Some help please

marine1

marine1

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Hey guys,
I need some advice please.
I am wanting to learn how to take great fast photos at night, say at a party in or outside.
What setting would you advise?
M/P/A?
In order to shoot fast photos with the flash or without and not using a tripod, what settings would you use?
I went to a party the other night and shot some photos with my Alpha A700 using the built in flash and the problem was the speed at which the camera took the photos from focusing to actual shooting.
How can I take fast night shots with flash and no tripod?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks so much.
 
Try putting it on Shutter Priority and make the shutter speed the fastest it will sync with the flash.
 
marine1 said:
Hey guys,
I need some advice please.
I am wanting to learn how to take great fast photos at night, say at a party in or outside.
What setting would you advise?
M/P/A?
In order to shoot fast photos with the flash or without and not using a tripod, what settings would you use?
I went to a party the other night and shot some photos with my Alpha A700 using the built in flash and the problem was the speed at which the camera took the photos from focusing to actual shooting.
How can I take fast night shots with flash and no tripod?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks so much.
Click to expand...
Skip the flash - use a high ISO and a fast lens. You ever wonder why you hear all the canon fans raving about the el cheapo piece of plastic 50mm well its because its a f/1.8. :)

Otherwise - whats the highest sync speed your camera offers?
 
Sorry to hijack the thread a little just saw you were posting about the 50mm: I bought some old Minolta lens with an f/1.4. It now wont fit on my Sony camera, is there some sort of adaptor?
 
If the flash is the primary light source you should be able to get away with just using it on Auto. Getting a proper flash wont hurt anything either. :)
 
Pooky said:
Sorry to hijack the thread a little just saw you were posting about the 50mm: I bought some old Minolta lens with an f/1.4. It now wont fit on my Sony camera, is there some sort of adaptor?
Click to expand...

I thought Sony kept the Minolta mount the same? Or did Minolta also change their mount when they went AF, like Canon did? :confused:

marine1 said:
I have an external flash but have no freaking idea how to use it properly. :(
Click to expand...

Join the club. What I do with the flash, either the pop-up or the external, is I set the shutter to the slowest I can comfortably hand-hold it - 1/30 to 1/60 usually. That way I allow the sensor to pick up some ambient light, you know, background and stuff, and the TTL sorts out the rest. The catch is to be able to focus quickly, and unfortunately, for that, you really need a fast lens. The faster the lens, the more light gets into the lens, the easier it is for the camera to lock onto something and snap into focus.

Consider one of these:

Sony 50mm f/1.4
Sigma 28mm f/1.8

Or if you can afford one of these:

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM
Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM
 
Onboard flash is pretty useless, especially at functions. I always use M with external flash. As others have said, the larger aperture lenses will AF much better under low light situations. Your macro lens will be too long for most function type shots.

WRT old Minolta lenses: Minolta changed their lens mount in the late 80s or early 90s. I have a bag full of old Minolta mount lenses which I can only use on my Minolta film cameras with that mount.
 
As far as I understand, there needs to be some light for the camera to focus and in very low light, the AF assist light may not be enough for a small aperture lens to focus?

An external flash may have a stronger AF assist light, not so? So that may help with focusing? And a "faster"/larger aperture lens will focus with less light as well? Is this correct?
 
greg_SA said:
As far as I understand, there needs to be some light for the camera to focus and in very low light, the AF assist light may not be enough for a small aperture lens to focus?
Click to expand...
True for onboard flash

greg_SA said:
An external flash may have a stronger AF assist light, not so? So that may help with focusing? And a "faster"/larger aperture lens will focus with less light as well? Is this correct?
Click to expand...
The external flash uses different AF assist technology to the onboard flash (with Canon anyway).
 
Couple tips that have served me well when using the pop up - get in close and diffuse the light if you can. I keep a small strip of masking tape stuck to the bottom of my camera for just that purpose. :)
 
marine1 said:
Maybe I should use my 105mm Macro F2.8??
Would that be the best route?
Click to expand...

That's a bit narrow on a crop camera. I would much rather have to walk closer (zoom with my feet) than having to back away to frame a shot properly. 35mm is about as wide as I'd go if I have only one lens on a crop body. I'm seriously thinking of getting a Sigma 20mm f1.8 EX DG lens for that particular purpose.

BigAl-sa said:
Onboard flash is pretty useless, especially at functions.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's useless. With a guide number in the 11-13 range on most DSLR, combined with higher ISO, you can get away with it most of the time. I'm not saying it's sufficient for everything, the external makes a huge difference. But it is possible to get good results with the pop-up.

BigAl-sa said:
I have a bag full of old Minolta mount lenses which I can only use on my Minolta film cameras with that mount.
Click to expand...

Aaah thanks. I have head a few times from sony fans "I can use all my old lenses" which took to mean the same thing as a Pentax user saying "I can use all my old lenses."

greg_SA said:
As far as I understand, there needs to be some light for the camera to focus and in very low light, the AF assist light may not be enough for a small aperture lens to focus?
Click to expand...

Not all cameras have an AF assist lamp...

greg_SA said:
An external flash may have a stronger AF assist light, not so? So that may help with focusing? And a "faster"/larger aperture lens will focus with less light as well? Is this correct?
Click to expand...

Good point.
 
koffiejunkie said:
I don't think it's useless. With a guide number in the 11-13 range on most DSLR, combined with higher ISO, you can get away with it most of the time. I'm not saying it's sufficient for everything, the external makes a huge difference. But it is possible to get good results with the pop-up.
Click to expand...
The biggest problem I've found with the onboard flash is that it doesn't zoom (match the focal length of the lens). With wider group type shots you get ugly looking light fall off around the edges.
 
BigAl-sa said:
The biggest problem I've found with the onboard flash is that it doesn't zoom (match the focal length of the lens). With wider group type shots you get ugly looking light fall off around the edges.
Click to expand...

That's true, but the pop-up, at least on my 40D, is pretty wide. It covers my 24-105L nicely. But yeah, on the 10-20mm it's quite apparent. In all fairness, my flash (Sigma 530 Super) doesn't go wider than 24mm either.
 
Another thing I didn't like about the onboard flash is that it tended to give redeye very easily (with the 350d anyway - I've not really used it on the 40d as I now have a 420, 430 and 580 ;))
 
That's an interesting observation. I don't really get red eyes on the 40D, and I think it's precisely because it doesn't have the AF lamp. It does two or three short bursts of flash for focus first, which makes people's pupils constrict (is that the right word) in time before the exposure is made.
 
koffiejunkie said:
That's true, but the pop-up, at least on my 40D, is pretty wide. It covers my 24-105L nicely. But yeah, on the 10-20mm it's quite apparent. In all fairness, my flash (Sigma 530 Super) doesn't go wider than 24mm either.
Click to expand...
Thats too bad - my older 500 Super goes to 16 or 17 which, because my camera is a crop, means there isnt any real vignetting even on my 16-35. Towards the narrower end of your 10-20 it shouldnt be an issue for you either with the 530 even at 24mm.

Red eye - who cares - easiest thing in the world to fix in post.
 
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