The other day I shot an event. So that meant dark light, high walls, hard to bounce.

“Crisp” means “bright pixels”, so you will sacrifice some crispness when it is dark.

Still – I never point my flash at subjects when it is the main light. So instead, I bounce. I use the wall or ceiling – but when that is too far (and at 800 ISO “too far” is quite far!), I use a Honl bounce card, or a Fong lightsphere, or I just bounce off my hand:

Um yeah, the theme was “70’s”.

• I was using a 1Ds MkIII and a 16-35mm f/2.8L lens.
• I did not want too much noise so I stayed at 800 ISO.
• I used 1/30th second, f/2.8
• A wide angle lens means that even at f/2.8, I get nice depth of field.
• And the slow exposure means I get some nice background light.
• Flash pointed behind me to the right, and bouncing (I saw a wall not too far).

Everyone else got dark backgrounds; I get this. A fast lens (f/2.8) is quite essential.