40D and 16-35II Finally what I've expected since digital arrived

[sjprg]

I got my 40D just in time for this event. Some of the images are 5D and some are 40D. So these are the first images, with no practice. I found the 40D to handle the difficult lighting in this hall much easier, and the focus seemed to be much quicker and accurate.
"2007 - 51st Jubilee" - a photoset on Flickr

[Noel_Carboni]

Cool.

Not exactly on topic, but may I suggest you try a flash diffuser (e.g., Lumiquest ProMax 80/20 is what I use), and possibly a bit lower ISO. Some of your flash lighting looks pretty harsh and the backgrounds are quite bright.

Some time ago I shot a reunion in a venue that looked a lot like yours (I had a high white ceiling to work with) and with a single 550EX and ISO 400 was able to get pretty nice mix of overhead lighting with fill that was both soft and set the subjects off from the background a bit. For example:



-Noel

[sjprg]

Thanks Noel. Haven't talked to you in a year or so. I only use the flash for this one occasion each year, so I haven't bothered to purchase a difuser for the 550, and my 420 difuser does not fit. One of the problems of lighting the venue is that for the purpose of the shoot is to record the activities as well as the people so the requirement is a large depth DOF so the backgrounds ARE included. I thought that the 40D did an execellent job considering that I only received it the night before and also am not experienced in this type of shooting. As I walked in the door Friday night the job was dumped on me by the organizing committee whom only had P&S cameras available. I learned alot.