Digital cameras: Shooting Indoors with No Flash

by khicon - 7/29/07 1:37 PM

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Post 1 of 6

Shooting Indoors with No Flash

by khicon - 7/29/07 1:37 PM

I have an SD600 and find that indoor pictures with no flash are horrible. Under normal circumstances, I'd use flash, but with a sleeping newborn, this isn't an option. My Canon SD600 makes the pictures dark and often very blurry as opposed to the way the image looks before you take the picture. I've tried using the viewfinder to make it a little bit sharper, but the picture is still dark. Are there any modes I don't know about?

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Post 2 of 6

Options.

by Papa Echo - 7/29/07 2:57 PM In reply to: Shooting Indoors with No Flash by khicon

Move baby to near a window, adjust ISO to 800(max) instead of auto and use a stand. Turning on all the lights or shinning a torch light on the subject helps, in which case adjust white balance(auto ?). You can also use a mirror to reflect light on the subject. The maximum shutter speed of 1/500 is going to limit picture taking without flash, what with having no IS.

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Post 3 of 6

Indoors and no flash

by snapshot2

- 7/29/07 3:09 PM In reply to: Shooting Indoors with No Flash by khicon

Your camera should provide a good photo in a room with normal lighting.

But.......

You need a tripod.

Because.....

For the camera to collect enough light for a good photo, it must keep the shutter open for several seconds.

You can not hand-hold a camera for several seconds without getting camera movement blur.

For a sleeping baby, an exposure of several seconds is not a problem.

For an active child, such an exposure will likely be blurred due to subject movement.

.......

Your camera should have a setting that will let you choose to keep the ISO setting at 100.
Use that setting.

Mount the camera on a tripod.
Set the flash to off.
Set your shutter delay option to 10 seconds
Frame your subject.
Press the shutter button.
Step away from the camera.
After 10 seconds the shutter will operate and will stay open for several seconds (your camera has a limit of 15 seconds).

You can use a "bean-bag" as a tripod if you don't have a tripod.
That will let you position the camera at the correct angle for the shot.

Here is some information on ISO settings:

http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/key=sensitivity

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Post 4 of 6

Thanks

by khicon - 7/30/07 8:23 AM In reply to: Indoors and no flash by snapshot2

Thanks for the detailed instructions. Just one question. Will ISO 100 always be a better choice for lowlight than ISO Auto? I realize that the higher the ISO, the greater the detail, but also noise. Would I be sacrificing a significant amount of detail by choosing the 100 setting?

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Post 5 of 6

Indoor photo

by hjfok - 7/30/07 10:34 AM In reply to: Thanks by khicon

The higher the ISO the more noise will appear on the photo. Generally most PS cameras can do pretty well with ISO 200 and below, and noise starts to increase at ISO 400 and above. Like all the excellent postings above, you need a tripod for your indoor shots. If you use lower ISO (to avoid noise), then you will need to use a slower shutter speed (keep the shutter open for longer)which will risk subject motion blurriness. If your baby is sleeping and not moving at all, then moving the baby to better light and using a slower shutter speed will work pretty well. This will involve some trials and errors before you get the perfect shot. Take a few test shots to get the settings right before bringing the baby to position will save you a lot of frustration.
Here is a photo that I shot in my baby's room. I used the aperture priority setting on a PS camera, keep the ISO low at 100, dial down the f number to 3.2 to get a wider aperture, and in my situation, the camera did the automatic calculation for the exposure time or shutter speed (1/30) since I used aperture priority mode. And of course I move my baby close to the window and set the camera on priority mode. Even though the data said flash was used, I manually pushed down the flash to deactivate it when I took the photo.

http://s165.photobucket.com/albums/u45/hjfok/PS%20camera%20shots/?action=view&current=DSC00146.jpg

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Post 6 of 6

ISO setting

by snapshot2

- 7/30/07 2:43 PM In reply to: Thanks by khicon

I believe hjfok covered the subject well.

Your question seems to indicate that you believe that lowering the ISO to 100 will cause you to loose some detail.
Lowering the ISO does not decrease detail.
Raising the ISO does increase detail.
Raising the ISO setting is like turning up the volume on a radio.
Except it turns up the light sensitivity of the CCD sensor.
(meaning it can collect more light (not detail).

But when you crank up the volume on a small radio, you cause distortion.
When you crank up the ISO, you cause noise.

For normal situations, leave the ISO on Auto.
When using a tripod, I like to put the ISO at 100, so that I get the cleanest (noise free) photo possible.

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