Nice shots Bland, I'm also in the process of trying to be more creative/brave with flash! This thread has given me some new ideas, thanks all.

Gareth...I'm addicted to shooting into the sun but I can't chance it when I'm shooting an event for someone like I am today.

What I'm going to try and do next year is start shooting some races into the sun but have someone with me holding a white reflection board. By theory is the reflection will always be in balance with the sun I'm shooting into and provide perfect fill.

Good luck today, looking forward in hearing how it comes out.

i'm currently trying to perfect using fill in situations like you are shooting this afternoon. sounds easier than it is. i really don't like the hard mid day shadows, but kids events are usually during the day. there are so many variables that it can be really hit and miss. for instance if the sun goes behind a cloud the exposure might drop by a significant amount of stops, then my fill turns into key and the background is far too dark.

going out to practise today, hopefully i can get it sorted.

Thanks everyone but I'm really going to work hard on learning the rear curtain technique. I saw some shots this morning in our paper that was done that way last night and they are incredible.
Two things I learned last night shooting straight on with standard TTL is my shots worked for the most part when I was shooting at a distance and had to zoom out with a lot of background in the picture. The other thing that seemed to work was when I was in tight with the subjects and could meter off of their faces.
Today I get to shoot a Toys4Tots motorcycle parade in sunny skies. I can't wait to see what my new D7000 and 24-120/F4 can do in perfect shooting conditions! :)

Bland said:
Well, I learned a lot this evening. lol I see what was said about going wide. Good learning experience, looking forward to the next one!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2562819683609.126268.1647615973&type=1&l=fba089de98

Nice job Bland. As others have mentions, it is a hard to shot in such circumstances.

Not sure how this would all work, but I would think having two SB-700 in conjunction with some Poketwizard (one MiniTT1 and one FlexTT5) with an assistant, possibly a family/friend, holding one at a different angle would help with the light, thus allowing to use lower ISO and faster shutter speed in getting sharper images. Just a thought.

Never the less, thanks for sharing the pic's. Looks like everyone had a good time.

Cheers

I think coming out with anything really good in that setting would be very challenging. tbh i probably wouldn't even try. and i would use my d700 and my 35 1.4 and have no issue shooting wide and at 1600 ISO.

you need to get creative and lucky to get anything really special in that situation.

Look good!

Shot some of that this week as well. Here is the basic of what I did with my D300 and SB900
Flash:
-1/2 comp
Nikon diffusion snap on thing
Front curtain (I do not like rear with that much movement)
Manual mode
Dragged the shutter 1/4 - 1/30 @ F4
Camera:
Raw (wb was bad)
640 bottom 800 high auto ISO

Essentially they looked the same as you got - just another way of doing it I guess. Honestly I didn't really like any of mine. No real portfolio type goodness from that night.

I did shoot my Fuji X100 in B&W with Yellow filter on and almost all at 6400 with no flash & -1.3 comp. They turned out better. Go figure.

Well, I learned a lot this evening. lol I see what was said about going wide. Good learning experience, looking forward to the next one!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2562819683609.126268.1647615973&type=1&l=fba089de98

Gareth said:
let us know how it went

Zero light, that's how it went! LOL
Actually I pulled it off but so glad you two told be to take my flash. I was trying to do the rear curtain and saw what you were explaining before the parade started but I didn't have the time to get it dialed in. I'll have it figured out before the next one and can't thank you two enough for telling me about it.
I'm editing now, I'll post some pics later.

let us know how it went

Thanks Rummer and Gareth, I'll have about 30 minutes of dark to experiment before the parade starts. I'll try to figure out the rear curtain flash.

I agree with all of Gareth's suggestions. I'm not sure about the the quality and quantity of lighting on the particular street where the parade will be, but try to see if you can find an area with the best quality of light along the route. Shoot in Manual or Aperture Priority at f/4 with the ISO between 1600 and 3200 depending on the amount of light. I would only use ISO6400 if you really need to push it. Don't use any of the Hi settings in ISO. Another option may be to shoot a stop or two underexposed in RAW instead of JPEG, which may give you some wiggle room for exposure control in post.

If you are going to use the SB700, you may want to try CLS and use off camera flash, which may give you better control of the type of flash and ambient lighting you want to keep in the photo. As Gareth said, try rear curtain flash to get a sense of motion of the parade without everything being blurred.

Gareth said:

I would definitely use the SB700. At the very least it will be a huge help with af assist if the people aren't moving too fast. You could also set it to rear curtain and use a slow shutter speed to capture the movement, and the flash to expose and give clarity. If you haven't done this before, it is not that easy and I suggest you practise. It will give good results in this situation though.

I haven't tried that type of flash usage before and won't have time to learn it by this evening. Would slow sync work?

As far as ISO is concerned, you're going to have to use whatever exposes the shot.

You most likely wont be able to use slower that 1/250 as I assume the people will be moving. At night you are very unlikely to have enough light for 1/500 as you are stuck with F4. That means, whatever ISO works, is what you are stuck with.

You can do some wider shots where the people blur, but not a whole lot of those.

I would definitely use the SB700. At the very least it will be a huge help with af assist if the people aren't moving too fast. You could also set it to rear curtain and use a slow shutter speed to capture the movement, and the flash to expose and give clarity. If you haven't done this before, it is not that easy and I suggest you practise. It will give good results in this situation though.

Any tips? All I'll have for light is from the street lights.

I'll be shooting my D7000 with the F4 24-120 lens. I've got a SB700 but was hoping not to have to use it. How high of an ISO can I go and etc?