Lens for event photography.

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Empty_Quarter

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I'll open admit that I have no experience in event and wedding photography. I primarly shoot cityscapes, landscapes, architecture, and love finicking with long exposures. Having said that, I've always wanted to at least give myself a shot at event photography. I never knew where to start, and getting my foot in the door without a portfolio to show for it is a little tough.

A friend of mine would like me to photograph his engagement party, in a small banquet hall with just close family and friends. I said yes, figured this was a chance to try it out, and refused any payment he insisted (because even though he likes my cityscape portfolio, I have zero experience in portraits and hence, nothing to show for it).

So I have two lenses that would be ideal for this, a tamron 17-50, and a 50mm. I would like to keep the 50 on at all times at ignore the tamron all together. What say you? I dont really want to spend time switching through lenses all the time, so if you were to pick one, which would it be? 17-50 for the flexibility, or 50 for the bokeh/low light? I only have one body.

Other than that, if I do use the 50, Would you still recommend a flash, or could I get away with using lens wide open? This would be your typical banquet hall, so your typical lighting. Do let me know, because if I do, I'd have to rent one stat and experiment quick with it (I also have no experience with using a flash).

Please advise. TY!
 
If you have a full frame camera, then the 24-70 f2.8 is a great lens. If you are on a crop camera, I find that the 24-70mm isn't wide enough indoors, the Tamron 17-50 f2.8 is a good lens, the Canon 17-55 f2.8 is a better focusing lens.

I have a Sigma 17-50 f2.8 and it is decent, if I had the money, I would spend a bit more on the Canon 17-55 f2.8. I don't feel comfortable with a prime indoors where you are going to be moving around a lot, especially not a 50mm.

Also, a hot shoe flash is a must. If it isn't a huge auditorium with tall celings, then tape a few index cards to the end of the flash and point it at the ceiling/slight angle.
 
Should've mentioned the camera, its a nikon D7000, and so, that eliminates the 24-70, and other full-frame oriented lenses.

The size of the place I'd imagine is small, like one of those party rooms they have at condos nowadays, nothing major at all.

You do have a point with the 50mm, I guess I'll stick with the tamron and play it safe for flexibility.

As for a flash, damnit, thought I'd need one. Just made the call and rented an SB-910.
 
You can, yeah, it just extends the range, but if I do buy a full-frame lens, which I probably will soon as I intend on switching at some point, it would probably be a ultra-wide.
 
D7000 is a great camera, and more than capable in this situation. I suppose I have to ask, is this a paid gig? And if so, is there an allotment in your payment for gear?

If so, you may consider renting a body and a lens. If you did, then you could rent another D7000 and a 24mm lens, and use the 24mm on one and the 50mm on the other or perhaps something longer like an 85mm. This would give the effective focal lengths of 36mm and 75mm (or 127.5) which is very close to 35/85(127.5) which I consider to be ideal for event photography.

Barring that and wanting to do single body, I would probably recommend using your current 17-50 and seeing if you can either rent or borrow a 70-200mm. That will give you the most amount of flexibility on a single body. The extra length can be used for all those situations in which you simply cannot get close.

If you're limited in the sense of not being able to rent or borrow gear, then I suppose you might as well take both the 17-50 and 50mm. I shot two weddings with just a 24-70mm on a 5D2 (unable to obtain any other gear rented or borrowed at the time), and it was not ideal, but I had so much experience shooting with that body and lens, that I new the shortfalls. It was probably the first time I felt like "an event photographer" as I committed myself to getting in close to get the shot. That's possibly just as if not more vital than the gear you'll be bringing.

Anyway, I digress. I hope this is helpful, but I'm of course not really sure if getting more/other gear is really possible for you.
 
The key on the majority of lenses mentioned above is the 2.8 apeture. It really helps keep the background from becoming a distraction, but reading what you have written I think you already know this.

I have a D200 and my 50mm becomes an ~80mm, which is great for portraits and such, but can be tough in tight quarters to get the shot. I think the wider angled lens is the right choice from those that you mention.

I will second a flash. I only had a Nikon SB400 to shoot my brother's wedding reception. It did not have much range, but angled up and boucing off the ceiling helped tremendously. You will want to have plenty of batteries on hand. Quick cycling of the flash depletes them at an alarming pace, even when using the flash on low power for fill lighting.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
D7000 is a great camera, and more than capable in this situation. I suppose I have to ask, is this a paid gig? And if so, is there an allotment in your payment for gear?

If so, you may consider renting a body and a lens. If you did, then you could rent another D7000 and a 24mm lens, and use the 24mm on one and the 50mm on the other or perhaps something longer like an 85mm. This would give the effective focal lengths of 36mm and 75mm (or 127.5) which is very close to 35/85(127.5) which I consider to be ideal for event photography.

