get more natural poses (I have to admit, when I see a camera pointed in my direction, I tend to do the hiding thing too

[Hedgehog]

One thing may relate to the other here... if you are sat at the side, using a telephoto, the shy ladies wont neccesarily know you are taking photos and you may get more natural poses (I have to admit, when I see a camera pointed in my direction, I tend to do the hiding thing too

I think everyone does, me included... unless I'm drunk of course... why does it keep coming back to that 

External flash... I very rarely use direct flash favouring bouncing it off the ceiling but it depends on your surroundings... used directly I turn it down about 2 stops 'cos I don't like the overwhelming snap-shot like effect... I should buy a proper diffuser (or make something up) but not got around to it yet.

[Tracey]

One thing may relate to the other here... if you are sat at the side, using a telephoto, the shy ladies wont neccesarily know you are taking photos and you may get more natural poses (I have to admit, when I see a camera pointed in my direction, I tend to do the hiding thing too

I think everyone does, me included... unless I'm drunk of course... why does it keep coming back to that 

So you need to be drunk to take photos and you need to be drunk to be on photos.... are you sure this is not just an excuse to get drunk

External flash... I very rarely use direct flash favouring bouncing it off the ceiling but it depends on your surroundings... used directly I turn it down about 2 stops 'cos I don't like the overwhelming snap-shot like effect... I should buy a proper diffuser (or make something up) but not got around to it yet.

I've not got an external flash, do they make a big difference to the onboard ones? (I'm trying to justify the £200+ to get one for mine)

[Grendel]

for close up work up to about 3m the onboard flash is fine, but once you get a bit further away then you really need a decent flash in low light fast moving situations.
Grendel