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Lens for party photography/indoor portraits

post #1 of 12
8/2/09 at 11:47pm
Thread Starter 
Which type of lens is required for good indoor party photography? I assume it is some kind of fixed lens, but I really have no idea. I know telephoto is better for portraits, but the party photographers I have seen have all had pretty short fixed lenses. I'm sure one of you knows the answer to this. If it matters, I use a Lumix 4/3 camera with Leica lenses.

Examples of the low-aperture effect I am looking for:

http://www.anyarena.com/en/photos/album/friday--lush
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post #2 of 12
8/2/09 at 11:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroStyles View Post
Which type of lens is required for good indoor party photography? I assume it is some kind of fixed lens, but I really have no idea. I know telephoto is better for portraits, but the party photographers I have seen have all had pretty short fixed lenses. I'm sure one of you knows the answer to this. If it matters, I use a Lumix 4/3 camera with Leica lenses. Examples of the low-aperture effect I am looking for: http://www.anyarena.com/en/photos/album/friday--lush
Dood, did you get the G1? Oh, telephoto lens, use 85-100mm focal length, f/11. This is not my advice, but rather the advice I just got from Scott Kelby, who wrote the book DarkNWorn suggest I buy.
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post #3 of 12
8/3/09 at 12:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroStyles View Post
Which type of lens is required for good indoor party photography? I assume it is some kind of fixed lens, but I really have no idea. I know telephoto is better for portraits, but the party photographers I have seen have all had pretty short fixed lenses. I'm sure one of you knows the answer to this. If it matters, I use a Lumix 4/3 camera with Leica lenses.

Examples of the low-aperture effect I am looking for:

http://www.anyarena.com/en/photos/album/friday--lush

Back when I used to do club photography for extra cash and a lot of low-light practice... I used a Canon 50mm f1.4 and a Speedlite flash with a diffuser. Since photos were posed, I really didn't feel the need for a tele, which seemed more handy for being several feet away for candids.
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post #4 of 12
8/3/09 at 12:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroStyles View Post
Which type of lens is required for good indoor party photography? I assume it is some kind of fixed lens, but I really have no idea. I know telephoto is better for portraits, but the party photographers I have seen have all had pretty short fixed lenses. I'm sure one of you knows the answer to this. If it matters, I use a Lumix 4/3 camera with Leica lenses.

Examples of the low-aperture effect I am looking for:

http://www.anyarena.com/en/photos/album/friday--lush

Oh, sorry, Roikins made me see you're not looking for a portrait shot, which is what I thought. Let me go look in this handy dandy book...
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post #5 of 12
8/3/09 at 12:13am
Olympus makes an 11-22mm zoom that would be perfect for you, but I don't know how compatible Olympus and Panasonic 4/3 mounts are.
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post #6 of 12
8/3/09 at 12:14am
Short of that, just get the Panasonic 25/1.4. I'd prefer something wider myself (the 24-35mm range on 35mm), but since you bought into a wacky format your pickings are slim.
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post #7 of 12
8/3/09 at 12:21am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Piobaire View Post
Dood, did you get the G1?

Oh, telephoto lens, use 85-100mm focal length, f/11. This is not my advice, but rather the advice I just got from Scott Kelby, who wrote the book DarkNWorn suggest I buy.

Yeah I got the G1. I really like the quality of the images and the compact size of the camera, given that I've been on the road for a while. But then again, I am very inexperienced with photography and can't really speak intelligently to its quality compared to other cameras in the price range.

Quote:
Originally Posted by milosz View Post
Short of that, just get the Panasonic 25/1.4. I'd prefer something wider myself (the 24-35mm range on 35mm), but since you bought into a wacky format your pickings are slim.

Not that slim. This opens things up a lot: http://gizmodo.com/5104127/novoflex-...-thirds-system
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post #8 of 12
8/3/09 at 12:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroStyles View Post
Yeah I got the G1. I really like the quality of the images and the compact size of the camera, given that I've been on the road for a while. But then again, I am very inexperienced with photography and can't really speak intelligently to its quality compared to other cameras in the price range.



Not that slim. This opens things up a lot: http://gizmodo.com/5104127/novoflex-...-thirds-system

You're gonna want to talk with Hunts or Dark, but my best advice is a "bright" lens (small f-stop number), small focal length lens, high ISO setting on the camera. From what I've read, that camera should do a great job at this. But like I said, Dark and Hunts both are experienced; I'm just regurgitating my recent readings.
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post #9 of 12
8/3/09 at 12:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roikins View Post
Back when I used to do club photography for extra cash and a lot of low-light practice... I used a Canon 50mm f1.4 and a Speedlite flash with a diffuser. Since photos were posed, I really didn't feel the need for a tele, which seemed more handy for being several feet away for candids.

What this guy said.

If not maybe an 85mm or 135mm? Would probably go a 50mm personally.
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post #10 of 12
8/3/09 at 12:30am
Yes, with that adapter you can use all the $2000 M-mount lenses you'd like on your 4/3 camera, at the 2x modifier. The adaptation will be fraught with other problems, as all the other M-adapters are, but such is life.

Proper, decent lenses aren't going to be tiny. Deal with it.
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post #11 of 12
8/3/09 at 12:32am
The photos you linked to appear to be a fast 50, IMO (25mm on 4/3), maybe a 35mm.
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post #12 of 12
8/3/09 at 2:38am
Have you tried searching for some tips on www.photo.net? I like that forum, and find that by searching around you can usually pick up tips from photographers of all skill sets. If it were me, and I'm a newbie so I'm just guessing here, I would pack something close to a 50mm lens, and an external flash if I had one available to help with the lighting. In a party environment (ie: club) I don't imagine you'd be very far away from your subjects and have the chance to setup the shot with a longer lens. On-board flash I've found is usually useless in dark places (if that's where you'll be), as your subjects will be lit-up but the background usually dark so you lose the atmosphere. Only thing I think is to use an external flash to bounce/diffuse the flash, or use slow-sync to capture the atmosphere and/or rear-shutter effects to capture any motion of your subject. I've only tried slow-sync - never tried rear-shutter.
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