Barring that and wanting to do single body, I would probably recommend using your current 17-50 and seeing if you can either rent or borrow a 70-200mm. That will give you the most amount of flexibility on a single body. The extra length can be used for all those situations in which you simply cannot get close.

If you're limited in the sense of not being able to rent or borrow gear, then I suppose you might as well take both the 17-50 and 50mm. I shot two weddings with just a 24-70mm on a 5D2 (unable to obtain any other gear rented or borrowed at the time), and it was not ideal, but I had so much experience shooting with that body and lens, that I new the shortfalls. It was probably the first time I felt like "an event photographer" as I committed myself to getting in close to get the shot. That's possibly just as if not more vital than the gear you'll be bringing.

Anyway, I digress. I hope this is helpful, but I'm of course not really sure if getting more/other gear is really possible for you.
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This is not a paid gig, he insisted on paying, however I refused payment. I'm doing this as a favor for him, and as a chance for me to photograph people.

Having said that, its a pretty small and intimate gathering, its not large, and I wouldnt see the need to rent another body. If it were a full blown wedding, definitely, but for something this small, it seems a little overkill.

I made a few calls around town, and with some luck, I managed to rent out an SB-900 with filters and a battery pack (for a mesely $16, what a steal).

As for the lens, I guess since I'm using the flash now, I dont need the wide aperture of the 50 and will use the tamron 17-50 for the flexibility, so I'll stick to that.
 
I still would suggest a telephoto if you can get your hands on it. I've been finding recently that the 70-200mm stays on my body for a lot of shots involving people.
 
I was in your shoes almost a year ago to the date, when a friend of mine asked me to do her bridal shower. Like you, I shoot landscapes and cityscapes 99% of the time, and have had absolutely no experience shooting parties of any kind, let alone a formal event such as that one.

With that said, at the time I was using a D80 with a Nikon 14-24, 24-70 and a 50 1.4 along with the SB800 speedlight. So while it seemed like I was set and good to go with the gear, I opted on renting a D3s, and it was the right choice.

The banquet hall was fairly small with low ceiling, and just awful yellow lighting. On top of that, huge mirrors on one of the walls. I'm fairly confident with the use of a speedlight, but some things I just don't have enough experience with, and using a D80 at anything above ISO800 would've been disastrous for me. The choice of renting a D3s was a lifesaver. I was able to drop the strobe, crank that ISO to well passed 10k, and still get nice and clear images.

At that point, I just used the 24-70 for the whole thing, and didn't look back.

My suggestion, if you have the time, go to the banquet hall where the event will be taking place, and check it out, and see how well your camera's doing. You might be really surprised at how shitty some of those places are (in terms of available light, and what not).

Also, if you like, I can PM you the link to a small gallery from that event. The shots aren't all the great, but you might get some ideas of what to look for when it's time for you to take the shots.
 
I do have a feeling that I'll have some issues with the yellow light (which always seems to be the case), what setting do you suggest I have my white balance on?

Camera wise, I'll stick it out with my D7000, and if the rumours of the D600 ends up being true, I'll jump on that instantly. I'm sure a D3s does wonders, but I cant justify renting something that major (along with a 24-70) for something so simple. I've already warned my friend that the pics might not be mindblowing, but he remains confident and optimistic, so we shall see.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
I still would suggest a telephoto if you can get your hands on it. I've been finding recently that the 70-200mm stays on my body for a lot of shots involving people.
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X2. I love using telephoto to take candid shots. With a 50mm lens, you are still relatively close to people, and they'll react to your presence. at 100mm I can generally go unnoticed and you get to see what really was going on.
 
Empty_Quarter said:
I do have a feeling that I'll have some issues with the yellow light (which always seems to be the case), what setting do you suggest I have my white balance on?
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I would suggest a custom setting. Just take a sample shot in the middle of the room, and have the camera use that as a reference. Even if it isn't perfect, it should be close enough to not bother you too much. Worst case scenario, as long as you maintain the same settings, you'll have the same WB across the board and be able to batch process the WB in lightroom (or whatever you're working with).

Empty_Quarter said:
Camera wise, I'll stick it out with my D7000, and if the rumours of the D600 ends up being true, I'll jump on that instantly. I'm sure a D3s does wonders, but I cant justify renting something that major (along with a 24-70) for something so simple. I've already warned my friend that the pics might not be mindblowing, but he remains confident and optimistic, so we shall see.
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Unless the party is next year, don't hold out for the d600. People have been waiting for months after the d800 announcement, and you should expect similar behavior to occur again with d600.
 
