From an event I shot for The Oakville Beaver a few weeks ago:
For something like this I use flash as well as high ISO/wide aperture/slow shutter for the background, and I use a wide, wide angle to introduce depth.
If I can bounce the flash off a wall or ceiling, I will, or else I’ll use a bounce card (in this case a Honl bounce card) or if there is some bounce surface, a Gary Fong lightsphere.
The “slow shutter” thing is called “slow flash” on Nikon. It’s also referred to as “dragging the shutter”. This just means you let the shutter speed get slower than 1/60th second, to allow the background light to do some work too. I do this by shooting manual, but I could also shoot in Av mode (or in Nikon, enable “slow” in A mode).
in a situation like this, and when using the bounce card…would you have your flash slightly pointed towards the front, or will you have the flash pointing directly upwards?