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Hey,

A mate of mine has asked me to take some photos for a goodbye morning tea his parents are hosting. Being my first official function I am unsure as to what lens would best suite and was hoping some people here could give me some guidance.

My current gears is as follows:
Canon 30D body
Canon 50mm 1.4;
Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS; and
Canon 70-200m f/2.8L IS

So out of these 3 lenses which ones would best suite this situation? They basically just want me to walk around and snap photos of the guests, it will also be indoors… I don’t have any external flashes at the moment so the built in one will have to suffice.
Thanks for your help!

small groups..... use your 18-85.......

Agreed - you need to be able to get group shots as well as individuals there, so if you can only take one lens take the one with the widest angle.

Would the 50mm be of any use for this type of photography?

Useful it's particularly low-light (indoors) and you can't use a flash for whatever reason. But you have to be careful because the wider apertures affect your depth of field, and hence your group shots. Nice for portraits, though, of course!

you will find that if you are working indoors, you will be using a lens range of about 24-40mm, but if working outside with a 50 mm prime you will have room to get back to shoot small groups

17-85 for group shots
70-200 for candid fly on the wall style of photos

Most importantly, it's to have fun and treat it as a learning experience Don't be afraid of making mistakes as that's the only way to learn.

Thanks everyone for the replies so far, I am sure it will come in handy

Just one more concern I have regarding the in built flash. What are the risks or so involved with using the built in flash? if there are any is there anything i can do to reduce the negative impact it may have on the photos?