Desperate advice needed for built in flash shots

Hi All

I have been asked to do some family portrait shots at a family engagment party of all places in a working mens club at night ??? Imposible I thought

I am not a big fan of flash photogarphy so therfore I am very reluctant as I would rather not do it than make a complete mess of it. I only have the K10Ds built in flash and a defuser for it but for portraits I am really not sure in this type of indoor lighting.

Also i think the K10Ds AF in low lighting is not the best around so can anyone offer any suggestions or advice if I do decide to go ahead and have a go ???

Cheers Pete

how fast is your lens?
can you work without flash?
can you tape a orange (for incandesent) or magenta (for flouresent) gel over your flash to match it to the facilities lights, and use it for fill?

can you rent some equipment?

if not then set your camera to MF, use your oncamera flash....
keep your subjects away from the walls, get in closer, use wide angle lenses wherever possible, and be prepared to touch up alot of redeye in post.

ps if you're only doing portraits, look into using halogen, or flourecent work lights from a hardware store. they can be bounced or diffused and white color balance for them on manual.

What diffuser do you have for the popup flash?
I made one out of a white film box, and used it a lot in a similar situation. It worked fine and was of course cheap!

Gwyn - that sounds interesting. If you have the time, would it be possible for you to post a photo of your diffuser (if you have a second digital camera, a photo showing the mounting on your pentax would be nice as well...) I've been playing around with a few different ideas for a popup diffuser, but none of them seem both effective AND convenient...

I even use my AF360 flashgun when I don't use the flash... I set it so that it doesn't flash but only fires the IR AF pattern so my DS can focus easier.

If possible I boost the iso to 400 or 800 to avoid using the flash, if I have to use the flash I put on my omnibounce and overexpose 1,5 stops to compensate for the lightloss of the omnibounce (part of this loss get's corrected by the camera itself, but not everything).

The K10D is as good as I've seen
You can help it along a LOT by doing the following:
1) Switch to "Centre only AF"
2) Point the very centre to something with contrast that you want in focus (eyeballs are generally pretty good)
3) Half press and hold
4) Reframe and complete the press.

As you may have seen, my personal preference is to disable the "AF on halfpress" and use the rear AF button. Definite, definite plus point for low-level photog, especially if both you and the subject are standing in the same place - focus once, and then get on with the shooting

The internal flash won't be much use if the subject is more than about 3m away, and if you add a diffuser, that distance will be cut at least in half

My preference for this kind of event would be:
1) Wireless flash with AF360/AF540
2) Ambient light with very bright lens (like the 50mm f/1.4).
3) Use a tripod

For quick grab shots in an unknown place, option 1 is the easiest.
Option 2 is great for very small groups - especially as it captures the mood of the place. However, you have to stand back a long way for any serious group shots.
Option 3 could be a pain, but will get the group shots, the mood and allow you to use the kit lens. At a pinch you could use a monopod if you have a steady hand... but get the group to remain still.

Not really an easy answer....

Matt

Whatever you do, don't leave the lens-hood on. Unless you like dirty great shadows in the bottom half of the frame, that is.

Steve

Classvino, sorry since getting my AF360 I haven't used it, and it isn't in my gadget bag
However what I did was get a film canister, white of course, and cut a slot out of the side of it big enough to just slide over the pop-up flash. Put, or even better glue, the lid on it, and hey presto one free, effective diffuser.

If you have the 16-45 and you zoom to the wide end then the built-in flash is pretty useless because you see the shadow of the flash (on my DS).

I can recomend the AF360FGZ flashgun to anybody as a great piece of kit. If the pricedifference is large enough you can allso get the Samsung SEF-36PZF which is exactly the same unit besides the Samsung brand on it.