Out of comfort zone... Advise...

[Kayak Shooter]

Ive been shooting wildlife for over 20 years. Today a friend asked if I would shoot his art exhibit. I TOLD HIM I LACK EXPERIENCE, but he said it beats iphone pics. Lol.

So tonight I have to take pictures of people....yuck.

I bought an Sb700 just now to replace an old vivitar.

My D750 is with Nikon, so I'll be using my D7100.

Which lenses shouls I use? 35mm f1.8, 50mm f1.8, 85mm f1.8, 18-55, 18-200, 70-200 f4?

I'm tempted to use the 18-200 since it isnt a pro job and carry the 35mm just in case.

Any advice on camera settings... I'm out of my element.

 

[ceejtank]

What's the Fstop for the 18-200? If you're shooting just for a friend, and he's wanting a "documentary" shot of people and not artistic, i'd rock the 85 1.8 (without knowing the aperture for the 18-200

 

[Kayak Shooter]

F3.5-5.6...

I think I may just throw all the primes in the bag...

 

[sm4him]

REALLY depends on where the art exhibit IS. I've been to some in large, well-lit spacious rooms where you would have plenty of room to work with just about any of those lenses; and I've been to some with much more limited space and/or lighting constraints.
I'd take the 85mm f/1.8 and the 35mm as well, and I'd probably haul the 18-200 in just as a possibility.

 

[Overread]

I'd say the 18-200mm would be worth taking; its got a huge zoom range and not all that wide a series of apertures. But its strength is in that zoom range. You can get it to work in nearly any environment and thus might be your saving grace if things prove very tight tonight.

Without seeing the venue first its very hard to judge; the primes in the bag would certainly do and 35, 50 and 85mm should be more than enough for such an event (up to 200mm is really if you're standing in an audience at an event rather than mingling with the crowds).



Flash is essential, though mind the roof and walls. An art gallery should have pretty neutral walls and they might be a good height too - however they could be way into the clouds or coloured. Beams and other obstructions can also mean that the trick of firing the flash upward or bouncing it off a wall for soft light just might not work (in my own home with low ceilings and beams it sometimes means that yes you can bounce; but if you don't get it right you'll lose a chunk of light where a beam blocks it).

I'd say go and have fun - chances are "better than an iphone" is all they need if its a very low budget affair.

Good luck dealing with the difficult humans - and remember- they are wild and VERY unpredictable creatures!

 

[Derrel]

If they want grin & grin stuff, or pics of people standing around and looking at the artwork, there might be a real need to boost the ambient with flash, so as to keep flood- and spot-lighted artwork from burning to a crisp. Normally, I'd gel the flash with an orange filter to bring it down to close to the color temperature of the (most likely) quartz-halogen lamps that illuminate the artwork, and then the flash, which will be acting as fill-in light against the backlighting/background lights, will be a close match to the incandescent color temp artwork lighting.

Flash...use a Sto-Fen or Nikon diffuser cap on the flash, and tip the flash up to 75 degree tilt and shoot a combo of bounce/direct, and stay at 10 feet. Beyond 10 feet, remove the cap...it will not help much.

Honestly? I would use the 18-55 zoom for the grip and grin/people looking at art stuff, in Single AF mode, and make sure that the AF Assist is allowed to be ON, in the custom function menus...that lens has the right range of focal lengths to make almost any shot you'd likely need to make on people. That is how I would shoot this: using an orange-gelled flash FLASH, white balance set to the AMBIENT lighting (probably 2,900-3,200 Kelvin) whenever I needed fill light, and keeping the artwork/exhibits from blowing out terribly.

If you do not have people seen semi-silhouetted against bright light, you can shoot using the room lighting, OR you can shoot using your flash as the main lighting...you have a lot of options. One option for small groups of people might be to go to Auto FP Synch, and shoot at like f/8, but at a FAST shutter speed, like say 1/800, and make the background light on a neat-looking exhibit look very,very dark; this is an old way to shoot grip & grin/reception pics so the background "drops to black", which some people like. The opposite is matching the background light level with the flash...Nikon's TTL-BL does that pretty well, or you can just manually "drag the shutter" to get the backdrop looking as bright, or as dark, as you like.

Luckily, this is the digital era: check your rear LCD and make sure you're not screwing anything up! What could be easier!

 

[Overread]

Derrel raises a good point about the AF assist light in flash units. I will also remind that AF assist lights do NOT work unless you are in single shot AF mode. I say that because if you're anything like me chances are your camera lives in continuous AF mode (where AF assist lights don't work and where it takes ages to work out why the heck it won't work when you try using it for the first time in ages ).