Need help for low lighting restaurant photos...

[spiralout462]

I'm usually always at 3200 or 6400 ISO indoors, especially at night. You can guarantee there will be the need for noise reduction in post.

 

[Shades of Blue]

I'm usually always at 3200 or 6400 ISO indoors, especially at night. You can guarantee there will be the need for noise reduction in post.

Thanks. Yeah I see the noise for sure. Reduced it some and it's better but not great.

 

[cherylynne1]

I tend to underexpose slightly and bump it up in post, I know others prefer to use the high ISO and use noise reduction in post. Either way will add a little grain. I'm not sure if anyone's ever done side-by-side testing to see which is actually better...I'd love to see the results of that. But I think it is somewhat a matter of preference. What really matter is that everything is sharp.

 

[Shades of Blue]

Ok so I increased the flash compensation and that makes a world of difference. Pics look perfect now. I can drop the ISO to 1600 at 1/200 second and f8 and I'm getting much brighter photos.

Only thing that bugs me is that the exposure meter still reads way under exposed even with the test beam it uses for flash. Once I take the shot I'm getting much nicer and sharper shots.

 

[jaomul]

In this situation you are probably better using 1/60th of a second. The flash will help freeze the motion, but if its darkish, you will be asking your subjects to be still, and as you said you are on a tripod. the 1/60th will leave more ambient in.

It may be that you are limited by conditions and you wont get the exposure in the centre, the flash will then componsate, but any area out of the flash zone may be underexposed. This probably wont be an issue

 

[astroNikon]

You meter is metering without the additional light from the flash. So it's going to meter underexposed.
Keep adding more light as needed to get the shutter/ aperture/ ISO at the level that you want, or make the compromises that are needed especially when you get more people in a wider setting.

Are you using TTL where it preflashes ?
or setting the flash manually and finding a good setting ?
using TTL with preflashes will get people blinking/shutting their eyes when the shot is actually taken.

Here's an example of a simple diffuser example I mentioned above. Simply a piece of paper (thicker paper) from a small scratch pad and rubber bands on the flash.
Can't get much cheaper than that.

Then with the flash

 

[Didereaux]

get yourself a copy (used) of 'Speedliter's Handbook'. All your questions will be answered and show examples.

 

[Braineack]

Ok so I increased the flash compensation and that makes a world of difference. Pics look perfect now. I can drop the ISO to 1600 at 1/200 second and f8 and I'm getting much brighter photos.

Only thing that bugs me is that the exposure meter still reads way under exposed even with the test beam it uses for flash. Once I take the shot I'm getting much nicer and sharper shots.

I'd lower the shutter to be able to bring in more ambient light on the background and lamps in the pictures.

I'd work between 1/60-1/125sec. 1/200sec will effectively cut out all ambient light compeltely and your exposures are going to rely on flash 100% -- especially coupled with the aperture settings. This is probably why you're having to increase the flash comp, it's probably firing closer to full power. What happens when youre in a room thats much bigger than youre currently testing?

What that said, why are you shooting at f/8? It's good to know they'll turn out when you need them, but I dont think youll need that much DOF in most cases. Just making your flash work overtime and have to light up both the subjects and background. If you can get away with just having to put light on your subject, and then a little on the background then I think more power to you -- no pun intended.

Here's another exercise: In the same room, take a shot at 1/200sec, f/8, and ISO 1600 WITHOUT the flash. Is the image anything but black?

 

[Shades of Blue]

Ok so I increased the flash compensation and that makes a world of difference. Pics look perfect now. I can drop the ISO to 1600 at 1/200 second and f8 and I'm getting much brighter photos.

Only thing that bugs me is that the exposure meter still reads way under exposed even with the test beam it uses for flash. Once I take the shot I'm getting much nicer and sharper shots.

I'd lower the shutter to be able to bring in more ambient light on the background and lamps in the pictures.

I'd work between 1/60-1/125sec. 1/200sec will effectively cut out all ambient light compeltely and your exposures are going to rely on flash 100% -- especially coupled with the aperture settings. This is probably why you're having to increase the flash comp, it's probably firing closer to full power. What happens when youre in a room thats much bigger than youre currently testing?

What that said, why are you shooting at f/8? It's good to know they'll turn out when you need them, but I dont think youll need that much DOF in most cases. Just making your flash work overtime and have to light up both the subjects and background. If you can get away with just having to put light on your subject, and then a little on the background then I think more power to you -- no pun intended.

Here's another exercise: In the same room, take a shot at 1/200sec, f/8, and ISO 1600 WITHOUT the flash. Is the image anything but black?

I'm at f8 simply for the reason you mentioned...trying to be sure I get everyone in focus. I still don't have a number of people for the shot, but I'm estimating 15-20. I wanted to get my settings pre-set for a low light setting with plenty of DOF, and then adjust down at the shoot rather than up if needed.

My other thought is regarding low lighting in general. Even in a dimly lit restaurant, there is bound to be more light in the restaurant than my two lamps are providing. Even though dimly lit is dimly lit, I can't imagine the restaurant providing any less light than the two lamps I'm using.

 

[Braineack]

This shot was: 1/60sec, f/3.5. and ISO 800. It's 3 stops faster than your settings and it's still pretty dark:

same settings:

look at the light fall off. The flash was unable to provide decent exposure on both the main subject and also fill in the amibent. You cant even see the figures behind him maybe 5-7 feet away.

These are some of the first pictures Ive ever done of something like this back in 2012 -- they are pretty poor.

Just gives you an idea. I missed that youre only doing the one group shot, so that makes more sense.

 

[Shades of Blue]

Well the event has come and gone. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but worse at the same time. The room was small and triangular in shape, and as expected the lighting was poor. The walls were merlot, and the curtains were mustard. Crazy colors, low light, and cramped. The worst part was that the largest wall was actually a solid glass window! There was a total of 23 people, which felt like 50.

All in all, I'm happy with the group photos. I ended up putting them against the entry way and I stood in a chair to get everyone's faces in view. Couples and individual family shots didn't go so well. Once the food started arriving, we had to put them against the mustard curtain backdrop. They just don't look good to me even though the compositions are ok.

It was a good learning experience, enough to know that I won't be signing up for any more large indoor group shots for a while. I felt a little overwhelmed being a beginner to this.

The good part is that I work with the lady and she is only paying me enough to cover my expenses for the evening. I wouldn't dream of charging for these, as this was a learning experience.

 

[tirediron]

Well....

 

[astroNikon]

Live and Learn

the only way to Learn.

If you look back, you came a long way from the beginning of this thread. Think of how it would have been without this thread and no practicing/experimenting.

 

[dennybeall]

As photographers we always want the photos to be perfect but when you are doing an event your job is to capture the event for your client. If you capture the event and the client is happy you've earned your full pay.