Hi,
Going to a suprise birthday party next Sat , and thought it would be a good idea to try my Sony A200 out , I have a 50mm 1.7 and have just repaced the kit lens with a Tamron 17/50 2.8 .
Not being very experienced I would like advice as to which lens to take and settings , my immediate thoughts are the Tamron , also what do I do re the built in flash , leave it on auto ?
Oh forgot its in a pub evening time.
Thanks
Rusty, I'm assuming that the A200 will have similar settings to my old A100.
I would advise setting your flash to "Fill". On auto it will only fire when it thinks it is needed, so if you get a bright light source in the frame (like a spotlamp or the lights above the bar) it might not fire, leaving you with silhouettes.
If there is little ambient light then use wide apertures which will make the most of it.
If there is a reasonable amount of ambient light then check out the "Night Portrait" scene mode. The purists will cringe but this mode is great for getting balanced ambient light and you can switch between AP and the scene modes without having to frig with the settings all the time
Use SSS but bear in mind that whilst you can hand hold down to as low as maybe 1/4 second with reasonable success, you won't stop people moving :bang: You can ask them to hold still but for spontaneous, candid shots etc you will need to think about the shutter speed.
Practice using these settings at home before the day. You may find that you want to dial down the flash exposure a little for a more natural effect. Experiment with iso settings, I find the A100 works well up to iso 800 but the A200 might fair better.
Think about how you intend to record the images too. If you intend to shoot JPG then experiment with white balance settings. If you have noise reduction software then "DRO on" will pull detail out of the shadows but it can increase noise, again experiment before the day.
If you shoot raw then you can adjust these easily in PP.
Have fun
