Please help

Nickler

Nickler

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Name
Nikki
Edit My Images
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Hi
I'm new to all this. I have the nikon d3100 and want to take some pictures of my new grandson. I love close up ones but if I use the flash it blinds him and if I use it with flash off the fill in light still blinds him.
What am I doing wrong
 
Just blind the kid. I'm an optometry student, so that is a professional opinion. ;)

(Please note: This is a tongue-in-cheek post, not a real professional opinion. Please do not blind your grandson.)
 
At the moment I only have the built in flash. So can't do that
 
Carousels Spin said:
Just blind the kid. I'm an optometry student, so that is a professional opinion. ;)

(Please note: This is a tongue-in-cheek post, not a real professional opinion. Please do not blind your grandson.)
Click to expand...

Lol too late. But I would like some help if you have any ;-)
 
Shoot in manual mode and it shouldn't pop up. Or turn the selector to no flash.
 
try taping a bit of greaseproof paper over the flash to diffuse the light.

i don't know anything about your camera - but there may also be an option somewhere to lower the output of the flash? have a quick flick thru the manual and see :thumbs:
 
Tape a white card - or something similar - at an angle under the flash, to bounce the light up and off the ceiling.
 
Or use the 50mm without flash to get some nice natural light portraits.
Sit next to a window and set the aperture to f/1.8 and focus on the eye. If its a bight day, you may be able to raise the aperture to f/2.8 or more.
 
Thanks everyone. Have been playing with camera today and have changed it to P setting and changed the ISO. Hopefully this will work
 
You mention the "fill in light" when not using the flash, this sounds like the autofocus assist lamp, which can be turned off in the menu system.

Other than that, agree with the above, the fifty with no flash is the tool for this job!
 
Put the camera in Aperture priority, Put the 50mm lens on and set the aperture to f/1.8. Keep the ISO at the lowest you can and try a shot. If its blurry, raise the ISO one step. Keep doing this until you have a nice sharp shot. Bear in mind after ISO 800 you will start to see some noise and will loose the sharpness of the photo.
If in a pretty well lit room, preferably with natural light, you should be fine with ISO 200 or 400.
 
leftcurl said:
try taping a bit of greaseproof paper over the flash to diffuse the light.

i don't know anything about your camera - but there may also be an option somewhere to lower the output of the flash? have a quick flick thru the manual and see :thumbs:
Click to expand...

This will only reduce the light output and you can use FEC to do that.
Bouncing is a better idea. Graham (Flash in The Pan) use to sell a small bounce card thingy for pop-up flashes IIRC. Probably not great, but better than nothing.
 
Tom's advice is good and I would use this method.

BTW, I assume Nikon works the same as Canon. If you use P or Full Auto mode the camera's flash will just concentrate on lighting the subject, and will ignore ambient light. In AV mode (AP) the camera will use some ambient light and just fill with flash, hence the output of the flash is less.
 
Get an external flash. I got the Nikon SB400.Its more powerful, you can aim it up and it recycles faster (ready for the next picture)

Read the following link and move your mouse over the granny pic for comparison.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/sb400.htm

Its on Amazon for £105
 
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