I am going to see John Mccain speak Thursday in a small restaurant in SC the light will be pretty good so I will take my 70-200f4 L iS . and I do not want to use flash as I only have built in on XT. I am not used to taking pics of people .
Any tips ?

Thanks
Don

I thought this was a beginners area. Come on no advice .

I'll take a crack at this one. You are into a couple rules of thumb here.

1) Exposure is now considered a triangle: Shutter speed, Aperature, and ISO. Digital has made the third one, ISO, as easy to change as the other two. The XT will give you very usable speeds up to ISO 800 and beyond.

2) If the television media are there, use their lights which I have found to be very close to daylight but certainly within adjustable limits if you shoot RAW.

3) Remember another rule of thumb which is to keep your shutter speed at least equal to your focal length. i.e. 200mm - 1/250sec or faster.

4) Use tripod or monopod - monopod much easier in the anticipated crowds.

I hope this helps a little bit, and is the kind of info you were looking for.

Bill in WV

Go early. Scout out some spots that you think will make good photos. Get a friend at each of the locations. Remember that when the room fills, some of those positions will end up having their sight lines compromised. Having someone in the spot you want makes it easier to find it again, and easier to get into (your friend can essentially step out of the spot when you show up.

Think about what sort of shot you want in advance. Do you want it to just be him (with a blurred background of people)? Do you want to capture the lights and cameras in the shot? Depending on what you want for the shot, you can pick the spots.

Taking a cue from the Paparazzi, if you want him to look straight at you, think of something to yell out that will get his attention. "Senator McCain! Over here!" probably won't do it.

--dilip

According to a linked article last week in the Guardian Newspaper 'Will you marry me' usually does the trick!!

Hi Don

With your IS lens you can go a bit slower on the shutterspeed, 1/90th would be doable at 200mm.

Thanks for all the tips you can see some on the Canon forum .
Don

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=434627

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=434630