Shooting a dance show - thoughts/advice?

Tomorrow night I have a bit of work photographing a Latin Dance dinner show performance, using a Canon EOS 300D with a Sigma EF 500 DG super. My lenses are the kit lens, a 28-80mm 3.5-5.6, and a 50mm 1.8, plus a 90-300.

I think the most suitable lens to get hold of will probably be the 17-85 IS USM lens, as I don't REALLY know what to expect, agree?

Any tips for shooting anything like this? I'm anticipating about 1/125 @ f/8 with the flash doing the rest. Do whatever I can to stay at or below 400 ISO. Naturally I'll review it to see if it works...

Don't really know what to do for the compposition and such - I daresay in terms of timing it'll be a little like sports, in terms of pre-empting fast movement. Just go for a range of focal lengths really.

Any tips on exposure? I figure the sigma flash should make things easy - I'd rather not use flash, but with this sort of subject I probably don't have a choice.

With the flash I daresay hand shake and subject movement won't be an issue, correct? I'll probably still use the IS though, as it doesn't hurt - and it'll help keep areas of the scene that aren't being primarily lit by flash sharp.
Thinking of putting some bandage over the head as a sort of diffuser.

Most of my shots will probably be with the 17-85 IS lens, but I'll also use the 50mm 1.8 lens a bit if I can, just coz it's so fast and so sharp.

Usually flash is a no-no for dance, but if you are shooting in a club scene then it is more acceptable. Still, can be troublesome for the dancers.

Don't be afraid to experiment with shots from close to the floor if you can get close enough (and use a wide angle.)

Motion is often desirable in depicting dance.

Shoot raw files - color balance is often a challenge.

You didn't elaborate on what "Latin dance" is supposed to be... but the more you know about the subject the better you will be in understanding what the dancers are trying to accomplish. Much of what is done in these type of performances is moving from one picture line to the next, so you should have plenty of poses to work with.

-gt

Why is flash such a no-no? Generally I prefer to work without flash as I'd rather work with the qualities of ambient light - although whether or not I can get away with flash will depend on available light, and how much room I have to work with (ie can I use my 1.8 or will I be stuck with my 3.5?)

Without flash, what would you suggest my minimum shutter speed is to freeze movement? I think a mixture of frozen and captured movement is desirable throughout the night. I'm thinking 1/250 should certainly do it, 1/125 should be able to freeze a lot of it. Wide open aperture, ISO as low as possible.

With flash, aperture probably stopped down a little for sharpness, shutter speed not overly important (unless I want to expose b/g - though if I need flash then there isn't enough light to expose the b/g, hence that being unimportant) and as low an ISO as possible, correct?

Hi
Don't know if these will help, all took with the 17 - 85 is usm.
exif the same for all
Length 85
f 5.6
shutter 1/ 60
Handheld
sigma 500 dg st flash.
Metering mode average

I'm no pro but these are straight out of the box, just had a bit of red eye in one of them, needed. No 3 needed just a touch of U S M in pshop.

Ady

2nd shutter sync

1/60 sec....down to 1/8 sec or so...you will get movement...ending in a shart flash frozen image in this way....if you do it with first shutter sync....you will have shaddows after your sharp image...not before...looks a bit strange that way.

Wide angle will probalby be prefered lens unless you are doing face close-ups. Club scenes tend to be tighter environments...wide angle also has greater DOF.

problem you are likely to have is focus in low light low contrast conditions...fast glass would be better...but the 50mm 1.8 is not noted for it's great abilities in these conditions...otherwise i would recommend using it for the speed to enable you to compose, I find a 50mm good for dancers full body at distances from 15--20 feet or so on a 1.6X crop body....and visually confirm focus better than the zooms you mentioned. With flash...IS is wasted...don't let that influence your lens choice. If you were doing available...probably really not enough light for much of that....it would help alot...
--
Richard Katris aka Chanan