nightmare

I always assume that wherever 2 or 3 are gathered together, one of them will have a better camera than me and lifelong ambition to be MC...but

50 people assembled for a family get together, the threatened heavy thundery shower arrives both precluding going outside and ******ing up light inside from reasonable-without-flash to practically dark.

49 all form up and suddenly only muggins left out front, wondering how to turn the flash back on (hate it and rarely use), not even a tripod, and a unison call, "set it up and then join the rest of us"

Well the camera does what it can, balanced on a chair and inverted saucer, and I have 50 smiling faces, the ones in the centre not at all bad, but, near the periphery, ghastly noise ie red faces with green shadows.

I know I should have (a) had decent lighting & tripod (b) an appropriate camera, or (c) refused on grounds of impossibility, but can one or two of you either (1) say 'there, there, we all get caught out sometimes (2) suggest an order for emergency salvage, ie which order to correct lighting (overall and centre to periphery), reduce noise and re-sharpen, correct white balance and/or skin tone?

[purplebyron]

hmmmm .... what to say here ... in my limited experience ... i am finding that there is no way around the equipment issue, lens, tripod and flash .... with all the photoshopping i doubt it will acheive a quality pic if the light ain't right ....whenever i get my photoshop out always something somewhere is comprimised .... sharpening leaves me with grain and halo , noise reduction perhaps, reduces the sharpness ... etc etc ... but i guess you did the best you could of in that situation .... it reminds me of the time when my brother asked me to photograph his wedding ... and the wind outside was like a hurricane, so litter was flying about, hair do's were all over the place ... so even the right equipment wouldn't of saved me there. and yes the pictures were awful .... one other note ...maybe black and white/ monochrome might help in this situation, but i guess you have already considered that.

[purplebyron]

on another note.... perhaps in situations like that .. i would say that, "i am of a strange and mystical religious persuasion, and that it is forbidden to photograph humans for fear of capturing their souls."