Hi Larry, I've been in a similar situation but without my camera to hand (and unfortunately not just a group of girls) (I hate it when that happens). Most people have their point and shot cameras set to really silly modes - or even just the green mode. I find by changing the flash setting and selecting a different mode you can get a usable picture (at least from their perspective). The modes are all similar and you should know what each one does to the way the camera operates - sport mode is fast shutter, landscape mode is wide aperture, night mode is extended ISO leaning to a slightly faster shutter speed, portrait should be shallow depth of field. It saves me trying to find some sort of manual control to get it to behave the way I want. You don't have to use the mode the camera suggests, but one that makes the camera do what you want is always a help.
A piece of white paper held in front of the flash can make a world of difference in the right circumstances too. I'd still rather use my own equipment though. Leon On 16 December 2010 21:42, Larry Colen <[email protected]> wrote: > I was at a party tonight and some of the girls wanted a group photo. So they > grabbed me and handed me their point and shoot. We went into a back room with > a better wall for a background, I took a shot or two, but the flash just made > the shots look terrible. So I grabbed my camera bag, pulled out the K-x and > took a couple of shots, but at 6400 and 1/20 f/2.8 I just wasn't happy, and > ended up bouncing the AF 540 off the ceiling to get something half decent. > > I like to think that the important thing is my skill as a photographer, > rather than the equipment, and it's nice to be the guy that the girls flag > down when they want a picture, but I really doubt I can do much better with a > point and shoot that I've never seen before than anyone else. > > Oh well, I guess that part of the skill is knowing when you need to grab a > bigger hammer. > > -- > Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
