Flash set up for a party

[RaglanSurf]

Hi folks,

A good friend of mine is celebrating his 50th Birthday in a restaurant soon, we have a separate room, the walls are mostly white, and there will be approximately 20-25 people.
I have a Nikon D90 and have borrowed an SB600. I have a choice of three lenses a 50mm 1.8, an 18-200 and a 10-20.
Which lens do I take and what do I set the camera and flash for? Do I just set everything on AUTO and let it do its thing? Please bear in mind that I will be drinking and really just want it to be a glorified point and shoot for the night so i won't want to be playing with settings.

I like the idea if being able to zoom in and get some candids as well as the obligatory group shots so I'm thinking the 18-200 will be my best choice.

I never really use flash so any advice will be much appreciated. Thanks

 

[Scotty B]

Stick the flash on top, TTL mode, +0.7exposure and bounce it off the ceiling will be easiest.
Make sure the cmaera is set to matrix metering.

So basically all you'll to adjust is the flash head when you take a shot in portrait format.

Should see you through with minimal fuss.

and use the 18-200. The 50mm is great but the DOF is so shallow at 1.8 and at 75mm on a crop it's far to long.

 

[RaglanSurf]

Stick the flash on top, TTL mode, +0.7exposure and bounce it off the ceiling will be easiest.
Make sure the cmaera is set to matrix metering.

So basically all you'll to adjust is the flash head when you take a shot in portrait format.

Should see you through with minimal fuss.

and use the 18-200. The 50mm is great but the DOF is so shallow at 1.8 and at 75mm on a crop it's far to long.

That's exactly what I wanted to hear, Thanks Scotty