A set of photos I took for Analog Dive at The Terrace in Pasadena on May 4th, 2009.

This was before I picked up my dedicated flash unit, and I tried a few shots with the on-camera flash, but they were just as flat, blue, and boring as you'd expect. I bumped my ISO to 800 (despite the noticeable increase in grain), got creative with the exposures, and trusted my steady hand and built in image stabilization (thank you, Sony/Minolta) to make up the difference. Balancing my shutter speed ended being the trickiest part, as I wanted to capture the motion and flow of the artists without blurring them beyond recognizability. It was a bit risky, to be sure, but I ended up getting some pretty solid results with minimal processing.

I'm learning to trust a flash more now that I have my Sigma EF 500DG Super, but this shoot really reaffirmed my belief in the benefits of being able to work with the light you've got. Sure, If I had access to some lower f-stop lenses, I could've dropped my ISO back to a more reasonable number and had more room to play with my exposure. I could've shot with my on-camera flash all night and post-processed the heck out of my images to wrestle the quality back into them. I have a solidly professional flash unit now, and will make use of it as necessary. Whenever possible, though, I'm going to keep my flash tucked away in the bag, and let the scene light itself.