Beginner Indoor ideas ?

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Hi all

Been trying to get more experience, mainly an outdoor sports type person, but now the weathers turned, I’m looking for indoor ideas, I want to keep using my gear to get more familiar with it??

Just wondering if you fantastic people could throw some ideas my way.

Gear wise, below in sig, I do have a flash but no triggers/off camera stuff and no idea how to use flash,,,,yet

Cheers
 
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A reply I made a while ago to a similar request

Not normally popular when I suggest it but think about Still Life.
You can arrange the objects to give good composition, choose the colours to create harmony or to clash, try different numbers of objects – is 1 best or 2 or 3 etc.
Move everything around so that the light is from a different direction, diffuse the light, reflect the light, shade the light. Bounce the flash off a wall, the ceiling, a card.
Try different focal lengths at the same, and different, distances.
Underexpose, overexpose by different amounts to see the effect.
Experiment with different apertures for DoF.
Change the ISO to use small apertures at shutter speeds where you can hand hold the camera without shake, check the amount of noise when using high ISO etc.
While doing all that you do not have to worry that the subject is moving, or will disappear.
It really is worthwhile because once you have the subject set up you are no longer worried about getting a good/great picture, it is all about playing and learning.
 
A reply I made a while ago to a similar request

Not normally popular when I suggest it but think about Still Life.
You can arrange the objects to give good composition, choose the colours to create harmony or to clash, try different numbers of objects – is 1 best or 2 or 3 etc.
Move everything around so that the light is from a different direction, diffuse the light, reflect the light, shade the light. Bounce the flash off a wall, the ceiling, a card.
Try different focal lengths at the same, and different, distances.
Underexpose, overexpose by different amounts to see the effect.
Experiment with different apertures for DoF.
Change the ISO to use small apertures at shutter speeds where you can hand hold the camera without shake, check the amount of noise when using high ISO etc.
While doing all that you do not have to worry that the subject is moving, or will disappear.
It really is worthwhile because once you have the subject set up you are no longer worried about getting a good/great picture, it is all about playing and learning.

What a fantastic idea and explanation, thank you
 
Change the ISO to use small apertures at shutter speeds where you can hand hold the camera without shake, check the amount of noise when using high ISO etc.

hmm - that's pretty much diametrically opposed to my approach. I stick the camera on a tripod tether it to the computer, compose the picture using a big screen so I can see the minutiae of the picture, and get live feedback as I move the lighting (studio heads with modelling lamps) around until the picture comes alive on the screen. Camera settings are shutter at sync speed, aperture generally at around 5.6 to 8 for sharpness, iso at 100 or 200 depending on camera i'm using and control the whole damned lot with the flash heads, reflectors and big black "light soaks" (sheets of polystyrene insulation foam that are painted matt black on one side and either left white, or emulsioned white once they've got scuffed and dirty)

I sort of think of it as using the camera as the artists easel... pick the right location and stick with it.

however, without studio flash heads, it's surprising what you can do with an anglepoise lamp, and a picture frame with a sheet of baking parchment in place of the picture to use as a diffuser. It's still life, it really doesn't matter if the exposure takes 15 seconds - you don't NEED masses of light, the objects in the picture aren't going anywhere.
 
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I love to take photographs in the dark! Weather outdoors or indoors. I have literally no lighting equipment so I use what I have, a torch.

If I could remember how to post a link so I could show you an example then I would. :(
 
It's an issue we have every year at our camera workshop.
Still life & macro are the 2 easy answers, but if you're not familiar with flash/lighting it sounds like a excellent chance to practice that too!

Other things we've played with include long exposures, water splashes, painting with light, & reflections
 
I love to take photographs in the dark! Weather outdoors or indoors. I have literally no lighting equipment so I use what I have, a torch.

If I could remember how to post a link so I could show you an example then I would. :(

Try these

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/tutorials/inserting-images-from-flickr-updated-22-08-15.7/

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-add-photos-to-your-gallery.9/

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/t...o-and-insert-an-image-from-your-tp-gallery.8/
 
I'll have to try it from my computer later on, for some reason I don't have an option for a BB code on my android phone. I'll do it though!
 
,,, it really doesn't matter if the exposure takes 15 seconds - you don't NEED masses of light, the objects in the picture aren't going anywhere.

And don't forget that WAAAAAY back in the early days of photography live HUMAN subjects sometimes had to sit still for minutes at a time!

Try that now :LOL:
.
 
A few ideas. these shots are from when I first started and wanted to learn, I have others in a "Novelty Shot" album on Flickr, I learnt most though from the Fuji forum before they closed it, the members had a weekly challenge were the winner picked the following weeks contest and judged it, it would be anything from displaying song titles in a picture to colours/ reflections/dutch angle/ shapes/ shadows/fill light etc, it certainly taught me how to use all settings on my camera.
The shots below helped me learn my settings and also to work around problems and set ups, for example how to stop the water drop from dripping off, also how to use Photoshop in some of them, hope these give you some ideas, they aren't meant to be brilliant shots just ideas. and all can be researched by your bestist friend Google :)



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5D3_4600_800.jpg

Not very original but I liked it - rotors blown with a small hand held fan

D
 
Loads of great ideas here, thank you all for the input
 
All of the above +.......
Why not try splash photography droplets of water frozen in time or water splashing out of a wine glass or an exploding balloon filled with water also a good way of learning about your speed light . Loads of good tutorials on Google & YouTube.
 
I'll second macro. So many possibilities.

Fantastic shots from Ian, especially the car image. Really impressive. Not so sure about BBC Radio 2 though! :eek:
 
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