Birthday Party

Sonya.Max

Hello to all!
I've been invited to take photographs of 25th Birthday Patry today, 15 min ago....
Before I was only taking shots of childrens BD.

I don't have flash gun and any other lights, only the build in flash. I have Nikon D300, Sigma 18-200 and Nikon 50mm f 1.4

Can some body give me advices on how to do it?

pixbyjohn

The D300 is well capable of taking indoor shots without external flash.
Overexpose by a stop if you find shot are a bit dark.
Whereabouts are you ? I have SB600
your 50 f1.4 doesn't need a flash once you get the knack . good luck with the shoot, you will be fine

Sonya.Max

I'm in Co. Laois

Thanks:)

PCPhoto

the built in flash will be suitable for up to 12feet (normally) ...so you should be fine to get pics of people indoors.

my advice would be to use the 18mm side of your 18-200mm (well...the wider section - dont have to stick to 18mm), do some test shots - to check the light, dont be afraid to lower the shutterspeed to catch ambient light (and use the flash to fill in) 1/30th, 1/15th sec.

personally I test indoors to see what the camera will give me - then I flick the camera to manual and shoot away.(checking my pics every time)

I've taken pics in complete darkness....make sure your camera is set to one shot

pixbyjohn

Sonya.Max wrote: »

I'm in Co. Laois

Aww too far away to borrow my flash for today, I am in beautiful Greystones, Co. Wicklow.
Take loads of shots with different settings, Use Aperture priority and Shutter priority, you will learn a lot today.

Sonya.Max

pixbyjohn wrote: »

Aww too far away to borrow my flash for today, I am in beautiful Greystones, Co. Wicklow.
Take loads of shots with different settings, Use Aperture priority and Shutter priority, you will learn a lot today.

Thanks a lot for offering flash:)

Cabaal

If you have the space I'd recommend the 50mm on 1.4, lovely DOF for shots

Sonya.Max

I have no idea, about the space and is there many windows:)
But I hope everything is going be fine:)

Sonya.Max

Oh! and one more question, how much to charge for a CD with about 30pics?
I'm not pro in event photography and I dont want to charge too high or too low.

Ballyman

Sonya.Max wrote: »

Oh! and one more question, how much to charge for a CD with about 30pics?
I'm not pro in event photography and I dont want to charge too high or too low.

ZERO Euros.

When you havee no idea what you are doing then it's not right to charge anyone for the privelige. And from your opening post here then you have no idea what you are doing.

Seriously, this is ridiculous to be even contemplating charging anyone for this. Just because you have a "big" camera does not mean you know what you are doing.

How would you feel if you hired a plumber and he was on a forum asking how to unblock a toilet before he went to your house and then charged you for the privelige? Just because he owns a spanner doesn't mean he is a plumber.

milos

well done Ballyman.

Now maybe some of the people on posts will realise that Photography is about FUN for the majority of us and a profession to those who charge.

Sonya.Max enjoy the delight on peoples faces when they see your work displayed for their pleasure and soak up all the praise.

If you wish charge for copying the discs ie €5 maybe

AnCatDubh

Ballyman wrote: »

ZERO Euros.

When you havee no idea what you are doing then it's not right to charge anyone for the privelige. And from your opening post here then you have no idea what you are doing.

Seriously, this is ridiculous to be even contemplating charging anyone for this. Just because you have a "big" camera does not mean you know what you are doing.

How would you feel if you hired a plumber and he was on a forum asking how to unblock a toilet before he went to your house and then charged you for the privelige? Just because he owns a spanner doesn't mean he is a plumber.

I know where you are coming from here but i'm wondering do we (you, me, everybody) know enough about the OP's work to assume they have no idea what they are doing. Perhaps there is not enough posted to validly ascertain this - accepting that the OP has indicated that flash lighting won't be their strong point, they may actually be fine with composition, framing, post processing etc. Whether you are correct or not shouldn't be debated particularly with a new user to the forum but I think they have been asked / invited rather than were already intending to be going along to the event and this maybe the perspective where the question is coming from.

Having said that, I still say ZERO euros charge in this particular situation for a whole heap of reasons. Accepting money for the event really puts you in a situation of being a professional (if only for one night) - as such you have a whole heap of things to begin to worry about - insurance, being sued, contracts, terms and conditions, managing expectations, what happens if they the images don't turn out well, professional indemnity, income tax :eek:, being reported to the revenue people by someone who sees you walking out of a venue with your gear in hand (maybe i'm exaggerating although in other walks of life it definitely happens and tbh accounting for all sources of your income is part of the law), etc., etc.

However, if I'm gleaning enough information from what you've posted - i'm assuming that you would have otherwise been enjoying this night doing other things and that the organisers have asked you to come along and maybe even suggested that "of course we will pay you for your time on this" thus I think when they see the results that you present to them on Cd that they may wish to gift you something appropriate to the effort that you put in. I think this puts you in a whole different situation and eliminates all the worries that i've created in the earlier part of the post. At least it gives you a better point to argue if any litigation were ever to present itself.

You should then think about how to set your self up professionally if this is something that you are intending to pursue - if even just part time.

Taking photographs is serious stuff and needs to be treated as such.

Ballyman

My problem/issue is with people accepting this work when they don't know how to do it properly. How many times do you see the "Help me....I agreed to etc. etc." threads every single week here and on other sites. It's ridiculous.

I have a box of spanners at home. If one of my friends spots that I have a box of spanners I'm not going to accept a job from to fix his car or plumb his house cos I haven't a clue how to do it.

Why should someone with a fancy camera be any different?

AnCatDubh

Actually, just thinking about the idea of someone gifting you because they like you (what you've done for them) and i'm thinking that it isn't such a good idea in so far as if my employer was to gift me an amount like my salary rather than pay me and deduct income tax then the revenue people would rightly have a problem with them / me. Scrap that part of the idea.

Sonya.Max

Ballyman
Well, may be you are right in some ways, but I wasnt saying in my post, that I don have any ideas of how to take photographs. I wasnt doing that kind of events before, I was at children's Birthdays before and I think it is different and may be there are different charges to adult ones. I'm doing studio photos and outdoor portraits, but mainly I'm doing landscapes, IMHO you r a bit too "sharp" on words.
Probably I needed to point in my first post, that I'm looking for advice about the light.
But thanks for your opinio any way:)

pixbyjohn

Sonya. Max How did the shoot go? Are you happy with the photos you took,
I would like to know how you got on.
Regards,
John

Sonya.Max

pixbyjohn wrote: »

Sonya. Max How did the shoot go? Are you happy with the photos you took,
I would like to know how you got on.
Regards,
John

Thanks John.
I think everything went fine. The venue were the party was had a lot of windows, so had no problems with the light.

and I'm very happy that I had such a nice experience:)