Would a flash help at this?

[EOS_JD]

Instead of Auto, use P mode which allows more control but is still a fully automatic mode.

Staying in Auto does not allow you to learn anything.

 

[JerryPH]

Instead of Auto, use P mode which allows more control but is still a fully automatic mode.

Staying in Auto does not allow you to learn anything.

IMHO, neither does P-mode. There is a nice little M-mode that is going to be your best friend in helping you learn what you and your camera know or don't know a lot faster.

 

[Mike_E]

If you are worried about the flash ruining the mood of the shot, put a few sheets of orange celophane or a CTO gel over your flash, then bounce it off the wall. That will give the flash the same colour temperature as the ambient light.

:thumbup:

You may not get it exactly right but the gel will help. If you have a speedlight attached then I would just point it backwards over my head. I would also shoot in manual, manually adjust the WB and use RAW because in manual/manual WB you will have the consistency to batch process all of your shots for WB and the RAW also allows for bringing up the Exp. in post (it does a better job, I know you can do the same with jpeg). {once you get your settings right, take a shot of a white towel or piece of paper to get your WB refference in post for all of the rest of your shots}

Pointing the speedlight backwards and over your head just bumps the ambient light up a notch or three and makes it look like you didn't use a flash. This should also get you off that 1.4 aperture for a better DoF.

 

[JerryPH]

Pointing the speedlight backwards and over your head just bumps the ambient light up a notch or three and makes it look like you didn't use a flash. This should also get you off that 1.4 aperture for a better DoF.

As you are firing that flash backwards, don't be blasting the cute barmaids, they don't appreciate it a lot... lol

I'd more suggest shooting up into a ceiling or bounce sideways off wall to the side more than firing backwards, but if there is nothing else... backwards is better than nothing. Also, you will be pleasantly surprised at how little light is needed to go from F/1.4 to something like F/4 under the right circumstances!

 

[Tiberius47]

I fired the flash backwards once. 580EX on full power. Man, I felt that light blasting past what little hjair I have left!

 

[Mike_E]

As you are firing that flash backwards, don't be blasting the cute barmaids, they don't appreciate it a lot... lol

True Dat!

I suggested backwards because that gives the least shadow cast and mimics -ambient only- best. Another benefit is that you don't have to worry about angled ceilings or obstructions.

When I say backwards, I mean at a 45 degree angle up and behind. Most everyone has heard about the white card trick for a flash, but if you get a piece of black paper or sheet foam and put it on the underneath side while pointing it backwards you will find that you keep the flash out of most people's eyes.

 

[EOS_JD]

IMHO, neither does P-mode. There is a nice little M-mode that is going to be your best friend in helping you learn what you and your camera know or don't know a lot faster.

Jerry you are quite right.

Using flash, I always put the camera in M and adjust the amount of ambient light that I want it the shot by use of the shutter speed.

 

[sincere]

You guys, besides all of this..this(pics) was clearly a gettogether and there was no interest in getting super technical and changing stuff around, just wanted to have some nice pictures taken, thats all..

 

[sincere]

Instead of Auto, use P mode which allows more control but is still a fully automatic mode.

Staying in Auto does not allow you to learn anything.

I dont know if you where referring ot me but in my original post i already said that i had it on P mode because it made the best pics in the given situation, without wanting to use manual..

 

[sincere]

True Dat!

I suggested backwards because that gives the least shadow cast and mimics -ambient only- best. Another benefit is that you don't have to worry about angled ceilings or obstructions.

When I say backwards, I mean at a 45 degree angle up and behind. Most everyone has heard about the white card trick for a flash, but if you get a piece of black paper or sheet foam and put it on the underneath side while pointing it backwards you will find that you keep the flash out of most people's eyes.

BIzarre white card trick incident:

one of my friends used this selfmade thing that he put on the flash and it gave all the pics some dots thast looked like dirt. After cleaning the lenses, the sensor, even switching lenses, it was stil there. Then we realized that the thing he used for the flash wasnt all the way clean because once we took it off, the "dirtspots" where gone..

 

[EOS_JD]

I dont know if you where referring ot me but in my original post i already said that i had it on P mode because it made the best pics in the given situation, without wanting to use manual..

Not really I was commenting that Auto does nothing however it's true you won't get much with P either. Camera will select a wide aperture and 1/60th usually,

Shoot M and select a SS and aperture then adjust your ISO till you get what you want.

 

[JerryPH]

If ISO is so high that it gets really hard noise, back down 1-2 notches on the ISO settings and just add increasingly small amounts of light as last step till you get nice pics.

As long as the flash strength stays consistant, thats a nice way for a biginner to start working and get results faster AND better.

 

[Early]

I got the kitlens and a 50/1.4 and whenever i take the cam out in the evening to shoot some flicks, the pics arent the sharpest and they have this orangeish color like the one on the bottom.

The kitlens focuses easier but the 50/1.4 often has problems focusing. Because i wanted to be abnle to shoot spontaneously, the cam is set to P mode. I dont like the way the colors come out on the embeded flash so i was wondering if i did have an external, where i could set the flash, would i still have theser color / focus issues?

What I like about the first shot is the lighting (and shadows), so unless you can set up enough multiple flash units to duplicate it, there’s not much you can do to fix it. Okay, maybe you can use a tripod, have them stay dead still, and close the lens down a stop or so to get the guy on the right more in focus.

The second shot has more or less the same problem, except focus on the front girl since DOF extends further in back of the focused area more than the front.

The color can be corrected somewhat during printing or in photoshop, but I wouldn’t go overboard with it.

 

[BradUF]

You should not need flash because I have a 50/1.8 and take pictures at bars with no flash. Just slow the shutter speed down and hold very still..

 

[JerryPH]

You should not need flash because I have a 50/1.8 and take pictures at bars with no flash. Just slow the shutter speed down and hold very still..

You cannot say it globally like like that. He doesn't have a 1.8, but a 1.4 (which I see you missed reading), which is even faster than your 1.8 and it was still quite dark. Obviously some bars are darker than others.