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Photography Question 

Joseph M. Kolecki
 

Indoor Group Shots


 
 
I have a question about indoor group shots...

First, I shoot with a Nikon D200, a 17-55 F2.8 lens and an SB-800 with diffuser.

Ok, so for me, a normal camera setting (handheld) for a relatively dimly lit room is F2.8-F4 at 1/30th - 1/60th of a second ISO 400-500 with sometimes increasing exposure/power on my flash and using a focal length of 35-55.

My results usually end up with well lit people with a decent background. Bad parts of the photo usually involve people not as crisp and clear as they could/should be, especially around the edges.

I would like to increase aperature to F8-F10 to sharpen however my fear is that I will completely lose my background since I do not want to drop below 1/30th of a second hand holding... Can anyone advise?


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June 03, 2008

 

Joseph M. Kolecki
  By the way, if anyone is wondering why their is a purple/redish tint to this pic... Its from using a Gary Fong light sphere with an Amber Dome mounted on top and the white balance of the camera turned to Tungsten...

Honestly, it seems I get poor results more often than not using Gary Fong light sphere... I'm not sure if I am doing something wrong but I think I am going to resort back to my good ol Omni Bounce.


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June 03, 2008

 

W.
 
Hi Joseph,

have you already tried upping the ISO to 1600? You would gain 2 stops of light that way, which would work out to around F/8.0.

About that GF diffuser: you may want to try an "ABBC" (A Better Bounce Card), a 2 dime D-I-Y diffuser that runs rings around the screamingly expensive Tupperware diffusers in terms of effectiveness.
http://www.abetterbouncecard.com/.

Have fun!


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June 03, 2008

 
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