Beach event at night

I'm asked to provide some photography support in a company dinner. Found out that it is going to be held at a beach during the evening! So I need help and advice on how to shoot this event. Sinceit's held on a beach, there ain't any walls or ceiling where I can bounce my flash off. There will bea dance event on the beach itself...


What I want:


To freeze movement when people are dancing on the beach


Make a balance between ambient lighting and also exposing my subject (which would be the people involved)


Condition of venue:


Beach, low light, no walls or ceilings for bounce flash


What I have:


450D, 24-105mm F/4.0, 50mm F/1.8, Nissin Di622 Flash


Thanks!

as great as i bet the 24-105 is during the day, it'll be pretty much useless. The 50mm f/1.8 will be usable at higher ISOs especially with the flash, best bet would be to rent a 35 f/1.4 L or a 24 f/1.4 L IMO, hope this helps, happy shooting!

I would use a slow shutter speed to 'burn in' the background and then have the flash on rear curtain sync to freeze the motion. With this technique you could use your 24-105. Expect some light trails. You'll want to use full manual mode and play around with the shutter speed and iso to have a proper exposure between the background and foreground.





you see this a lot in nightclub photography here are two examples:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/salmarstonphotography/3739785955/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/salmarstonphotography/3740708328/


The effect can be very subtle or extreme depending on what your going for.





I might also try doing a 10 second exposure on a tripod with no flash just to see the effect.


Or if the light is any good just use your 50 and try no flash with that for a while.

Cool! Looks like a challenging event to cover. I encourage you to have fun with it and try using a 0.5-2 second exposure with second-curtain sync flash. The result is a really interesting look to the images, but in my opinion, it looks "real" enough for your purpose. It all depends on what your company is looking for. Maybe they want a more natural and neutral look - Then you might want to look into renting a 24 1.4 and/or 85 1.2 if light is especially bad. The 50 1.8 is a great lens and I think it would do the trick for your natural light shots if light is decent.

Thank you so all so much for all these replies! So sorry I replied so late because I was away from my PC for so so long! Thanks again! I believe this tips will definitely help me during the event shooting