Low Light Indoor Portrait, Wide Angle Focus

S

starlight177

Messages
1
Name
Jess
Edit My Images
No
Hello! Newbie here in asking for advice!

I will be shooting some portaits in low light in a few weeks time, this will be indoors. I have a Nikon D3200 with 1. 20mm 1.8 & 2. 50mm 1.8.
Obviouslly having a wider aperature will give me more light, but as a few shots are wide angle, I need all details to be in focus.
I've tried upping the ISO but as predicted, the grain is strong and even in post processing won't leave me with a crisp image.
How can I get around this please?
The model will be still so shutter speed i've got set at 1/40 (and tripid being used) should this be upped to 1/250?

Current Settings tried in low light this morning;
Shutter: 1/40
Aperature: 1.8
ISO: 400

I guess i'm still figuring this all out with aperature, shutter speed and ISO.
On the camera, photos still appear not crisp and sharp when I zoom in (grain and slight noise even on low ISO), which isnt the desired effect. I'm thinking of adding a softbox to some scenes, just to ensure the sharpness and high quality. A bunch of the end goal for the photos is for an atmospheric "moody" "dark" effect on everything but the subject which I'm confident in getting in post processing anyway.

I've rambled on...
Any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Use studio strobes is my advice.

It's all about the lighting.

To get "everything in focus" you'll need to stop down and without extra lighting you'll be upping the ISO to get a decent shutter speed.

"You canna change the laws of physics"
 
You have run into one of the 'problems' in photography - you have conflicting requirements.
Setting the aperture wide open to f/1.8 gives the most light - but it also minimises the depth of field - so you get just a small portion of the image sharply in focus.
With a single person portrait this can look good (as it can highlight that person and blur everything else), but as soon as you have multiple subjects, or need to get other items in focus (such as a portrait where the setting is important), you need to reduce the aperture to increase the depth of field.

You can increase the ISO to compensate, but as you have found, this leads to more 'noise' in the image, so there is a limit on how far you can go with this.

I would also suggest you increase the shutter speed - 1/40 is possible for someone to stand still, but I'd be thinking more like 1/120 or above (which will reduce the amount of light, making your problems worse!)

As Terry has suggested, adding light is the best solution - ideally one or more studio strobes, but a flash might be sufficient (depends on how much you need lit) - either off-camera or bounced from a wall/ceiling.
 
starlight177 said:
(and tripid being used)
Click to expand...
If your tripod is solid and you're using a remote release, simply close down the aperture to around the f11 mark and your depth of field should be adequate.

Unless your subject is dancing or suchlike, you can generally go to 1 second, although check each image to make sure they didn't blink. Of course, sharpness is always subjective, so it depends a lot on exactly what you are trying to achieve.
 
starlight177 said:
I guess i'm still figuring this all out with aperature, shutter speed and ISO.
On the camera, photos still appear not crisp and sharp when I zoom in (grain and slight noise even on low ISO), which isnt the desired effect. I'm thinking of adding a softbox to some scenes, just to ensure the sharpness and high quality. A bunch of the end goal for the photos is for an atmospheric "moody" "dark" effect on everything but the subject which I'm confident in getting in post processing anyway.

I've rambled on...
Any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

A lot hangs on what you want to achieve. If you want to pixel peep and be happy that's one thing, another thing could be a whole picture viewed normally or even a bit closely.

I'd always recommend starting at the end result you want and working backwards to decide the kit and the settings.
 
GreenNinja67 said:
Use studio strobes is my advice.

It's all about the lighting.

To get "everything in focus" you'll need to stop down and without extra lighting you'll be upping the ISO to get a decent shutter speed.

"You canna change the laws of physics"
Click to expand...
I agree with this 100% - but your problem doesn't ring true.
My pure guess is that your image is underexposed, and if I'm right then this would account for the unacceptable noise. ISO 400 shouldn't be creating a noise problem. Can you post an example for us to look at?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top