Help with Indoor Photos

moscoops

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Hello all, new to this forum but it seems I'm on every other type of forum since they're so helpful! My husband bought me a Nikon D3200 over a year ago and I want to use it so badly but I just can't figure out how to make my photos look nice. Usually if I end up with a decent photo, it was completely by accident. I've seemed to figure out how to take an okay photo outside, but when I bring that camera inside it's like I pulled it right out of 1985! Grainy, dark, blurry, gross! To be honest, I don't really know what I'm doing outside either, I'm just playing with the buttons and knobs until it looks okay. I will be giving birth to our first child in the next month or so and I really want to be able to use my camera to take some crisp images of him, inside!

I've attached two unedited photos showing how my indoor and outdoor photos differ for comparison.

x4527m.jpg


2m6soao.jpg
 
Indoors: white balance is usually/often an issue. AUTO White Balance often produces this type of a yellowish look on indoor shots. Oftentimes, setting the WB manually, to Tungsten, or to Fluorescent (depends) will give better colors. On the desk and chair shot, I can see 1/50 second, AUTO WB, and 18mm at f/4.5 ISO 6,400, with no flash. The results are about as expected.

Indoors? it is DARK for a camera. Supplementary lighting is usually needed indoors. Electronic flash is the easiest and most-powerful source. However, for still scenes, a tripod, smaller lens openings like f/8 or so, and timed exposures can make good still-life images.

MANY cameras do poor indoor white-balancing; that's a big difference between your outdoor shot, and your indoor shot. The EASIEST eway to get crisp, indoor shots is a TTL speedlight flash, located on the camera, directly in the hotshoe, and bounced up and off of walls, or the ceiling, at an ISO level of about 500 to 640 at f/7.1 or so at 1/125 second. This has been a good way to shoot indoor pictures since the 1980's with TTL flash, and even earlier with A-mode flash.
 
1st photo - dog
Camera: Nikon D3200
Lens: AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II
Shot at 18 mm
Exposure: Manual exposure, 1/640 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100
Flash: none

2nd photo - desk
Camera: Nikon D3200
Lens: AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II
Shot at 18 mm
Exposure: Manual exposure, 1/50 sec, f/4.5, ISO 6400
Flash: none
Focus: AF-A, at 2.1m, with a depth of field of about 3.7m, (from about 78cm before the focus point to about 2.9m after)
AF Area Mode: Auto-area
 
^^ As Derrel said

The reason I printed the above is that is the "EXIF" data.
It allows us to understand how *you* or *the camera* took the photo.

In order to improve you'll have to improve your understanding of
Exposure Control, which includes Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO
Focus Modes and Areas, in order to focus on the specific area of the subject.
Metering Modes in order to properly have the camera balance the exposure.

I'm going to guess you used the Green AUTO dial selection. WIth this mode you are telling the camera to make *all* decisions. It doesn't really know if the dog is moving or not (this affects the Shutter Speed), or how deep of focus you want (Aperture). And Focus Mode/Area the *camera* is going to *guess* what to focus on .. whether you agree or not on all of it.

Thus moving to Aperture Priority, or Shutter Priority or Program Mode or Manual Mode allows one more control over all those variables.

The EXIF states "Manual" exposure. If you were in manual were your just balancing out the meter in the camera ?

A DSLR is a long learning process.

With the EXIF.
If you review the photo on the lack LCD, you can press the UP part of your round directional pad and it will show multiple types of information of your photo, including you exposure information.
 
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Learn Photography Concepts
We have to tell the camera, or let it guess if you set Auto WB, what type of light source we are using.

I did just 1 edit. Using Photoshop's Camera Raw I adjusted the White Balance: Temperature -36, Tint +26.
The photo is still somewhat underexposed.
WBedit.webp
 
In the first picture is that a Brit or Springer can't quite tell.
 
Wow thank you all for the information. I need to sit down and read more about all of this I suppose. I'm clearly not a pro, I've just recently went to manual mode. I really just want to take some nice photos of my baby inside the house. Thank you!
 
To be honest, I don't really know what I'm doing outside either, I'm just playing with the buttons and knobs until it looks okay.
Hello, and welcome!

Step back and really look at the two examples you posted. You should see that the main difference between them is the light, in intensity, color, and direction. Everything else is the same. So outdoors, you've got the great blue sky, and maybe direct sunlight as well. The light is a very pleasing color, and it comes in at an angle.

If you can afford it, get a speedlight (mine is the Nikon SB-910) and then learn how to aim the flash or fire it when it is not on the top of your camera. Indoor photography will suddenly become a piece of cake.

When I am photographing people indoors (casual family snapshots) I point the flash head at a nearby wall or ceiling which makes a very large light source that is not in direct line with my lens.

All the difference in the world.

Also; just as Derrel mentioned in post #2 above, match the white balance with whatever color of light that you have, whether it is tungsten, fluorescent, daylight, or flash.
 
In the first picture is that a Brit or Springer can't quite tell.

He's a Brittany!

I thought so. Lost my my best friend and companion of 14 years about 2 years ago. She was a French Britt extraordinaire. Really want another, but not sure I'm up to it. They are pure energy!
 
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Bounced flash can work wonders...my justification for buying a DSLR initially was to be able to take pictures of my daughter, so I understand what you're looking for. These photos have the flash bounced inside. There was some ambient light from a window, but not a ton...this was with a cheap Neewer TTL flash.

photo book-35.webp

but...I also love using windows for light too. Of course, this highly dependent on the time of day and year and what directions your windows face, but it can be really effective.

photo book-23.webp
 

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