Yeah, I'm totally expecting the D600 to be released next year (if it is real), and I hope it is (I need time to save up, and sell off all my gear should that happen :p). The cost difference betwen the D600 and D800 isn't that major (in terms of %, but in dollar-value, $600 aint little), but the whole intention of going full frame is to get the 16-35 f/4. I've already agreed with my contact at my local camera store, that should a D600 be announced, I'm first in line for a deposit. At this point for me, I feel the only way to go, is full frame.
 
SO, this small party went down yesterday.

I finished work, went straight to the camera store, got the flash (SB-900). Didnt even have time to fiddle with it, and used it right away. The camera sales rep at the store was helpful in that he suggested in keeping the flash on auto (or TTL).

Event photography is hard. As I've never done such a thing before, you have to be everywhere and get everyone at some point or another. Luckily, this was a small room.... but it was constricted, so I felt like it was hard to move around, and that I was obtrusive/blocking someone else's view.

I used the tamron 17-50, and pretty much used the 50 end of it for the most part. It would have been nice if I did have the 24-70 indeed as some of you have suggested, but I found that a range of 50mm was plenty. This was a small room, so the 50 worked out great. Now I know for future reference, I'm going to rent out something a little more longer (70-200?, but what about the wide end?)

I realized I needed to be fast, not just in moving around, but simply in that I can't miss the moment (and I didnt miss any, thank god, groom-to-be's mom gave me a death stare "it better be good"). As a landscape photographer, I RARELY, if ever, venture over ISO 500, and it was last night that I realized why camera manufacturers strive to reach absurdly high ISOs. I had to use isos anywhere from 1600 to 5000, which is not "high", but to me, its extremely high, and the pictures are very very usable. Extremely pleased with the ISO performance of the D7000.

With literally no experience using a flash, I started off using the camera in manual mode, as I usually do. But I was finding it a little trickier than I would have liked, and in order not to have missed any moments or waste any time trying to figure it out, I totally chickened out, and switched the camera to Auto. However I realized, that when the camera is in Auto, with a speedlight, the camera essentially works as if it were in program mode strangely enough, so I could still change the aperture (most of which were wide open to get some color and not let the flash dominate).

The flash worked out really well, I'm pleased, and I'm glad to know I wont be killed by aformentioned mother. I did get the pics a little overexposed in some cases, or rather, the typical flash brightness, but... nothing lightroom can't fix at all. and OH. There were grandparents, but the flash made them look like ghosts, emphasizing every wrinkle and making it seem like their eyes pop out of the their bony faces (as warned by northorp, ty :p), I'm legitimately scared of sharing the grandparents pics, they will not like it so much, hah.

I only took around 300 pictures, about a third will be deleted as most portrait poses were taken twice so I'll keep the better one. I have the flash rented out for the entire weekend. I'll be playing with it till its due date so that I get the hang of this thing.

When I get around to editting all the pics, I'll share a couple.

Thought I'd share with you guys as you've helped me, Thanks! :D
 
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Glad that you had a success! 200 usable shots is quite a few. That's more than enough coverage for a single event.

If you get a 70-200, you'd simply swap that lens with whatever other lens you have like the 17-50 you already have for your wide angle coverage.... much like the swapping you did with your 50. Of course the alternative is to have a second body so that swapping isn't necessary.

Had I known you needed some flash tips, I would have dropped some out.

The key is knowing you can lower shutter speed, and the flash will freeze the motion. I commonly shoot at ISO 800 at 1/60th of a second at f/5.6-f/8.0 with flash. Other experimenting with timings and ISO can be done. I know people that shoot with lower ISO and a more open Aperture. Or do other interesting tricks like have the Flash on a cord so that the physical distance between the flash and the subject is closer.

The other trick is bouncing. I now shoot with a diffuser (specifically the omnibounce) that I have modified by cutting out the top, and always reflect the flash off the ceiling or another surface. In other words the flash always fires up, so the removal of the top allows the flash to fire upwards with full power while still diffusing the light towards the subject. I later found out that Gary Fong's lightsphere essentially does the same thing, but I felt cool for also thinking of it myself (also, my version is cheaper by a significant amount.) Anyway, bouncing the light allows for more even, more natural lighting and helps prevent hot spots.
 
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You could spot soften the pics of the grandparents, and warm the photos some in Lightroom. That would help make them not look like ghosts.
 
If so, you may consider renting a whole body and a lens if you did then you could rental another D7000 and a 24mm lens and use the 24mm on one and the 50mm on the other or perhaps something a longer period like an 85mm this would offer the effective main actions of 36mm and 75mm (or 127.5) which is very near to 35/85(127.5) which i consider to be ideal for event photography..........






Modeling Photographers | Gold Coast Photographers
 
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