Baby Shower/Question

[Suzanne Inzerella]

Hi, I'll be taking pictures tomorrow for a friend of mine. Her daughter is almost due to have her baby. My question is.....how do most of you shoot when in fast moving events like this? I'm thinking that my best bet will be to set the camera on Shutter priority. I'm planning to use my 18-55 wide angle lens and my 70-300 zoom lens. I prefer the 70-300 because I can blurr the background if needed but sometimes can't get in tight places. I'm not sure how large or small the place will be. I'm planning to use my (speedlight SB 600) and I'll be shooting with the Nikon D-50. I'm going to go early so I can take pictures of the place and some still shots....then I'm prepared for lots of action to take place. Any advice here? I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks....

Suzanne

[Guest]

What settings do you normally use?

It is hard to reply to this question because the question posed indicates you have very little experience with the camera, (not trying to be rude, please understand that).

And to teach you something new just before a shoot that could be important to you is folly, you need to use what you are used to doing, weather it's the best or not the best method, because you need to focus on the image, not the functions of your camera.

I strongly encourage you to get to know your camera, test all functions, all settings, all ISO settings, the various white balance settings, RAW and Jpeg, and find what your camera can do for you first hand.

Myself I use manual exposure 99% of the time, pretty much never use any auto setting.

Auto settings don't work always if you are finding the light, because the meter can mis-read what is really needed.

It sounds like this is not a paid assignment, but still the same, I know you want to do the best you can with this special occasion, so do that which you know to do for now, you don't need to miss the moment because you are fussing with the settings or got the setting wrong.

Again, get to know your camera, put it through the paces, ask questions, show examples.

[Suzanne Inzerella]

Thanks Craig, I almost always shoot on manuel when I'm outdoors. I find that for events like these....I miss out on some shots when I'm trying to do manuel. I guess it's because I keep my eyes on the inside meter and in a situation like this....I get nervous because I'm afraid to miss out on some shots because it doesn't come fast for me....I have to think about it for a minute or so. I would say that my main problem right now is learning how to judge my settings when I'm using flash because I'm unable to read the inside meter. Any suggestions here?

BTW....I ended up shooting on A.P and S.P for almost everything. The only thing that I was disappointed in....was they didn't want to do still shots....they said that is why they didn't want to hire a photographer. The food was awesome thought....I ended up taking more pictures of the food because noone wanted to take pictures. CRAZY!!

Thanks again,
Suzanne