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so i got invited to shoot someone's grandma's 100th birthday.. seeing how its a restaurant and not really a party not really sure on what kind of lens i should use, and what i should be shooting

Any zoom lens, like a 18-55, 14-42, prime lens will do the job. You'll probably not be using the flash since its a restaurant and they might not be happy about a flash going off every time (shutter 1/25?) since theres not gonna be alot of movement like a party a tripod would be great to take portrait shots and closeups. i think thats about it.

Yeah, chances are you won't be too far away from anything, so your most average lens would suit it fine. Zomgpow covered the likely sizes of whatever your average lens might be. A prime might not suit this well just because you probably aren't going to have the flexibility to move yourself around as much as you would need to to frame things within the prime. Expanding on his mention of no flash, he's probably right, but chances are you'll be able to get away with a handful of shots using the flash, the others you'll be relying on the upper end of your ISO range and some slower shutters.

I'm going to be the odd one and tell you to do the exact opposite of what everyone else is saying.

Unless 1) the restaurant has outdoor seating and 2) they use it, you're going to need a flash, preferably something diffused or one that you can bounce. Restaurants are notorious for terrible lighting and your shots will most likely come out looking like junk with the built-in flash as a major light source. Or just shoot in RAW and let photoshop do the rest later.

Also, I much prefer to shoot portrait shots with my telephoto zoom lens, usually between 75 and 150mm.

Really, it's all in what you find works best for you, but I am going to tell you that lighting will be an issue.

This post has been edited by cmspaz on Nov 9 2009, 10:18 PM

right.. i have a d40 with an kit 18-55 and a 70-300VR (stops up to 4.5 max) [slow lens]

i can borrow an XSI, with the 18-55, a 50mm 1.8, and a sigma 70-200 2.8, also i have access to the speedlite 430 ex II

thanks for the tips, they are great.

and if i do shoot in raw, a dark shot will still be noisy won't it?

As a gun advocate, this title both completley mislead and let me down.

i read the first sentence and i was prepared to see you on tonight news



then i read more

I agree a bit on the telephoto for zoom bit. I think it's good for framing things a bit tighter.

Your 300mm 4.5 is 2/3 stop faster than my 300mm 5.6, so you don't get to complain.

If I were you, I'd borrow the XSi for that 2.8 and the speedlite (make sure to bring the camera's manual along too).

As for shooting in RAW to remove noise, well... You have two noise reduction options, neither of which have anything to do with what format you're shooting. First is to just shoot at a lower ISO. It'll require a longer shutter and/or larger aperture, but hey, that's where the 2.8 comes in. The other option is to use the camera's built in noise reduction, but good luck with that when shooting people. It takes two exposures and compares the two to remove random off-color pixels, so movement has a chance at screwing up the image. I'd try to use as low of an ISO as possible.

Also, make sure you get there a bit early and take a look at how the tables are set up, and take preliminary metering of various directions and angles you'd like to work with, including metering with the flash. Also, try to turn the flash down to a decently low power level. Remember, it's for fill light, not a primary source.

great idea.. should i rent a diffuser? or is the built in one good enough?

and sideways that cracked me up haha im gonna need some soon though for guns as well

If you don't want to rent one, a piece of tissue paper or a dryer sheet taped over the flash should be enough to get the job done. But just dropping the the flash power is enough to remove a large part of the harshness. If you can get down to 1/64 or 1/128 power, that would very likely work fine.

thanks..
now the problem is how do i fit like 5 people in a pic shooting at 1.8.. with a 50mm on a cropped body :/

You just walk backwards.

Every time I saw this topic on main page, I was thinking the same thing.

o glad the day is done.. yeah i wanted to shoot from farther, but it was a really tight place, with round tables.. so yeah.. but the people there were happy because the faces came out nice and crisp

As long as the client's happy, that's what counts.

Are we gonna see any of the results?

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