Help me shoot indoors!

[Kofman13]

I've only been shooting for 3 days on my new camera. I can't seem to get good pictures of people, portraits, indoors at school. Either it's too blue or too yellow or too dark,, I'm trying all whitebalance settings, tinkering with aperture and shutter and exposure.. I can't seem to get lifelike results. Is it because I need to get a portrait lens? Because I'm using the lens I have? My friends canon xt with 50mm/1.8 was getting great results. Btw it's not tungsten wb setting because where I'm taking pics there is no electric light. Just daylight through a glass ceiling but clearly not enough light

 

[Provo]

try posting one of your pictures so everyone can see how bad they look.

 

[GeneralBenson]

try posting one of your pictures so everyone can see how bad they look.

Hahaha. Wow, I hope you just worded that wrong.

 

[Kofman13]

I will when I get to the computer. There are still settings I know nothing about. I'll post pics from my friends camera and lens which I took. And then pics from my camera that I hate. Perhaps it is simply because he has a 50mm1.8 lens that is better for portraits?

 

[fokker]

The 50mm 1.8 is good for low light/indoor portraits, but sounds like you have other issues too.

If you can, shooting in RAW allows you to fix the white balance afterwards, which makes it easier to get right.

BTW 3 days is nothing, just keep shooting and trying differrent things and you will improve in time.

 

[iolair]

You're using this: " ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens" ?

Yes, the Canon 1.8 at full aperture will let in 4 times as much light as yours will at full aperture, and that's if you're zoomed out all the way. When you're zoomed in, your lens gets even darker.

Have you tried changing your ISO setting? If it's still on 100, you should bump it up to 400 or 800 at least, 1600 if it's really dim.

 

[KmH]

Reading the camera's users manual is always a helpful way to learn about how your camera works and what all the switched and dials and stuff do.

You first need to look up "White Balance". It's why your pictures are to blue and to yellow.

Our brains automatically make a lot of lights look white, but they really aren't white.

Flourescents are really a light shade of green and incandescent lights are a shade of orange or yellow.

You have to tell the camera what kind of lights you have. It's called White Balance.

 

[Kofman13]

You're using this: " ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens" ?

Yes, the Canon 1.8 at full aperture will let in 4 times as much light as yours will at full aperture, and that's if you're zoomed out all the way. When you're zoomed in, your lens gets even darker.

Have you tried changing your ISO setting? If it's still on 100, you should bump it up to 400 or 800 at least, 1600 if it's really dim.

Ok thanks. If I got an 1.8 lens for my Olympus I could do that too?

 

[iolair]

You're using this: " ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens" ?

Yes, the Canon 1.8 at full aperture will let in 4 times as much light as yours will at full aperture, and that's if you're zoomed out all the way. When you're zoomed in, your lens gets even darker.

Have you tried changing your ISO setting? If it's still on 100, you should bump it up to 400 or 800 at least, 1600 if it's really dim.

Ok thanks. If I got an 1.8 lens for my Olympus I could do that too?

The ISO setting is for the body, not the lens. So, you can look up how to change that already.

If you're going to do a lot of indoor shots, then a faster lens (e.g. 1.8 or lower, or 2.8 for a zoom) will make a lot of difference.

 

[Turbo]

You'll want the Zuiko Digital 50mm f2.0....or Sigma makes a 30mm f1.4, a 50mm f1.4, and a 24mm f1.8 lens. All of them run a hair under $500.

There's also a Zuiko Digital 14-35mm f2.0 for around $1800

Welcome to the 4/3 system....where a nifty fifty costs more than buying a used rebel XT and a brand new 50mm f1.8 for it.

 

[Kofman13]

So it was a mistake to get Olympus? . What about a 25mm 2.8 for $200 is that good?

 

[Turbo]

Well, not really a mistake...olympus offers a lot of features for a low price, and their build quality...well, my e300 is built like a tank. The lenses that are available are all pretty good quality.

With an adapter, you can use older OM mount lenses. Manual focus only, and manual mode. I think you can still use aperture priority mode with the OM lens and adapter, but I've never tried it. The old Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 OM lenses are pretty good, and inexpensive. You can get a OM lens adapter from Fotodiox, or Olympus makes one.