Low lighting - couple picture

KreGg · Nov 21, 2011

Hey guys, I'm super new to DSLR photographing.
So yesterday I went out with my parents in the night and brought my Nikon D3100 and 50mm 1.8 nikkor with me, and took some pictures of them. I'm in love with my 50 1.8!!

Anyway, after taking the pics and looking them up in the computer, I have some questions now, cause I think I did some mistakes here...

So take this picture I took, handheld.
To get the most light in, I had the aperture at 1.8 and auto ISO went up to 3200.
I think it looks well exposed, but, probably due to the large aperture and then shallow depth of field, my mother's face is out of focus, while my father's face is much better in focus.
So first question, what should I have done? Closed the aperture more, to get more in focus? But then, I would need slower shutter speed, and that was already slow (1/15 shutter speed) even with the 1.8 aperture and 3200 ISO.
If I would need to go even slower in shutter speed, it would probably come out with motion blur by my hands.

Then my second question is...
I could have used flash to light the subject and then get them well exposed even with a fast shutter speed and a smaller aperture.
But then, how can I set up my camera manually to use the flash to get the subject, but still maintain the same colors and dont underexpose the background? You know what I mean? hmm don't know if I'm making sense here though.

Thanks.

EDIT: Actually, in this one my mother's face had a shadow on it. So I discarded (maybe it's fixable in photoshop?)... but anyway, it's good to explain my question, as to how get both faces in focus in low light situations, and the flash question.

2WheelPhoto · Nov 21, 2011

Hi, nice shot, with a speedlight you could've set the shutter speed for the ambient and used a smaller (higher #) fstop and got both of them in better focus.

KmH · Nov 21, 2011

And with a speedlight you could have filled the shadow of dad's head that was falling across mom's face.

Try to keep shorelines/horizons in the top third or lower third of the image frame, rather than right acrosss the center horizontal. Also try to keep lines from intersecting peoples heads.

jwbryson1 · Nov 21, 2011

Perhaps shoot with your camera on a tripod in night scenes to reduce camera shake and motion blur.

KreGg · Nov 21, 2011

Hmm unfortunately I just recently, 2 weeks ago, bought my first DSLR with 2 lenses. And right now I am completely out of money

If not, I would definitely get some external flash.
I tried using the on-camera flash on a shot or two, but it made the background underexposed. I know on my latest point & shoot, it had an option on automatic mode, that it could fire its flash and then get the background on a good exposure (it was called night portrait mode). How can I simulate this on a DSLR full manual mode, as to get the subject better exposed using flash but don't underexpose the background?

About the composition, thanks for the tips. I am trying to internalize things still, so it comes automatically

Cheers

12sndsgood · Nov 21, 2011

yeah i see it being extremely difficutl to handhold at 1/15th a sec.

JKF159 · Nov 21, 2011

Hi KreGg. It sounds to me like you already know the ramifications of changing the aperture or shutterspeed. Any quality that you try to gain with aperture you're likely to lose with the slower shutterspeed. An increase in ISO is not a good option even if you could. The only thing that I know would be put it on a tripod to eliminate movement. Put the couples eyes on the same plane of focus. Switch to manual exposure and set the same 1.8 @ 1/30 and set minus one stop of flash exposure to get some fill. This will be hard to pull off well so why try?

Instead, set up this shot a few minutes after sunset. The lights will be on but there will still be quite a bit of ambient light. Set your ambient exposure to about one stop underexposed and light the couple with your flash set at normal zero compensation. This of course needs to be done in manual. Your flash is still metering automatically even though your in manual. The resulting image will be a normal exposure on the couple and with the background underexposed it will resemble the night shot. Experiment with different amounts of underexposure and keep in mind that at that time of day the ambient exposure is changing by the minute.

KreGg · Nov 21, 2011

hmm I will note this technique down JKF159 and try this out. Thanks
I might go for a tripod then, before I can get my hands on a flash, though I like shooting handheld.

JKF159 · Nov 21, 2011

KreGg said:
hmm I will note this technique down JKF159 and try this out. Thanks
I might go for a tripod then, before I can get my hands on a flash, though I like shooting handheld.

KreGg, you can use this technique with your built in flash. Of course your subject lighting will be prone to all of the bad things associated with on camera flash but it will let you try it. As far as the tripod goes, yea we would all rather shoot handheld, but...

JKF159 · Nov 22, 2011

KreGg, after I posted earlier, it ocurred to me another way to shoot this scene. If you could possibly move the couple out of the light that they are in you could then use your onboard flash to light them. If the couple were in about three stops darker area then the only light they would receive would be flash, therefore there would be no camera shake issues. Atleast not on the couple anyway. I think this would allow you to stop down a little to gain DOF, slow the shutter to compensate and when the flash fires it will freeze motion on the couple.

polishfc · Nov 22, 2011

I woudl use a higher shutter speed and a bit smaller aperture to get the second person in focus the light seems fine though

EchoingWhisper · Nov 23, 2011

polishfc said:
I woudl use a higher shutter speed and a bit smaller aperture to get the second person in focus the light seems fine though

I agree with what you say but I don't think it's possible with this person's current equipment.

JKF159 · Nov 23, 2011

polishfc said:
I woudl use a higher shutter speed and a bit smaller aperture to get the second person in focus the light seems fine though

A smaller aperture would reduce the light in your exposure. A "higher" shutterspeed refers to a faster shutterspeed which will also reduce the amount of light in your exposure. If the light "seems fine" why would you do two things that would reduce your exposure?

The original question was how to improve the photo BUT keep the background exposure the same. If you change your exposure value (EV) you will alter the background exposure.