how to, using flash

I am a mainly macro pic taker. I have now been asked to take pictures of our church mens monthly meeting. These will be put on the church web site.
I have a K10 plus a pentax 280T flash.
Can some kind soul guide me on how to set up the flash and the best lens or more than one lens to use.
I anticipate a group shot of twenty plus men so expect this to be a reasonbly wide lens, then shots of the men sat at table enjoying their meal.
Help. I am well out of my comfort zone with this.

When's the event, meaning how long do you have to prep?

And what's the environment? If it is the typical darker church interior, then a 280T may be short on power to help much at all for a 20 person group. Hopefully it will be a modern room with larger windows to provide ambient light.

Action mid May and in a modern church hall and in the evening.

regards thoramay

You'll need to use the AF280T in one of it's auto modes, or on full power with manual camera settings.

The angle of flash & lens coverage will be important.

Must do a trial run, Peter. I have not used this flash for yonks. How about lens. I will be circulating the tables for shots as well as a group shot.

regards Thoramay.

Indeed go for a trial run if you can, even if only for a few minutes, at the same approx. time of day. Amazing how much becomes obvious once you've had a go.

Forgot about the ceiling. But 280T is more powerful than I thought (90 vs 120 for the 283 that I use) so should be fine for small group shots, and perhaps enough for good illumination of the large group.

If you can trial run with a helper (or a tripod and self-timer ) you could figure out if you can afford to use up some flash power to bounce off of the ceiling - assuming it is a normal level whitish ceiling. But it may affect the initial exposure suggested by the flash if the flash doesn't handle it automatically in Auto when you tilt up the head. If a raised or sloping ceiling, you may be down to a diffuser (or cut up milk bottle or drinks cup), or just the (naked) flash head.

I find a diffuser is useful just because it doesn't annoy the victims anywhere near as much, as they can still see afterwards! Similarly I'd avoid any pre-flash by using manual mode on camera and leave flash Auto setting to do its thing. Any resulting red-eye will have to be dealt with later. If you have a flash bracket from your macro work which will get the flash off the center line of the camera/lens then this will help the image greatly as well as reducing risk of red-eye. Not too far off though, as I don't believe that 280T has a remote auto sensor option like the Vivitar 283.

On auto the flash should recharge fast enough (as it won't be fully depleted). That won't be the case with the bigger group, but it'll take you a while to get all of them ready for the next shot anyways.

And the camera's flash may cope with the small group shots, but that darned pre-flash ... ruins any chance of a candid shot.

As to lens, you can use whatever you've got which best covers the aperture requirements of the flash that you determine you'll need without going silly with the DOF. But you'll probably need a much wider lens for the large group than you'd ever want to use in the smaller or 1-on-1 shots, unless you want accentuate certain facial features of course

And take lots and lots of shots, you'll be amazed how many need to be junked: your error, AF error if using, or just 1 person doing something which is best not published!

That sounds a whole lot of useful info. I have always had an aversion to sticking my camera lens in someones face, and then there is always the joker. So, lots and lots of pics and just hope that I get it right.
I have an 18-55 and 28-80 zoom and lots of others. Will need to take several and try to see how I can fit twenty or more in the shot.
I am grateful for your guidance.
regards thoramay

My 2p worth...

* Use "A" on the flash (the lower power one I think is red?) The lower power on will recycle quicker and batteries will last longer. On digital you have the benefit of higher sensitivities than film
* Use "M" on the camera.
* Use a fairly high ISO - e.g. ISO800
* Set the camera aperture to match the reading on the flash
* Now adjust the shutter speed on the camera so that the exposure reads between -1Ev and -2Ev. The shutter speed should be slower than 1/180s.

If you don't like the shutter speed (either too fast or two slow), then adjust the ISO and repeat.

That way, the ambient lighting is just underexposed, and the flash will fill in the difference.

Try it at home first It's a doddle

... just watch out for the minimum and maximum distances too! If your subject is too close they will always be overexposed.

If you shoot RAW then you can always claw back some of the lighting in PP

Matt

I see no-ones said anything about lenses yet. Since you are going to be using your flash it's not necessary to get a low light beast to handle this job. You don't say what lenses you already have (oops ! just spotted you did - ah well) or whether you have a budget to buy / lease another one.

Anyway the Tamron 17-50/2.8 is a very reasonable price and could handle this - and your table to table hopping for singles, couples or more - quite comfortably. Of course the Sigma 17-50/2.8 is a slight step up for just a little more money and the Pentax 16-50 is also comparable but a rather large step up price wise. If you don't want to buy another lense and have the kit 18-55 then that should be capable enough too though won't offer the low DoF for creative singles / couples shots.

You could also look at primes however the flexibility, ease of use & price of a 17-50 / 2.8 zoom seems to fit the bill though.

Might be obvious, but check the white balance on the camera once the flash is switched on.
On my K200, I assumed it would be automatically set to flash, but it didn't. Ended up with lots of odd looking washed out shots, before I realised.

Having lens is not an issue. I have the choice of the following. It is a case of which. Remember! I have no experience of this type of photography.
DA 18-55
FA 28-80
F 24-50
F 17-28
40mm pancake 2.8
Cosina 24mm
tamron 18-250
A 28mm.
regards thoramay.

DA 18-55.

The FA 28-80 could be OK since you are using flash as it's a slow lense .. but it's not that sharp either so I'd leave it at home.

You do need to take a back-up lense though (just in case !) so maybe the 18-250 which is slow but sharp (is it sharper than the 18-55 anyone ? If so then maybe that should be your weapon of choice) and the 40/2.8.

I'd go with the 40mm 2.8... The lens's faster aperture should give you more leeway to control the flash exposure...

Shutter speed dictates how much ambient light the sensor sees... So at full sync (1/180 on pentax dslr's) your not getting much of the ambient light...

Aperture controls the flash exposure... for example if your flash is at half power but your at f5.6 and under exposed... You can open up a stop to f4 or 2 stops to 2.8

ISO increments also relate to ONE stop of light as does the flash power settings...

Example... If you have a correct exposure at ISO-100, flash at full (1/1) and f11... You could get the same exposer at quarter power (1/4) and f5.6

I woulg go with the fastest glass you have... and if you can get the flash off camera then all the better... Could be fun for the 'gents' to have to take it in turns to hold your flash out of frame lighting up the scene... Gets them all involved...

Good luck with it

Although I'm assuming it's the DA-40mm and not the M-40mm...

If the 'M' version you'll struggle to get many people in the frame without backing right up...

The field of view from both lenses will be exactly the same

John