I'm the "photographer" at our girl scouts meetings. I love to do it and I post the pics on our FB group. It's especially nice for the troop leader since she's so focused on keeping everyone focused that she doesn't get to really "see" the meetings like we do.
Anyway. My pictures are awful. I'm using a Canon T3i with a 50 mm prime lens. I chose that lens because our meetings are held in the evenings. And it's dark outside, so since they're indoor pictures I thought that the fastest lens that lets in the most light would be best.
A couple of problems I'm running into (other than space issues with this lens and the crop factor): with the aperture wide open at 1.8, it's just really hard trying to take pictures of 10 six-year-old girls who are NEVER staying still. Everything is blurry even with adequate light because of the shallow depth of field. I close the aperture to expand depth of field and of course everything comes out darker.
I've tried using flash and I honestly think that's even worse (and it's also really distracting).
After several meetings I think I'm realizing my biggest problem - the lighting inside the homes where we hold meetings. Ceiling can lights are common here and I just realized that my better pictures are the ones where the homeowner has both ceiling lights AND plenty of other "task lighting" - floor lamps, etc that give light from angles other than just down from the ceiling. My worst pictures are in homes that have just the ceiling can lights. The shadows are awful...I don't know if this is something that can be fixed (or at least improved) with my camera...does anyone have any tips? Would it be better to use the kit lens? Or is there really nothing I can do without better natural or artificial lighting?