Easter pictures

[dgreen]

Hey all,
Tomorrow is Easter and I am going to take pictures of the family and was wondering which lens you would choose if you had my equipment.
Most pictures will be inside but a few will be outside searching for eggs.
Inside I am stuck with the light in the room which is mostly sunlight coming in from the west. It will be about noon so the light should not be direct.
Anyway as far as equipment.
I have a new Canon 40d. I chose Canon because of a friend who has some lenses i can use (or buy if i like).
I have three lenses to choose from (I can use all if i need)
28-135 IS f/3.5-5.6
17-40 f/4L
70-300 IS f/4-5.6

I am enrolled in photography classes and have just started an online class that was recommended here so I plan on getting much better in the future.
But for tomorrow, I want to do as well as i can.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Mav]

The 28-135 should work well indoors but you'll need a flash. Otherwise you'll need to use the 17-40 f/4L in aperture priority at f/4 and crank the ISO up to get the shutter speeds you need (probably 1/60s or faster for reasonably still people). Outdoors the 70-300IS. For kids that are moving about but not going full blast, 1/125s shutter speeds should be OK. The faster the better, though.

 

[dgreen]

Thanks,,
I will give it a try.

 

[iriairi]

Thanks for the question and response.

 

[pristinephoto]

How did the pictures turn out dgreen?

 

[Mav]

Well as for mine, my house has an east/west facing. In the morning with the sun shining in from the east in the living room, I was able to get some natural light shots with my 17-55/2.8 lens at f/2.8 to f/4. After the sun got above the window level though, the light level dropped enough that I was back to flash shooting. I actually like flash shooting better anyways. More control over the light and you can use a lower ISO and stop the lens down a little bit more for greater depth of field. Haven't had time to sort through them yet but here's one straight off of my D80 using the 70-300VR lens and a bounced SB-600 flash that I was pretty pleased with.

 

[JerryPH]

I took a few of my parents and of the decorations, but not many... I was too busy stuffing my face with all the good food... lmao. Still pulled out a hundred or so keepers.

 

[dgreen]

The pictures turned out pretty well.
I am taking classes and therefore using manual mode all the time.
Because it was Easter and the whole family was there I changed to aperture priority or shutter priority and used my Canon 430 flash.
I have tried using the flash in the past but on manual it never worked out.
Anyway to answer the question, the pictures turned out pretty good.
I wish i was to the point I could stay on manual and have the same results.
I am pretty happy with the two modes I used. Although they are pretty automatic, i was able to achieve the result I was looking for. I could blur the background or stop motion on a running child.
Anyway thanks for all the advice.

 

[dgreen]

Tonight I will try to post a couple for you all to review.
Any criticism is welcome, I am learning and my feelings do not get hurt.

Thanks again

 

[JerryPH]

Here you go... www.strobist.com ... to help you out with your flash woes.

 

[dgreen]

OK, I posted a few on my website.
http://www.damongreen.com
Some are ok and some need help.
it was my first try with a flash. I need a little work.
Thanks