Frum, I need your sagely photo advice

[Spoon]

Hey, im shooting my friends' Parents' annaversary(spl?) in a few days, and i was wondering if you have any advice. Shooting with a Nikon D90, using a 50mm prime F1.4 lens that can be switched out for a 18-200mm like f3.5, a SB400 flash with defuser and a flash connection wire. Any advice or tricks you can impart would be appreciated.
cheers
Spoon

[Frumius]

Hmmm. Be brave, be true, and have your white flag handy just in case.

Ok, ok. Well, hmm... Without being there driving from the back seat sayin' do this and do that, I'll see if I can come up w/ anything in general.

That 18-200 will be a decent general purpose lens. The 50mm f/1.4 will be sharper, but you probably need the flexibility of the zoom for a lot of your on-the-fly shooting. But when you are able to pull people out of the melee and do some portraits, I'd put the 50mm on for sure. Really: when you can, use the 50, but the other one will make it real easy to frame things when you can't always backup or move forward to catch the photos you need.

Bounce the flash when you can.

Shoot at as high a shutter speed as you can, but don't set the ISO too high just to get it, as there'll be more noise when you do. The faster shutter speed will give you steadier shots (that is, record less camera movement), stop action, and ensure that you have a wider aperture, which is nice for keeping your subject separate from the background because with a wider aperture there is less depth of field.

On the flip side, if you absolutely need more light sensitivity, damn the noise and raise the ISO!

Shoot in RAW! (unless you don't have a decent RAW editor -- Bridge is fine, it comes with Photoshop).

Be all over the place and catch everything in candids. Pick people out who go with each other (couples, families) and photo them specifically as well.

If you're the main photographer, don't be afraid to make it look that way. People get out of the way when you're The Man. And don't feel bad about taking the best photo spot; if you're the one they're depending on, then you have an obligation to be in the best spot. I hate being rude, but sometimes you have to squeeze yourself in.

If there are any ceremonies, be sure to photograph that. I really don't know what format the party is, I have been picturing (as it were) an outside wedding for some reason, under white canvas tents, no less. That's prolly not the setting you'll have! It's the last one I had, tho, heh. I really rarely shoot weddings and stuff like that, actually.

If I think of anything else, I'll add it in a subsequent post here. And if you have any questions post away or pm me. It notifies me if I'm pmed; whereas I may not remember to check back for a while otherwise.

[Spoon]

Well, its been and done and everything went fine. I got some great (read: great for people shots, i hate people shots, im more of a long exposure, weird stuff photo kind of guy.) and i got to eat some of the best beef ive ever had. Thanks for the tips frum. Also, i was wandering through the MWC forums and saw a picture you made called "contemplation" and you said it was done with an FM2. I recently inherited one of these from my granddad (hes not dead, he just passed it along) and I was wondering if you could explain how you were able to take another photo without winding the film on to the next frame. cheers.
Ill PM this to you so you might see it and respond

[Frumius]

Hi, Spewn! Glad your phrodos worked out well.

I'm going to link to an image of the top of an FM2 off of the web, so hopefully it won't go away. There are FM2's and FM2n's, mine is the "n" (I forgot what the difference is).

In the image below, see that little black tab that sticks out from the film advance crank toward the strap attach point? If you use your index finger to pull that around toward your body as you c*** * the shutter (I wonder if that would get blammed on mariusnet forums?) you will be cocking the shutter without advancing the film. You can do that indefinitely to keep piling up exposures on one piece of film. It is such a great thing. I loved doing multiple exposures. It's what I did before I had Photoshop. Oh, and long exposures. Gawd I long for long exposures.

I haven't even really tried anything longer than like 30 seconds with digital. I'd need some fancy electronic shutter release that would use batteries just to keep the shutter open! It's ridiculous how dependent upon batteries and electronics that photography has become. That FM2 doesn't need a battery at all to function (though it does need the little button battery for the meter), while with my great D300 I can't do squat without megawatts of power and CPU cycles, nevermind the slight exaggeration. The last camera I had that would let me use a mechanical shutter release cable was the F4, another awesome camera. Sometimes I miss film, but I can't go back because of all the conveniences digital offers.






