Looking for expert answers to the photography issues at banquets. . .

1. If you have a white balance card, set your own white balance. If not, it would be better to release the RAW film and add post-production. If you don’t know how to post-process and want to output JPG directly, you can also find a white wall to do the white balance. After all, different restaurants must have different lighting color temperatures.

2. If you don’t know much about photography, use automatic mode. If the restaurant environment is dark, open the aperture wider.

3. If you don’t use flash, you generally need to raise the ISO. As for how much to raise it, it depends on the lighting conditions of the scene. Adjust the exposure until it is appropriate and the photo is not blurry. However, for general indoor photography, you can use flash if you have one. High ISO is just a stopgap measure when there is no flash.

4. If your hands are shaking, increase the ISO and aperture, so that you can use a faster shutter speed as much as possible.

Be sure to use a faster shutter speed when taking snapshots, and it is best to use a tripod for posed portraits. Because even if you use flash, sometimes (when the background is far away from the subject) you still need to use slow shutter synchronization.

5. Keep the background as simple as possible and not too cluttered. Or just let the elderly sit in the middle of the family portrait.

6. Make sure you have enough memory cards and batteries. Don’t be afraid to take more pictures. Come back and pick some good ones. There are generally two better ways to capture banquets: One is to use a relatively high camera position. Or have everyone stand on the same side of the table to take the photo.

If you have a flash, use it. If you can trigger the flash wirelessly, it is recommended not to plug the flash into the top of the camera. Lighting from the side will be better than lighting from the front. Front lighting will make the photo look too flat.

If there is no wireless trigger, you can point your large flash to the wall or ceiling (provided that the lamp head can be rotated), and use the reflected light from the wall or ceiling to illuminate (bounce flash). It will be more three-dimensional than direct front lighting. As for the exposure parameters, don't worry. Most of the current flashes support TTL. As long as your exposure parameters are not excessive, the flash will automatically control the peak output to make the exposure appropriate.