New to the Canon EF 50mm 1.8 II. How do I use it indoors properly?

[JJKC]

I bought a Canon 50mm 1.8 and use it on my Canon T2i in the daytime outdoors on still subjects just fine. My problem comes along when I try to use it indoors. If the subject is very still, it does okay, but not near as sharp as my pictures outdoors. I feel like I have tried all kinds of settings and nothing helps. I have a friend who uses hers all the time indoors and with her children in full play-mode and her pictures are amazingly bright and sharp. I ask her about her settings and she says she keeps it in the fully auto mode to keep things simple. I was jealous of her beautiful pictures and that is why I bought the 50, she recommended it. The top pictures (2) are my outdoor samples and the lower pictures (2) are from Christmas. What settings do I need to use to get the most our of this lens when capturing indoor active settings? PS. I am somewhat new to the settings other than my Auto. Thanks!

 

[Frosty Stones]

being an amateur myself, I can't say I know for a fact, but from what i have done and read, in general a higher ISO, an aperture of 2.0~2.8 ish? and fast shutter I think will freeze the image better, And if there is not enough light a flash may help also. I'm sure more experienced people will correct everything I just typed out here. but as an amateur, that is where I would start.

 

[LakeFX]

Yeah, it looks like you are using too slow of a shutter speed inside. The lens is sharp, but you are seeing motion blur. The second indoor shot also looks like you missed focus.

 

[TheStunch]

you may also stick it on aperture priority mode, and crank the aperture (f #) into the lower numbers, and play with it there. too low, and the depth of field may surprise you, for better or for worse. also, if your ISO is set to auto, see if it has a selectable range, and make sure the upper range is available, so say 100-6400, or 100-12800 or whatever it is, so that when it's in aperture priority, the camera has the proper range of ISO's to select from (because often times, the camera is quite good at selecting this in general shooting scenarios). that should get you cleared up nicely

I took the image below in a dimly lit restaurant using the same technique using the Canon 50mm 1.8 (plastic fantastic) and it froze the movement pretty well.

but if you'll notice the soft background, the aperture was wide open at f1.8, and while this is generally regarded as a desirable look, it might not be right in certain scenarios so play around with it, i don't recall the ISO setting on it, but I'm almost certain it was set to auto (full range)

also, i like the first 2 pics a great deal, nicely done.

 

[Light Guru]

Looks like you don't yet understand the exposure triangle.
Camera Exposure: Aperture, ISO & Shutter Speed

 

[TheStunch]

lol, yes, nicely done. what he said! ^

 

[AceCo55]

The first shot: ISO 3200 / f5.6 / 1/15sec
The second shot: ISO 3200 / f5.6 / 1/13sec
The motion blur you have is because the shutter speed was too slow. You would need it closer to 1/90sec or 1/125 sec ... BUT that means either opening up aperture more or increasing your ISO.

Now your ISO is already high at 3200 so that leaves increasing your aperture. You shot at f5.6 (I am assuming because you wanted a reasonable depth of field). However the low light meant to get a reasonably well exposed shot you used a low shutter speed.

If you had opened up the aperture more to say f2.8 it would have let in more light and allowed for a faster shutter speed to "stop" the motion. Problem solved? Well it would solve the motion blur problem but the consequence would have been a much shallower depth of field. You may well have been a lot happier with this compromise.

If you want faster shutter speed and depth of field in low light conditions, where your ISO is maxed out, your only other options are to let more light into the room (open blinds, move subjects close to window) or use flash to add the extra light.

 

[bratkinson]

As Light Guru stated, you need to understand the exposure triangle and the tradeoffs necessary to get the shots like you want them. Indoors with no flash and after dark shots are the most difficult due to needing longer shutter speeds the can cause subject or camera motion blurring (as the OP experienced), wider apertures (lower f-stop numbers, which cause thin depth of field (plane of acceptable focus), or higher ISO speeds, which may cause more noise in the photos. It's trade 'this' for 'that', or maybe trade a little of 'something else' for 'that', etc.

Learning the tradeoffs, being able to handle more varied lighting conditions, as well as knowing and working with the limitations of your gear are all part of the progression from newbie to rookie to amateur to getting better to better still....to professional. It doesn't happen overnight, and can't be magically 'assimilated' watching dozens and dozens of videos or reading a bunch of books. It's learn something new, go out and take shots using and honing your new knowledge, and building upon that over and over.

 

[sashbar]

Your friend has recommended a 50 mm f/1.8 lense because it is a fast glass, that means you can have a much wider max aperture i.e. the hole inside the lense that let's the light in. By shooting with f/5.6 you are closing this hole and not using the advantages of a fast lense over a slow zoom.

As you say you were shooting with f/5,6 and 1/15 sec. The speed here is nowhere near enough. Even if everyone keeps still, there will be some camera shake. But when you start opening the aperture, the shutter speed that you can use for this light condition increases dramatically.

At f/4 it doubles to 1/30. At f/2.8 it doubles again to 1/60. At f/2 it more than doubles to 1/125 which is an OK speed. But if you want to eliminate any traces of blur with this kind of pictures, you need at least 1/250 (your aperture needs to be f/1.4) or, better, 1/500 for tack sharp images.

You pay here with a narrower DoF , but it depends on the distance from your camera to the objects.

As you see, there is very often simply not enough light indoors, it often borders on a sufficient amount of light even for a fast lense. It depends on how many windows you have, how large are the windows, if there is enough direct sunlight coming through, time of day etc. if your object is near the window there is suddenly more light, and often it gives you nice shadows.

Bear in mind that we perceive the luminance or the amount of available light very, very differently compared to a camera sensor. We have learned to adapt to light changes through evolution and automatically correct it so it seems not as dramatic as it really is. A sensor in this respect has a linear vision if I may say so. If the amount of light is twice as much it is exactly twice as much for the sensor. For a human eye, or rather brain, the difference is very small, often we do not even notice it.

That is why beginners often were at a loss in the film era when they had to expose manually. These days "manual" mode is not really manual, because cameras have a built-in exponometer, which shows us if out manual settings are correct. Nevertheless even these days you need to learn to "see" the light the way your camera sees it. It will help you to evaluate a scene instantly, choose the right spot etc.

If it borders on a decent shutter speed, use continuos mode, there is a chance that out of 5-6 burst shots one or two will be sharper than others. You can also use a tripod that will eliminate camera shake or simply put your camera on a flat surface. You can also use some fill flash.

One more advice - if you shoot in your living room often,get a white or gray card ( Google it) and use it for your custom white balance settings for your indoor lights and for the mixed light. Save these settings in your camera, it will give you much more natural colours. In the images that you have posted the WB is probably set to Auto, so the colours are way too warm. That is because an incandescent bulb emits a very warm "red" light. Change your WB setting to incandescent and you will see the difference immediately. But white/gray card will give you an even better white balance.

 

[dougsinnott69]

It's probably because your shutter speed is too low.
If your on auto mode,and your lens remains at the same aperture as you use outside,the lower light indoors will automatically result in your camera selecting a low shutter speed to compensate.
This will result in blurred photos.

Use the flash,or use a tripod,or try using a shutter speed of at least 1/100,set your camera to shutter priority,and Auto Iso,and you should be Ok.
If the child is moving,raise the shutter speed accordingly.
There's nothing wrong with your camera,or lens