Outdoor Night Event Tips?

[LF124]

Hi Everyone,

New to the forum but I have a simple question and hopefully I'm asking in the right place.

My aunt has a huge Autism Benefit every year which is held in her backyard on the bay. She's never had any pictures of the event because she's been too busy herself to take any (she also is into photography). So this year since I'm attending she asked me to take some. She's not expecting extreme professionalism but I would like to get some good shots and be prepared.

The event starts around 7 or 8 pm (in May) and ends late in the night. So I will be working with dusk and night. The sun sets over the bay so it will light the entire property (as opposed to it setting behind the house). There will be lots of event lighting (all different colors, styles, brightness, etc.) so it won't be completely dark. I'm just not sure how to go about getting the right lighting.

I have a Nikon D5000 and a SB700 to work with. I'm currently working with an 18-55mm which isn't exciting but my aunt has some lenses I can use and I'd also be willing to invest in a new lens. I plan to shoot in RAW.

Thanks for your help!

 

[KmH]

You will likely have white balance issues with the variety of event lighting.

Relying on the SB-700 as your main light source will address that problem (white balance in the camera set fo 'Flash')

Using flash the 18-55 will work fine. If you are not experienced at doing flash photography, just put the camera and flash into AUTO mode and let them make all the exposure decisions. Also turn on the red-eye reduction feature the D5000 has (page 72 of your D5000 users manual).

 

[LF124]

Thanks!

As far as the flash though, I have a diffuser, gels, etc. What would you use for the flash and what angles if there is nothing to bounce the flash off of?

If I were to shoot in P or M what ISO and aperture would you use? I just don't know if I want to trust Auto for the entire night. I just got my flash in December and haven't adjusted any settings but if there are certain settings that would make it better for night photography, please share.

 

[Derrel]

You will likely have white balance issues with the variety of event lighting.

Relying on the SB-700 as youir main light source will address that problem (white balance in the camera set fo 'Flash')

Using flash the 18-55 will word fine. If you are not experienced at doing flash photography, just put the camera and flash into AUTO mode and let them make all the exposure decisions. Also turn on the red-eye reductiion feature the D5000 has (page 72 of your D5000 users manual).

My thoughts EXACTLY...every...single..suggestion...spot-on.

I will add this: simply pay attention to your business when shooting this event, and do not get distracted,and every so often chimp a bit and make SURE your shots are coming out acceptably. Make darned sure you have some spare ALKALINE AA-cells available to you, and that the camera's battery is charged up and ready to go before you even shoot shot #1.

Nikon's entry-level cameras and their speedlights are part of a system designed for photographic knucleheads, like Ashton Kutcher, to be able to set to P mode and use a speedlight and blast away with the camera making the right decisions. You're probably gonna get a lot of Programmed flash shots at exposure like f/4.8 at from 1/60 to 1/125 second at night at ISO 400. I would shoot it ALL at ISO 400,myself.

 

[KmH]

A diffuser just eats light power. Gels are used to compensate the flash unit when the main lights aren't the same color temperature as the flash unit.

Unless you know how to manually control the strobed light exposure, you don't have much choice about not using AUTO.

I probably used P mode twice in 20 years. I mostly used A or M. Since you have the flash unit, use ISO 200.

How far from the camera your subjects are will vary, and so will the needed flash power settings. No one here can tell you what settings to use.

Between now and then you could experiment with i-TTL balanced fill-flash. See pages C-1 thru C-15 of your SB-700 user's manual.

 

[TCampbell]

Diffusers can be very misleading for those starting out in flash. When we say we prefer "diffused" light, we don't actually mean we prefer light that had a little tiny piece of frosted plastic in front of it. What we really want is light that appears to originate from a very broad area rather than originating from a fine pin-point source. A "broad" area means that the transition from shadow to highlight is a soft gentle transition rather than a sharply-defined edge.

Some things referred to as "diffusers" can help feather the light so that if you "bounce" the flash off a ceiling (which should preferably be a white ceiling that isn't too terribly high) the frosted cap of the "diffuser" still kicks *some* of the light forward and that helps fill in areas like eye-sockets that might be in shadow if you were bouncing from a ceiling from a close-distance. That's about the most help you can expect them to provide -- they won't really soften the edges of the shadows; they're just not broad enough. There are some fairly large diffusers made for on-camera flash, but these only have a noticeable effect if your subject is very close. Those frosted caps usually eat up about 1 stop worth of light, and they're not really making the light source more broad -- which means they're basically doing more harm than help.

As you say you will be shooting outdoors, bouncing is not an option for you since there is no "ceiling". A photographer who happens to have an assistant (side-lighter) holding a second flash which remotely fires at the same time as the primary flash can create gentle shadows that add a bit of 3D dimensionality to the images and that works great indoors or outdoors because it doesn't require bouncing. BUT... as you just have a single flash, just point it straight ahead and don't worry about that.