Baby Baptism

[GreenNV]

Hi guys,

I'm really not sure if I'm posting this in the right board so if the moderators here know of a better spot to put this then please feel free to move it. Thank-you! :thumbup:

I am having so much trouble trying to take an indoor picture without having to use flash. My pictures always come out pretty bad UNLESS I use my built-in flash. My nephew will be having his baptism soon and I would love to take some nice pics inside the church but I know unless I use flash (which I don't wanna do because it's way too bright) I don't think I'm going to get any half decent shots. Are there any tips or advice you could offer me in achieving nice indoor pics and also I would love some cool tips, advice, etc...in taking baby baptism photos. I would love to get some nice, unique shots for my brother & his wife of their baby's special day so anything you guys can provide me with would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

 

[The_Traveler]

what kind of camera/lens are you using?

 

[GreenNV]

Hi Traveler,

I am using a Sony Alpha 100 with 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 Zoom & 75-300mm F4.5-5.6 Telephoto Zoom Lens.

 

[table1349]

Go to the library or to the book store and take a look at this book.

http://books.google.com/books?vid=I...+book&sig=bQj75AtpJ5WR7-Tx3kKFKGXhzq4#PPP1,M1

 

[The_Traveler]

OK, you have a small problem. Your lenses are all on the slow side. For available light photography in dim situations, you need to be able to acquire light quickly enough so that the image isn't blurred. That means one or more of three alternatives: 1) fast lenses (1.8 or 1.4), high ISO - 800-1600 (that means lots of noise on the image) and/or supplemental lights. (bounce flash) [if you can help, never use direct on-camera flash as the main source of light - the result is not good].

Now its up to you how to proceed.

 

[Dave_D]

Brace your elbows against your ribcage and try to find something to lean on. Try not to zoom as it will cause your aperture to go up. Set the camera in shutter priority and ,if I know your camera right, use the onboard image stabilizer. Set the shutter speed at 30 and work your way down from there to find out what the slowest speed you can hold still at without the image blurring and do some test shots. As long as your subjects aren't moving too much you should be able to get a reasonable picture. Pray for a sunny day and a church with windows. This is what I do when I'm shooting weddings in a church that doesn't allow flash photography. Good luck
Nikon D70s f3.5 1/10 iso200 24mm no flash

 

[Dave_D]

Oh yeah! and do what the traveler said with the iso. It will allow you to use faster shutter speeds which I forgot to to do when I took the previously posted picture. It would have made it more sharp!

 

[GreenNV]

Thanks for all your tips and advice.
I'm not sure I even know how to set my shutter speed, where do I find that? How do I set it to 30? I'm so lost with this camera, I need help badly.

 

[Big Mike]

I'm not sure I even know how to set my shutter speed, where do I find that? How do I set it to 30? I'm so lost with this camera, I need help badly.

I'm sure the manual explains that.

Your camera probably has all sorts of modes. I suggest sticking to the basic four shooting modes. Auto (or Program), Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority and full Manual.

In Auto, the camera will set both the shutter and aperture for you. In the priority modes, you set either the shutter or aperture and the camera will set the other...based on the light that it's getting. The third variable is ISO. The rule is to keep the ISO as low as possible...but you have to make sure that you are getting a fast enough shutter speed...so that's when you will want to turn up the ISO.

As mentioned, the built-in flash will make for poor lighting. An accessory hot-shoe flash is much better, especially one that can tilt and swivel so that you can bounce the light.

It's much easier to know what settings to use...if you have a good understanding of exposure and how it works. The book 'Understanding Exposure' gets recommended quite often. You could even check out your local library for photography books. The basics of exposure are the same with digital as they are with film...so even older books can be helpful.

 

[GreenNV]

Thank-you Big Mike. I've tried reading through the manual but to be honest with you, I find it all so confusing and just don't quite understand it and I feel really stupid even admitting this but unfortunately it's true.

 

[xfloggingkylex]

Thank-you Big Mike. I've tried reading through the manual but to be honest with you, I find it all so confusing and just don't quite understand it and I feel really stupid even admitting this but unfortunately it's true.

no one picks up an SLR with no photo knowledge and understands everything the first time they read the manual. It just doesnt happen. I suggest you read through this gallery (http://dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/) under the exposure section. It will explain what each of the 3 things effect exposure do and give you a better understanding of how your camera works.

Basically, there is a knob on top of your camera with an auto mode, then shutter priority (labeled as Tv most likely), aperture priority (Av) and manual mode (M). These allow you to change the factors that effect exposure, well 2 of them, shutter speed and aperture (clever names they use). Shutter speed is how long the shutter stays open. Larger numbers mean longer shutter speeds, and remember 1 second is longer than 1/2000, which can be confusing if your camera labels the 1/2000 as 2000 and one second as 1" because 2000 is much larger than 1. Since this controls how long the shutter is open, it directly effects how long the sensor is exposed to the light.

Aperture is the opening of the lens through a system of blades that make up a diaphram and is much like the pupil of your eye. The larger the opening the more light it allows, and the smaller the open, the less light is allowed it. Think of it like your pupil, which dialates (becomes larger) in a dark room to allow you to see, but if you turn on a light your pupil contracts and becomes smaller, so you dont get too much light in your eye resulting in an overexposed room. The confusing thing here is the system used for aperture, where smaller numbers mean larger openings. this means that f/3.5 allows more light onto the sensor than f/22 does.

hope this helps get you started.