Snaps of family

[cargo]

I was wondering if there is a better way to light and take this type of thing.
The photo was on Christmas Day in our dining room spur of the moment thing, the Mom N Dad of the baby wanted to send a photo to there other Daughter who lives with mum in Aussie.
That said I have no experiance of taking photos like this so just did what I thought was right.
To be honest I was quite happy with result(they were too) but am guessing there is a lot I could have done to improve the image.

I had tripod as far back as room would allow hence the odd wide angle.
I used a Canon 450 in manual kit lens 1/50th f8 iso800 self timer to fire shutter.
Flash on ettl 580 ex +2/3 bounced from cieling around where front of table sarts with the white card out.

Focus seems to be on my bottle beer "not ideal" Where should I focus in this type of shot ?

I chose iso 800 and 1/50th to get some ambient but have since realised that I may have been wrong. Shot would have been sharper at sync speed and less noisey.
Would be great to get some ideas on how you clever people would do this. Using the same equipment.
There seems to be a lack of info on taking run of the mill photos that most people want to take.

Sorry for the long post.

Hope some one can help.

Gaz

 

[Diving Pete]

in my - uneducated view...

Composition...
Being square to the table would help,
having some sort of symmetry would also help
get the people to not cover each other (3rd on the right),
remove the tower of pisa in the middle,
give everyone a glass - the same type
remove the obvious clutter.

It would probably be easier to do this the moment everyone sits at the table - before they all get a chance to mess it up....

But what type pic are you trying to achieve..?

 

[cargo]

Hi Pete

Thanks for your reply really appreciate it

Yes I see what you mean square on to table would be better, in this case if I moved tripod to the right I guess thats what you mean ?
Symmetry ? As in who sits where ?
Re : not cover each other. Yep was difficult getting us all to hold glass up and not cover one of the others up. Thats why I had the nearest the camera lean back.Took about 5 and this was the best in that respect.
I get what you mean about glasses and clutter but as you say I was not after a formal type photo just wanted an image of us all doing what normally happens at Christmas playing games (Jenga) eating and having fun.


Gaz