Help with camera / lens settings for event

It's my kiddo's birthday tomorrow, and I intend to use the D3300 for the pics. The venue is an indoor children's gym which is reasonably well lit. I expect to set up the camera in Aperture Priority and manual ISO and then have a friend to take photos in a point & shoot fashion. My instinct was to use the 35mm f/1.8 as the main lens (may have the 18-55 as backup). Most of the photos would be candids of kids running around, other than the posed cake cutting photos. I'll be saving to RAW+JPG, but was hoping for settings that would make for minimal post processing.

- Would aperture priority be the best mode for shooting? Or should I consider another mode?

- Assuming Aperture Priority, what would be an optimal aperture for this situation? (I'm thinking f/4 for a balance between speed and depth of field; I feel 1.8 can be too shallow, but perhaps it's OK in this situation if subjects are further out?)

- Again assuming Aperture Priority, what would be a good ISO to set manually? (I'm thinking ISO 400 for a balance between graininess, smaller f/4 aperture, and shutter speed for candids. Or would it be safer to go with Auto ISO?

- Any other settings I need to worry about?

Thank you in advance for your insights!






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F/4 really isn't all that 'small'. Personally, I'd shoot in manual mode, choosing both the shutter speed and aperture to match whatever subject I'm shooting. I'd set the camera to Auto ISO and let it choose the ISO.

Good to know about F/4 being safe enough. Problem with Manual is I'll be likely handing the camera off to a novice, so need settings that are "idiot proof" for lack of a better term lol.


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gustafson said:

Good to know about F/4 being safe enough. Problem with Manual is I'll be likely handing the camera off to a novice, so need settings that are "idiot proof" for lack of a better term lol.


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If you've set the camera to Auto ISO, any primate can use the camera. But if you're truly worried about that happening, just turn the Mode dial to the Magic Green A whenever it leaves your paws.

Primate hahaha! That was a much-needed laugh, what with all the stress of organizing this party. Was hoping to avoid the Auto mode, but will keep it in mind. May just cave in an use Auto ISO in Aperture Priority instead, with max ISO set to 800 or 1600. May take some trial shots to hone in on the settings before handing it off to Neanderthal.


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Whenever I hand one of my cameras off to a bystander, I switch it to U1, which turns off back button focus and picks AUTO. I only hope for a decent snapshot from amateurs and save the artsy shit for when I'm taking the pics.

Im going to go out on a whim, you say the Gym is reasonably well lit, surely if you set it up and the light isnt going to change it can be left in Manual ?

Just set that is Auto AF and they will be good to go ?

Thanks all for the insights. Happy to report that the experiment mostly went well. Got a ton of usable shots. I was able to get there a bit early and take a few test shots. Aperture Priority with F/4 worked well, with auto ISO with a max ISO of 1600 and minimum shutter speed of 1/125. One mistake I made was I had previously set AF to single point and forgot to change it, and it resulted in a few shots with the subject out of focus. Another mistake was I had previously set the metering to center-weighted instead of matrix. Parts of the gym had floor-to-ceiling windows that let in a lot of natural light coming in, so some of the photos that were pointed at these windows ended up getting underexposed, but I was able to salvage those pics using RAW. I also forgot to activate the fill-in flash which underexposed parts of a few photos, but again I was able to salvage them from RAW. All in all, good learning experience, and thank you all for the great tips and insights!


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