Character photo question

[krazoguy]

Hello all! We will be leaving on Sunday for our third disney cruise with our 3 yr old son. This time I am really going to work on taking more pictures myself instead of relying on shutters. I currently shoot with a Nikon d7000 and plan on using my 35mm f/1.8 when taking character shots with my son in the atrium. On our first 2 trips I only had the kit lens, so I am hoping that the 35mm lens will give me a little bit better iq. My question is whether or not Ny of you experts have any thoughts regarding whether or not I should purchase an external flash to bring along. I can get my hands on either an sb700 or sb910. I'm just not if I should pick one up tomorrow and if so which one i should get. I purchased the d7000 when it first came out in 2010 and it was my first dale. I am slowly learning the camera and the world of photography and just want to make sure I have what I need, but certainly don't want to waste any money at this point either. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rick_reeves]

I have a D80 and use my 50mm along with an sb800. I like this setup because I can usually get enough light out of the flash and able to crop most all of the pictures to my liking after I get home.

 

[codex57]

Most definitely bring an external flash.

We went with friends who also shoot a D7000 like us. They primarily used their 35mm 1.8. We exclusively shot with our 18-200 (brought other lenses, including the 35 but never switched to them). We have a SB400 and they don't have any external flash.

I think the external flash made a world of difference. Of course, everyone has their own preference as to how they want their pictures to look, but I still think an external is totally necessary.

The reason is the characters are in all different areas and you need direct flash sometimes or bounce flash for others. In the main atrium where the ceiling is like 3 stories high, we ended up needing direct flash or partial bounce to make the lighting look decent. However, they also had characters off to the sides where the ceiling is really low and you get really up close to the characters (as the photog). In those situations, you had to bounce flash as direct forward flash created horrible effects. That's also why I never switched to a prime lens. I want to take a photo that needs as little editing as possible. The way things were physically set up, having a zoom lens just made it far easier to deal with.

It's more inconvenient to carry around, but I do think the bigger flashes allow you to cover more situations.