Indoor photography

TopBanana

TopBanana

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Tim
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Can someone please help me take some good indoor photos with a kit lens (18-55mm or 28-80mm).

All the photos I've been taking recently have been indoors under standard house lighting - with the result being that there isn't enough light to get a quick enough shutter speed to eliminate blur from camera shake.

  • At the moment I don't have the funds to be buying a flash, so I'm stuck with the pop-up one for now.
  • I can't really shoot above ISO800 without it looking noisy as my camera is quite old.

Would a good work-around be to under expose all the shots by a stop, shoot in RAW, and then push the exposure back up in PP?
Should I use the pop-up flash but maybe play with the flash exposure compensation?
Or should I buy a 50mm f1.8 to let more light in? (I'm willing to buy this lens as I'd like to play with the shallow DOF before anyone asks why I can afford this and not a decent flash)

I'd really appreciate some help as I'm fed up of blurry pics! :bang:
 
Stick some pics up Tim, then we have an idea of where the problem lies. Lets see what we have to work with ;)

You can always use a noise removal software programme to help get rid of the noise.
 
Well here's a quick example I took the other day.

_MG_1078.JPG


As you can see the shutter speed is way too slow to stop camera shake so I was always doomed to failure - but that was the fastest shutter it could do.

I'm generally taking photos of people (the little one in the photo above is my new daughter, the older one is my mother in law).
 
I've got the Nikon 35mm and if the 50mm is anything like it then it will go a long way to reducing the shake. A tripod always helps too (and for indoors you can pick one up relatively inexpensively too)
 
you have two choices, either get the 50mm 1.8 and push the ISO a little or spend just a little more and get a Nissin Di 622 flash gun from 7 day shop
 
Or this from from Jessops for £59

I'm hoping it's as good as the reviews on here have led me to believe as it's sitting waiting for me to open on my birthday next week.
 
Could do with the exif data if you can, but looking at the shot you posted, way too little light to get a decent shutter speed. The 50mm will help loads, but the dof will be very small. Why dont you want to use the pop up flash??, dont take it the wrong way, they're just family snaps arn't they??

Have a play with the flash, alter the settings till you get what your looking for, keep trying and let us know how you get on ;)
 
I'm not sure how to publish the exif data, but here's the main points:
- Aperture priority mode
- ISO 800
- f/5.6 (widest available at focal length of 76mm)
- shutter speed 1/8sec

Phil, you're right about them being family snaps, but I'm hoping to one day take some better ones. I find that with the pop-up flash the person just gets a blast in the face with it and it ends up looking very unnatural. Is there something I can do with the flash exposure settings?

Paul, I don't think that a tripod will really help as it's probably the subject moving as much as the camera.

Thank you all for your help!
 
I do a lot of indoor shooting under normal room lights and trust me in the evening, even with the 1.8, ISO 800 wont cut it, I find myself using ISO 3200 most of the time, with a tripod I can get away with ISO1600.

The lens will help a lot, but if you cant afford both at present, the flash I mentioned would be the best option as it will allow you to use your current lens and get reasonable results.
You can then add the 1.8 at a later date which will give you better IQ and those nice out of focus back grounds.

The only thing you can do with your current flash is put some kind of diffuser in front of it, but what you really need is to be able to bounce the flash off the ceiling
 
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The first point is simple - noisy is better than blurred.
You'll be surprised how good a 1600 iso shot will look printed.

2ndly I'd go for the 50mm before the flash. shallow DoF will add to the look and feel of your shots a lot easier than flash, which has a much steeper learning curve.

3rdly, I appreciate that the days are shorter, but try to get some shots during daylight hours, window light with a carefully placed subject would be a massive improvement on the tungsten house lighting. ATM you're struggling with the quantity of light you have for your photographs - they won't improve greatly until you're considering the quality of that light.
 
Phil V said:
The first point is simple - noisy is better than blurred
Click to expand...

A very good point I hadn't really considered. I'll definitely try pushing the ISO up to 1600. How about shooting RAW and underexposing, then pulling it back up in PP? Is that a good idea? Cos by doing that and changing the ISO I could eek another 2stops out of the camera.

Thank you all for your help/advice.
 
ExiledWool said:
Or this from from Jessops for £59

I'm hoping it's as good as the reviews on here have led me to believe as it's sitting waiting for me to open on my birthday next week.
Click to expand...

I`d second this recomendation, i managed to ge one off ebay for £25 and its a massive diffrence from the pop up flash.
I dont like how pics look when the flash it directly at the subject but with the jessops flash you can bounce it any direction for a much more natural looking photo.
 
Don't underexpose and try to pull it back because that introduces noise and if you are already at high ISO it's all going to get very ugly.

Yes there are things you can do to help until you can get a faster lens (which is the ideal solution)

Firstly you can turn down the nuclear blast that is your pop up flash, have a look in your manual for flash exposure compensation. It allows you to make decisions on whether you want to apply more or less flash than the camera figures is right.

Secondly, and one the missus might approve of, is get more light into the area you are working in. It's amazing the difference a lamp from Ikea can make to a dull corner and that way you can also change the direction of the light falling on your subject by just moving the lamp around. OK it's a little crude and you won't necessarily get the best quality of light possible but I have done shoots before using 500W industrial floodlamps. Sometimes any available light you have is better than none.
 
Thanks for the advice AliB. Recently I've been trying to use the pop-up flash with it turned down with the flash exposure compensation, and it's been a real improvement.

With respect to noise, would it be better to push it to ISO1600 rather than underexpose 1 stop at ISO800?
 
Tim, noise is always better than movement, download noiseware free edition, have a play and experiment. ;)
 
TopBanana said:
Thanks for the advice AliB. Recently I've been trying to use the pop-up flash with it turned down with the flash exposure compensation, and it's been a real improvement.

With respect to noise, would it be better to push it to ISO1600 rather than underexpose 1 stop at ISO800?
Click to expand...

It's dark now so go and try it :D

I suspect a cleaner file with correct exposure at ISO 1600 :thinking:
 
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