18th birthday

[nickt]

My daughter has volunteered me to do the photography at her friend's 18th birthday party. It will be held in a hall above a pub. I did a shoot for my great nephew's christening is similar room conditions. I used mainly my 35mm f/1.8 and sb800 flash. The results came out o.k. I just needed to adjust the white balance slightly in post production. I'm going to take the 35mm again with a 18-50mm f/2.8. I've now got a Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 and was wondering whether I should take that aswell. I don't know if there'll be much room to stand back using the Sigma or should I just stick with the other two lenses. I wonder if wedding 'togs use the 70-200mm inside at the reception or just stick with 24-70mm because of the space limitations. Obviously it would be great for candids, but with a load of 18 year olds jumping up and down in front of you, I'm not sure. Anyone else done somethingt similar?

Nick

[picsfor]

i recently done a triple birthday party thing, 2x80 + 1x85 year olds.
It was a mixture of indoor and outdoor, and the only 2 lenses got used were the 24-105 (mainly) and 17-40 (inside groups).
The 70-200 was in the car boot, but i didn't really expect to need it.

I don't even think the 24-105 got used at the 105 end, probably topped out at about 70-80mm. Found it more than adequate for what i was doing.
Stick with what you know - experiment on the kids 

[jinky]

I`d have thought you`d be shooting wider mosy of the time but depends on size of hall and structure of event. I`ve used my Siggy 70-200  at weddingsand events for speeches / portraits of the main subjecy / awards recipients and it`s been great. Why not get the general ones you need and then slap on the 70-200 at a key point for a while.

[Jonathan]

What's the minimum focus distance on the 70 - 200?  What's the length of the room?  Comparing the numbers may help here.

70 - 200s can be very very effective in a crowd but they can also be very frustrating.  You'll spend the night watching people cross the path between lens and subject.  With care and luck it can be awesome but a short lens is a much more reliable in room weapon.

Most of my favourite crazy kids dancing pictures were shot wide rather than long.  14 - 24 + flash + chair will get the job done   Mind you, so would a phone.

[nickt]

Thanks for the replies. I've not seen the venue so I think I'll go with the two shorter lenses as everything will probably have to be shot wide. The 70-200m is a bloody heavy lens to carry around if I'm not going to use it! Thanks again.

Nick