I need a little help and advise on photographing a charity event.......

[buzzlightweight]

So an old school friend was doing the scumrun for charity and suffered an injury which put him into a coma for over a month.
His insurance only covered 80% of the hospital fees so to help cover the short fall we (family and friends) are doing an event to raise money for him.

He is now out of the coma and back in England but still needs the funds to cover the shortfall.

The event will be hosted in a moody night club in worthing (thats being nice!), it will have three live bands and a silent auction some when?

Bearing in mind its going to be in a dark club I think I have an adequate camera, the Canon 6D.
I was thinking of using my Sigma 35mm F1.4 (both have great low light performance), and i also have a Yongnuo YN-568EX flash.

I have shot at one gig before so experience is limited, i had a Sigma 30mm and a Canon 550D -


bar 4250 by Buzz_Lightweight, on Flickr


bar 4206 by Buzz_Lightweight, on Flickr


bar 4208 by Buzz_Lightweight, on Flickr


bar 4210 by Buzz_Lightweight, on Flickr


bar 4213 by Buzz_Lightweight, on Flickr


bar 4206 by Buzz_Lightweight, on Flickr

As I said he is out of the coma so i want him to appreciate the event by the photos I take.

So my question is how should i approach this?

I was planning on using the flash to photograph attendees, like night club togs do and obviously take the flash off for the bands.

But what should i do and how? I don't want to mess this up.

Many thanks Buzz

 

[theheyes]

24-105 w/flash for the attendees and the 35mm 1.4 for the band sounds reasonable. You're going to have to adapt and chimp a bit to see what's working and what isn't. I find photographing bands in the dark a bit of a pain with focusing but that might just be my camera.

 

[Invertigo]

You'll find using the centre point for focusing easy enough, as the 6D centre point is the most sensitive on any Canon camera so far? (Outside the 1D range, which I have no idea about)

As for the attendees, that sounds like a good plan. If there's lights and movement behind them, try using a slow shutter of around 1/15 or similar with the flash set to E-TTL. Obviously a diffuser will help too, reduce the harshness.

 

[buzzlightweight]

24-105 w/flash for the attendees and the 35mm 1.4 for the band sounds reasonable. You're going to have to adapt and chimp a bit to see what's working and what isn't. I find photographing bands in the dark a bit of a pain with focusing but that might just be my camera.

I did think that but i want min equipment and i didnt really fancy lens swapping, but i like the idea.... i will give it more thought

You'll find using the centre point for focusing easy enough, as the 6D centre point is the most sensitive on any Canon camera so far? (Outside the 1D range, which I have no idea about)

As for the attendees, that sounds like a good plan. If there's lights and movement behind them, try using a slow shutter of around 1/15 or similar with the flash set to E-TTL. Obviously a diffuser will help too, reduce the harshness.

Oh damn straight the center is very very good in low light, that was my plan i have a diffuser for my flash but i was thinking of testing with a low zoom and low power on manual rather than eTTL but your suggestion does make sense, thank you