help with night time photos

[iPhoto17]

on holloween i want to go out and take pictures of the kids and people dressed, not portraits but like a sort of candid kind of thing. what are good setting to use for night time and should i use my flash or what? i would htink id have to use my flash.

and i know my rights as a photographer that i can photograph in public places on public grounds such as side walks and streets and no one can do anything or tell me to leave or stop or take my film or memory card.

plus, kids dont walk anymore, the parents drive up house to house with 50 kids in the car

 

[bcshort]

Note: I am not a portrait photographer, so my comments should be taken as anecdotal only.

On the topic of Flash, what I would probably do is make sure the flash fires on the 2nd Curtain. This means it fires just before the shutter closes, rather than just as the shutter opens. This means you have some chance of exposing the background instead of having a deer in headlights effect.

On that subject of deer in headlights, I would look at somehow trying to diffuse the flash somehow, either by bouncing it off something, using a diffuser or something.

 

[iPhoto17]

how you set the flash to go off on the second curtain then?

 

[syphlix]

depends on what camera you have. it's in the manual.

 

[Felix0890]

Use a tripod for clear, focused pictures. Or at least set the camera down on something sturdy. I'm not a fan of using flash so I'd go with a low-ish ISO (100-300) and a medium shutter speed.