Help Required on shooting disco theme

[ctorry]

Hi

Before I ask the question, I must apologise for being a bit slack on the site over the last few months. I have recieved a promotion to associate director or a mid-tier accounting firm and unforuntately most of my time has been consumed by this position.

My son has his 6th Birthday party this weekend and we have hired a hall, a dj, and some disco lighting. His entire prep class and other young friends will be invited. My wife has asked to photgraph the party and I need some hints on how this should be shot. Possibly my wife should be shot for organising this thing and relying on my limited skills to capture the moment.

I understand that due to the room being fairly dark I will need to bump up the ISO and use my 430 flash. My main area of confusion is, what should I set the white balance to? also any ideas on composition would be great?

All assistance is greatly appreciated.

I promise to post some photo's post the party and to become more active again on the site.

[William]

Hi Craig, just shoot in RAW and White balance is easy fixable later in PP ;)

[ctorry]

Thanks William; greatly appreciated.

Any compositional idea for about 30 kids.

[ktoopi]

When I'm doing kids parties I make sure I get photos of the cake, the decorations, stacks of the party bags or boxes, the pile of presents as well as trying to get in amongst the kids down at their level and getting lots of shots of small groups in a frame participating in the games. You won't get thirty children in a shot unless you group them and pose them. I focus on capturing their facial expressions to try and convey the enjyoment and excitement of the event. I don't ever pose any of the kids and attempt to get the party child in a photo with as many of the different guests doing different things as possible. :D I hope this helps. This is all based on what I try to do at my own daughters parties and those of her friends!:)

[JM Tran]

being Disco, its all about lights and colours and lots of it

mix shots with no flash and only ambient, and shots using flash too

when using flash - use rear curtain sync to get the trailing lights effects which is great for the Disco theme

if anyone is wearing flairs, get down low with a wide lens and shoot upwards to accentuate the flairs more, and with the discoball over their head, will look great:)

[ricktas]

Remember to get down to the children's height, at least for some of the photos. Don't take them all standing at adult height!