What would be the best way to take pictures of fireworks and a group of people in dimly lit restaurants?  settings wise?

I'll probably be doing plenty of both at Disney World.  Assuming I'll be hand holding the camera for both situations and will have that 17-55 2.8 lens.

Also, will leaving the hood on the camera at night and in indoor situations affect the picture? 

thanks...I'm trying to think of all the questions I will have when I'm at Disney World now before i leave.

: )

 

I love that "what he said" gif, I'm going to steal that 

Fireworks aren't actually that hard, it's all at infinity, so pre-focus manually at ∞ and leave it on manual. You can use a fairly large aperture, to capture lots of light, just choose an ISO vs. shutter speed that suits the look you're after. Use IS.

Restaurants are a challenge, you can't do it well, you have to fake it somehow. I'm sure a professional would insist on using a flash - somehow I have the feeling that if a pro insists they need to use flash, people accept it, which makes the whole situation rather self-sustaining! If a proper flash unit to bounce of walls/ceiling is unacceptable, try a pop-up flash diffuser (google gary fung).

If flash at all is a no-go, then you have to either frame your photos 'flat' - i.e. everything you want is at one distance, so you can use a wide aperture without losing stuff; or you have to whack up the ISO and accept a noisy photo. There are tools to reduce noise in post, or you can simply resize away the fuzz and make a thumbnail photo, or just tell people that the grainy look was what you were aiming for, to illustrate the restaurant setting 

thanks.

for a diffuser, can I just use the white piece that goes over my son's night light?  maybe just sort of put it over the flash?

For a diffuser you can almost use anything Test it out beforehand just to make sure it doesn't cut out too much light.

On occasion I have been know to dig a receipt out of my pocket and held that over doubled up as a diffuser - works pretty well

that gives me a good idea.  maybe just keep a piece of wax paper in my pocket.

Remember - before you use this on photos you really want to keep, test what you want to use just to make sure it works

p

Nobody else has mentioned this, but it's important.

At Disney World, the more professional your camera looks the more likely you are to be told you can't use it.

So keep it nice and low key... 

Random, especially given the proliferation of nice dslrs these days...