*Jesus christ you can't even c o c k a shutter without forums freaking out these days. It's ridiculous. Let's shelter everyone from everything! It's a real word, fer cryssakes. So we can't use real words for real things because someplace out there someone might think it was a slang term. Sheesh. I'm sick of everything. Sick! Sick and tired. You know what? Those ASTERISKS that c-o-c-k turns into are the very things that will make someone think it means something else when it is being used in its original and legitimate sense. It's disgusting foolishness. I quit.

[vinylrake]

yah the filtering thing is a pain when words have more than one meaning, but free forum software doesn't generally give you context-sensitive filtering, just lists of words you can filter. so if you want a kid friendly site, it's either brute force word substitution or someone gets the job of reading every single post and filtering things manually. can't think of anyone who has the time or interest to take on that job.

[Spoon]

i can see a few differnces between the N and the reg FM2 (diff numbers are red, i have something that reads x200 after 4000 on the shutter speed wheel, dunno what that does.) but it looks basically the same, so thanks for the tip. I am already picturing ideas. (geddit?) I actually have had a lot of success with my DSLR in taking long exposures, i guess cus i can look at the screen and make f stop and shutter speed adjustments when needed. Hang in there big guy, we can still fight for the freedom to use words like that in techinal explanations along with reasonably priced mushroom cheeseburgers if we stand together (YOU CAN TAKE OUR LIVES, BUT NOT OUR GARNISHMENTS!!!)
I'm sure ill have more questions for you later, so for now, thank you sensei.
cheers

[Frumius]

i can see a few differnces between the N and the reg FM2 (diff numbers are red, i have something that reads x200 after 4000 on the shutter speed wheel, dunno what that does.)

Aha! Ok, I think I don't have the "n" variation. Mine also has the x200, and that's the max flash synch speed, otherwise the red 125 is the synch speed. The one in the photo above must be the "N" version with its 1/250 flash synch speed.

I had not paid any attention to the poor darling in years. It has this old 85mm f/1.8 lens on it, and man, that is a nice (if old) lens. Really sharp.

OMG! There's film in it! Hmm, it's on #7. It's on ISO 100. I wonder what's in it! I mean, shoot, it could be B&W, slides or color neg... I was just thinking mb I'd take it out and see about processing it, but, dang, what a hassle and expense. See what digital does to ya?

Sure goes to show how much you save money-wise with digital. Man, that F4 I mentioned above cost around $2,000 when I got it in 1989 or '90. The D300 I got last year was about $1800 if I recall. (The FM2 was $300 used when I got it at a camera shop). I take tons of photos with it. I cannot imagine paying for all that processing, then scanning! Wow. What an amazing savings. The D300's resolution is the same as a 35mm scanned at 4,000 ppi.

I do so love this digital stuff. I take way more photos, it is freeing in that way. But that FM2, being completely mechanical, would keep working after a nuclear holocaust. The D300 would be worthless without a power source constantly handy for charging its batteries. It even needs power to keep the shutter open with an electronic cable release, but that does make sense as it has to sit there processing the light hitting the sensor. I just miss film, but I love digital, but I miss film, but I love digital, but I miss film...


....NORMAN COORDINATE...!

[Spoon]

ya, I think as i take more pictures, i get more torn between film and digital. Its a tussle. thanks for letting me know what that x200 is, i dont really use flash with my film camera's anyway. I'm hoping to major in photography (been using an slr for 10 years, but just got serious about it like 3 years ago.) but i have to deal with a bunch of prerequisites to transfer that are just giving me hell (Who gives advanced statistics stuff in an introductory statistics class? who does that?!?) so wish me luck. If you have any tips for making it in the big leagues, let me know, cus photography is the only thing i think i can do for a living that wouldnt drive me totally nuts.
cheers

[Frumius]

If you have any tips for making it in the big leagues, let me know,

Haaaaaaaaaa! I don't make a living at it. It's a side thing. I have no idea how to make it in the big time, just how to take a picture and stuff. When you get there yourself, please hook me up!