Low Light Question

[ernie.grimes]

What is normally the best way to approach working inside a building with low

light?

I have a D200 and 2 SB800 to work with.(18-70mm,50mm F/1.8,70-300)

The setting will be at a ladies Christmas dinner and they will be posing

inside a gazebo inside a church and the lights will be turned down.

Is using the manual camera settings my best approach or should I be using

aperture priority.

I have been reading Thom Hogan's Complete Guide to the NIkon D200 and my

camera and flash manuals but would appreciate your feed back.

I am an amateur and this is a freebie, but would like to do a nice job for

these ladies.

Thanks, Ernie

[acedigital]

I would suggets you visit the venue and take some test shots to get the right exposure/effects you want. Maybe start with a tripod and no flash with a low shutter speed (30-60th) and high ISO (400-800) and see what you get. Then try bouncing the flash with a lower ISO (200) and see what works best. Since you are doing it for free, why not experiment?

Good Luck!

[picturesque]

I would approach this like a formal group shot at the altar at a wedding. You would use flash to illuminate the ladies but drag the shutter, to "let in" some ambient light. The flash needs to be un-bounced, since bounced light will not reach the ladies under the gazebo. Look up dragging the shutter on planetneil.com, under Techniques, article about using on-camera flash. You will probably need a tripod for this.