soft dark indoors

[jonasr_jp]

i'm kinda newbie to dlsr's but thought i knew much, usally take outside pictures, havent really taken so much pictures inside with a dslr, and when i tried yesterday i couldn't get it right tried everything, the room wasnt even that dark, the lamps where on and everything, but the only way for me to get it like it looked in my eyes was to take shots in iso3200 wich didnt look that great ... can anyone help me?

 

[Rob]

It sounds like your lens aperture isn't letting in enough light for the sensitivity of your sensor. Really, the options are to widen the aperture (if possible), extend the exposure time (using a tripod) or use more light.

As you've probably noticed, upping the ISO to over 800 can produce very grainy results.

Rob

 

[ksmattfish]

...the room wasnt even that dark, the lamps where on and everything, but the only way for me to get it like it looked in my eyes was to take shots in iso3200...

You have to remember that your eyes are the result of millions of years of refining in life and death situations. Your DSLR's ancestors showed up only a few decades ago. What is slightly dim to us, is very dark to currently made cameras. If you are using the zoom lens that came with the camera, look into a faster lens. Prime lenses (no zoom) are usually very fast, and not so expensive as fast zooms.

I've seen some interviews with people from Canon who claim that in the future we will see DSLRs with a native ISO of up to 6400. Imagine getting the image quality of ISO 800 now, but at ISO 51200, or the image quality of ISO 3200, but at ISO 204800. If it's true it's going to revolutionize available light photography.

 

[Torus34]

At this rate, we'll soon be able to photograph the proverbial inside of a black cat in a coal mine on a moonless night during a power failure!

Somehow, though, I'm reminded of the art teacher who said, "Give me a good student with a modicum of talent and in ten years time I can give him the technique of a master. But what's he going to do with it?"

 

[jonasr_jp]

thanks for the help.. hehe sure the eyes are better than the camera, but as a point and shoot can take those pics really well, i thought a dslr could do it to..

where do i change the aperture in a pentax ds camera?

 

[celery]

Cameras have always had a light meter problem. They're not very smart and the light meter can easily be fooled, especially with DSLRs.

Simplest thing to do is to meter off of something neutral and adjust your setting to match that. You will get a "correct" exposure that way.

Here is a quick example from my own room(sorry I didn't bust out the tripod or anything, these were taken just for this thread).

In this one I metered off the brown dresser, which fooled my camera into over-exposing and washing things out.

In this one I metered off the light biege paint on the wall. And it's a pretty accurate exposure as it matches the colors and shadows with what I can see with my own eyes.

In this one I metered off the white stripe on the wall, which fooled my camera into under-exposing and making things too dark.


There you have it; cameras can do great things, but in the end, they're not very smart.