Night time event photography

[Ellen]

Hi everyone,

I took some photos at my boyfriends mums 60th the other night, and while some turned out nice, I seemed to have a lot of problems with focussing - i.e. maybe because of the dark room my camera couldn't find the people to focus on??

I had my 17-70mm lens on, and used my sigma 530 flash.

Any hints or tips on how I can avoid this in the future?

Thansk

[arthurking83]

Does the Sigma flash have a focus assist beam?

Many cameras have a focus assist beam which helps quite a bit, but if the external flash is mounted and the flash has it's own InfraRed assist beam that's usually a better proposition.

If it has, maybe it needs to be switched on. If it hasn't then maybe going with Nikon would have been a better idea! (lol!... runs and hides )

Even with the D300(which has a very good focusing system!), and fast f/1.4 glass, I still get the same hit and miss focusing issues.

Since you're using the zoom.. presetting focus and moving to that predetermined focus zone to take the shot won't help too muchas you're probably zooming about quite a bit.
The focus distance will vary with zooming. That technique can work well for a fixed focal length lens

Could be the camera.. could be the lens .. could be due to the combination of the two.
Did you try your 50mm lens(from memory you had a fifty??).

Only real alternative is to manually focus.
This situation is one of the reasons I waited to get a 50mm lens that had hypersonic motor focusing(ie. HSM/AF-S/SSM/USM).
It gives full time manual override whenever you need it. Makes getting a shot so much easier(in low light).