Combination of body and lens

Some days ago I explored the use of most appropriate equipment (copied below) for the dinner. Thank you very much

for your most helpful responses.

 

I decided to use 5Dll with 24-105 f4L, using 580EXll with a diffuser. The photo below is at the dinner with Boris

Johnson, the London Mayor, which I extensively covered.

 

Thanks again all!

 

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{I will be doing photo coverage of a very posh dinner in a low light dinning hall (low ceiling) that will accommodate 250

guests on 25 round tables (this gives some idea of the area). There will be individual table as well as entire hall

photos. I can take whatever cameras, lens and flash are needed – use of tripod might not be appropriate. My

preference would be no flash but if I use flash it needs to evenly fill the hall – individual tables will be less challenging

to photograph (I think!). The end product is likely to be about 800 x 500px images to be used in the political literature!

 

It is all free of charge community work!

 

My Canon equipment include: 500D, 5D, 5Dll : 17-55 f2.8; 24-10 f4, 17-40 f4; 70-300 and 24 f1.4: Speedlite 430 EX

and 580EXll with diffusers.

 

In the past the 500D with 17-55mm lens plus flash has given better overall results than the flash on 5D/ 5Dll with f4

lenses. 24mm f1.4 on either of the Ds at ISO 1000 has given good results but then I missed the advantage of

telephoto for distance shots. I have no time to experiment now!

 

Kindly suggest what equipment/ combination of equipment do you think would deliver the best results! Many thanks

in advance!}<div></div>

<p>Husain, you're quite welcome, but is your monitor calibrated correctly? What I'm seeing looks a bit overexposed and washed out. Here's a quick curves correction, but even still there are some blown-out areas:</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

Yes, you are right - it is overexposed because I intend to print this and for some reason my Epson printer tends to print a bit darker.

Here is another picture (Boris signing his book)!<div></div>

<p>There's only a slight shadow, in the last, to one side of the mayor's head. This is much like what I get with a Lambency diffuser (a copy of the Gary Fong creation). The "WEL-COME" places this firmly on the Indian sub-continent, and "Dil Se" is the name of a commercial motion picture. With the exception of the 70-300 and the 24, any of the lenses you list could have taken this picture.</p>

<p><em>"for some reason my Epson printer tends to print a bit darker"</em></p>

<p>The normal reason for this is that it isn't, normally your print viewing light is much dimmer than your screen so the print just looks darker. The correct way to adjust this is to make sure your screen is not too bright, normally between 90-120 cd/m²and that you have good illumination that doesn't spill onto your screen for print viewing.</p>

<p>Further you can lower density in the printer output box. Once you press print in PS you get the printer control box, on a Mac click the arrow next to Layout, scroll down to Advanced Media Control and the top slider Color Density is what you are looking for. Reduce 5-10% and the print will open up a bit under more average ambient lighting.</p>

<p>There are many different ways to lower the density, often a PS action prior to printing is suggested too.</p>

<p>Don't forget to proof in the PS print dialogue box too, make sure you have the correct paper profile selected and click the "Match Print Colors" and include Gamut Warning and Show Paper Color, this will give you the closest preview of what your print will look like.</p>